This Indianapolis tutoring program helps struggling readers. It's in jeopardy as funding runs out

Second-grader Willow can list off everyday words – like "four," "owl," "very" and "work" – that once tripped her up when she turned book pages.

Now, she’s excited about reading, even books and words that she’s not quite ready to tackle. It’s become a focus of the 7-year-old’s daily routine.

“Sometimes when I go in the car, I read,” Willow said. “When I go to bed my Daddy reads me a story, and then I fall asleep.”

Willow’s progress is thanks to many hours spent with an instructor at Circle City Readers, a literacy tutoring program focused on the most vulnerable learners in Marion County schools. WFYI is using first names only for students because they are minors receiving academic support in a school setting.

Now in its second year, Circle City Readers provides one-on-one literacy tutoring to more than 500 young students across Marion County, including in Warren Township, Indianapolis Public Schools and charter schools. 

Early results show reading gains — especially for students learning English — but the future of the program is uncertain as federal relief funding dries up. 

This month city leaders are considering a short-term extension, but program administrators say they need long-term support to continue.

Evelyn Pierce-Hicks spent more than 50 years as an educator, including as a principal of Brookside School 54 in IPS. Her retirement was short-lived when she heard about Circle City Readers’ paid tutoring program. 

Pierce-Hicks eventually became Willow’s tutor at Pleasant Run Elementary in Warren Township.

“I've seen so much growth with the kids,” Pierce-Hicks told WFYI. “Non-speaking English children are actually learning letters and sounds … I have first-graders reading at a third grade level. I have second-graders that struggle, but they're mastering sight words. I have a group of kindergartners that are reading.”

The Warren Township school piloted the Circle City Readers program in 2023. This school year, 10 schools participated in the tutoring program which reached more than 500 children in kindergarten through third grade. 

These included Mayor-sponsored charter schools, IPS and Innovation Network schools and two Warren Township schools. 

“She always makes us read, and I love to read, and I love to read a lot of stories,” Willow said of Pierce-Hicks. “She gives us chocolate, and we do games, and we do flash cards.”

Results for tutoring program

Circle City Readers – run by the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation – was created as a direct response to low literacy rates in Marion County, only worsened by the pandemic. In 2021, only 67% of students in the county’s public districts and charter schools passed the state’s third-grade reading test. The program was launched with the city’s federal pandemic relief fund from the American Rescue Plan, which has now run out.

Hundreds of students have received one-on-one and collaborative tutoring about three to four times a week, all tethered to improving reading skills. Program leaders have found results, they say.
 

About 64% of Circle City third-graders passed the IREAD-3 in the spring, that’s up from 60% the previous year. While that’s still below the state’s average pass rate of 82.5 percent, tutors and program directors say these improvements show potential.

Bridget Kennedy, lead tutor at Pleasant Run and Sunny Heights Elementary, said the program is a critical investment for the county. 

“We hear about it all over the whole country,” Kennedy said. “There's just no doubt that a strong reader is a student that does well in so many capacities.” 

Built on science of reading

When Kennedy leads a group of three kindergartners, she follows methods rooted in the science of reading, a body of research that focuses on how brains learn to read. That work emphasizes phonics and phonemic awareness, even in young readers. 

In 2023, state lawmakers overhauled reading instruction by requiring all school districts to create a new literacy curriculum that aligns with the science. That legislation was bolstered by another law forcing schools to hold back third grade students who fail to pass the IREAD-3. 

All tutors complete intensive summer training rooted in the science of reading, including assessments, lesson planning, and phonics instruction, Kennedy said.
 

“We spend a pretty decent amount of time in the summer,” Kennedy said. “I want to say we were over two or three weeks this (last) summer of really, pretty intensive training every day.”

Reading instruction and interventions for kindergartners looks pretty different from second grade students. There’s also language barriers to consider, Kennedy said. 

Challenges for multilingual learners

More than a quarter of the students in the program last year primarily spoke Spanish at home, along with about a dozen others who spoke Haitian Creole, Arabic, Kinyarwanda, and several other languages.

During a tutoring session in May, Kennedy helped her students hear words, acknowledge the sounds of each syllable, then write it down and say it one more time. The repetitive pattern will have these students ready for the next stage of learning to read, she said. 

“When they started this year, they didn't know the letters in the alphabet,” Kennedy said. “They didn't know the sounds associated with it and we're now blending words.”

A new Indiana law will exempt English Language Learners from the state’s hold back law, but that ends of the 2027-28 school year. 

Second-grader Keiry, an English learner part of the Dual Immersion Program at Pleasant Run, said what’s hardest about reading is sometimes she knows the words and other times she doesn’t. 

But when she does, it feels good, she said.

“It feels like I know a lot.”

Funding future for Circle City Readers

The Indianapolis City-County Council is weighing whether to support the program through December using $600,000 from the city’s spring fiscal package, which includes supplemental income tax revenue. They are expected to vote on that package June 9. 

The program’s $1.2 million budget would fund more than 40 part-time tutors and six literacy leaders plus materials. That breaks down to around $2,000 per student, based on 600 students enrolled for the 2025-26 school year.

“We always hoped that there would be a way for things to continue,” said Shaina Cavazos, the director of the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation, which administers Circle City Readers.

Cavazos said Indy’s strong philanthropic community could be an option to continue the much-needed literacy support. 

“What we're hoping now is that the results speak for themselves, and we can continue to make our case,” Cavazos said. 

Kennedy, the lead tutor at two Warren Township schools, said so much could be lost if the program comes to a halt because of funding woes. 

“There'd be a little group of kids that aren't going to get quite the interventions and the support that they would absolutely benefit from,” Kennedy said.

The school year’s conclusion brought together most of Pleasant Run’s Circle City Readers for a celebration. Every tutor spoke about their students in the room with applause and treats for their success. 

The program’s purpose is to teach foundation reading skills, but Pierce-Hicks said it also builds confidence in students who need it most. 

“These children – they are fighters. They're warriors. They never give up. They come in smiling. Some days, they may have an issue that happened, but usually you can get a smile on them,” Pierce-Hicks said. “They're really committed to doing better, and they're always wanting you to reward them. They want a sticker. They want that compliment that you're doing so well. We high five, we clap and we do a little dance.”

Rachel Fradette is the WFYI Statehouse education reporter. Contact Rachel at rfradette@wfyi.org.