OCPS highlights Read to Succeed expansion; program serving more than 5,100 students with volunteers and paid tutors

Orange County Public Schools presented an update on Read to Succeed, the district’s long-running literacy tutoring program, telling the board the initiative has expanded to serve more than 5,000 students and is supported by community partners and state matching funds.

Superintendent Vasquez and curriculum staff framed the presentation as an update on a program the district and its foundation launched in 2001 to provide one‑on‑one and small‑group literacy support. The foundation and district officials said the program has evolved from volunteer tutors working without a set curriculum into a multi‑tiered model that now uses evidence‑based SIPS curriculum and paid tutors in addition to volunteers.

Elizabeth Conrad, the district’s Read to Succeed administrator, told the board that in 2024–25 the program had 162 volunteers serving 348 students and 117 paid tutors supporting 4,796 students, for a total of 5,144 students served at 120 elementary schools. The foundation has raised more than $3 million to support Read to Succeed’s work, including more than $1 million in matching funds from the Florida State Legislature through education foundation matching programs, district staff said. Program leaders said the district’s goal for the coming year is 5,500 students and that 132 schools have requested services so far.

Teachers and tutors on the agenda praised the program’s effect on confidence and foundational reading skills. Teacher Kimberly Sandell said Read to Succeed “stands out as one of the best enrichment programs,” and paid tutor Debbie Cook — a retired teacher who helped pilot the SIPs model — said classroom data showed strong gains: “After my first year, the data showed … 85 percent of my kindergartners were reading on or above beginning first grade level,” she told the board.

District materials distributed to the board said the Read to Succeed initiative is anchored by partnerships that include the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools, Orlando Youth Magic Foundation, Wells Fargo, Heart of Florida United Way, Disney and the Orange County Citizens Commission for Children. The foundation, staff said, continues to fully fund Read to Succeed salaries and benefits so the district can scale the program.

Program staff also described volunteer training and oversight. The presentation said volunteers are trained and provided curricular materials before they work with students; district staff directed interested volunteers to the OCPS volunteer portal.

Ending: The board received the update as information and discussed recruitment and scaling goals. The district said it would continue to grow the program, target an expanded read‑to‑succeed cohort for 5,500 students, and rely on partnerships and state matching funds to maintain the expanded staffing model.