Graduation came early for Rocky Mountain Prep elementary school communities. It wasn’t the students donning mortarboards and stoles, but their parents who beamed as they moved their tassels from right to left to a room full of applause.
On Monday, 21 parents and caregivers affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Prep public charter school network commemorated the end of a five-week literacy training program. The new phonics tutors celebrated with a graduation ceremony at Colorado State University’s Spur campus in Denver. Now, the graduates will be employed full-time at Rocky Mountain Prep schools helping little ones learn to read.
The pilot program is modeled after a successful initiative in California’s Oakland Unified School District, making it the second of its kind in the nation and first in Colorado.
“This is a program about providing economic opportunities in the community and strengthening literacy,” said Alicia Lorio, executive director of family empowerment at Rocky Mountain Prep which has 12 schools across metro Denver.
Only 36% of Colorado fourth-graders tested proficient in reading, according to the Nation’s Report Card released last month. Nationwide, 31% of students were proficient readers, the report card showed.
Black and brown students tested more than 20 points lower than white students in Colorado. Boys tested seven points lower than girls. Students identified as economically disadvantaged had an average score 33 points lower than students identified as not economically disadvantaged, the report card said.
“Reading is justice,” said Estella Guzman, a newly trained tutor with an 8-year-old daughter at Rocky Mountain Prep. Her little girl smiled up at her mom during the ceremony.
Guzman was a medical assistant before making the career jump when she heard about the program a few months ago. She liked the idea of opening her daughter’s eyes to the wonders of reading. As a native Spanish speaker who learned English as a second language, Guzman said she understands the struggles of kids trying to learn the ins and outs of the language.
The new job inspired Guzman to consider a teaching career once the two-year pilot program is finished. The program is designed to help tutors pursue a college degree if they’re interested, transition into a full-time role at Rocky Mountain Prep afterward or provide them career guidance like resume help if they want to explore new career opportunities.
“She’s proud of me,” Guzman said, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “Now she wants to be a teacher, too.”
Leaders at Rocky Mountain Prep heard about the success of Oakland’s program last year and got to work designing their version of the literacy initiative.
They put out a call for full-time tutors from the community who would be paid around $40,000 to $55,000 after training in the science of reading, phonics instruction and behavior management. The tutors will pull students out of class for small-group instruction using the 95% reading curriculum that gives them a script for literacy instruction while allowing them to provide individualized education to students in need, Lorio said.
The charter school has budgeted about $918,000 for the program.
In Oakland, literacy gains made by tutored students varied from 79% to a high of 188% of typical growth, according to a report on the program.
“It’s powerful for students to see their family coming in — someone who looks like them, someone they know in the community — and giving them individualized attention,” Lorio said. “Our main goal is shifting from family engagement to family empowerment.”
At Rocky Mountain Prep, 45% of students are multilingual learners and 74% are considered economically disadvantaged, according to a 2024 annual report.
Gabriel Martinez was a stay-at-home dad to his 10-year-old and 5-year-old kids before spotting the call for tutors. He had always wanted to be a teacher and was in search of a job with hours that still let him watch his children. He figured there was no better solution than working at his kids’ school.
More than anything, Martinez said he is excited to become a consistent, active adult in students’ lives.
“You can make a very positive impact, just showing kids you care,” Martinez said.
The tutoring starts in a few weeks. Tutors have already shadowed at the different Rocky Mountain Prep schools they’re assigned, so they’re familiar with the students they’ll be teaching.
Lorio hopes the program can expand to include math tutoring and become sustainable. Right now, the tutoring salaries are funded by the public charter school, Lorio said, but RMP is investigating grants that could keep the program going into the future.
“I hope we work ourselves out of our job,” Lorio said.
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