Ignite Reading announced findings from a second multi-year study conducted by researchers at the Center for Research and Reform in Education at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, showing that 85% of first graders who reached reading proficiency maintained grade-level performance through second grade without further intervention.
The Science of Reading-based early literacy intervention provider has delivered more than 62 million minutes of personalized instruction to over 50,000 students nationwide. The new research builds on a prior evaluation and reinforces the importance of intervening during first grade, a critical developmental window for foundational reading skills.
The two-year study was conducted across 13 school districts in Massachusetts. Researchers found that the percentage of first graders reading at or above DIBELS benchmark increased from 6% at the beginning of the school year to 48% by year-end among students receiving foundational reading tutoring. Students achieved more than five months of additional learning, equivalent to 128 additional points of DIBELS growth compared to 80 expected points.
The evaluation also found that 85% of students who were on grade level at the end of first grade after participating in Ignite Reading maintained grade-level proficiency through second grade without further intervention. By contrast, only 12% of students who were not on grade level at the end of first grade were able to catch up by the end of second grade without additional support.
Students in the program outperformed peers with a +0.23 standard deviation effect size, an increase from +0.19 in Year 1 and comparable to in-person tutoring delivered at scale. Intensive intervention needs declined from 70% of students at the beginning of first grade to 31% by the end of the year. Literacy gains were consistent across student populations, including English learners and non-English learners, and students with disabilities demonstrated substantial progress. No significant differences were found by race or ethnicity. Students with high attendance posted the strongest effects, with an effect size of +0.28.
The study analyzed 1,596 first-grade students in Year 2 using a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching to compare tutored students with similar non-participants. Researchers tracked literacy outcomes using standardized DIBELS assessments from the beginning to the end of first grade and through second grade for former participants. The program achieved an average student attendance rate of 85% and delivered an average of 33 hours of instruction, with consistent implementation across diverse school environments.
The findings come as Ignite Reading launches its “First Grade Promise,” an initiative aimed at ensuring every child achieves reading proficiency by the end of first grade. The effort seeks to shift literacy accountability and intervention earlier than the traditional third-grade benchmark, when reading challenges are often more entrenched and harder to remediate.
The multi-year research initiative was supported by a philanthropic grant and coordinated by the Massachusetts-based One8 Foundation, which funded and project-managed the initial pilot across 13 districts, serving approximately 4,000 first-grade students not yet reading at grade level between 2023 and 2025. Following the evaluation’s findings that students receiving high-dosage tutoring experienced more than five months of additional learning compared to peers, the state of Massachusetts assumed operation of the program in 2025 with public funding support.
Ignite Reading positions its virtual tutoring model as an evidence-based, scalable solution aligned with the Science of Reading, designed to accelerate foundational literacy skills and deliver measurable early reading outcomes for districts nationwide.
KEY QUOTES
“These findings show that intervening to ensure students are reading on grade level by the end of first grade is highly effective and has promising implications for district planning and policy initiatives focused on improving third-grade reading outcomes. 85% of students who reached proficiency maintained it through second grade without further intervention. Taken together, these results demonstrate that accelerating early reading development in first grade through high-dosage, individualized tutoring can lead to both rapid and lasting improvements.”
Dr. Amanda Neitzel, Lead Researcher, Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University School of Education
“We now have concrete evidence that first grade is the threshold for lifelong success. Seeing 85% of our proficient first graders maintain their gains into second grade without further support confirms that our model creates lasting, independent readers. The data also serves as a powerful wake-up call: with only 12% of students catching up if they miss that first-grade window, we must treat early intervention as the urgent, non-negotiable priority it is.”
Jessica Reid Sliwerski, CEO And Co-Founder, Ignite Reading
“Ignite Reading is a transformative partner and a seamless extension of our team, providing the high-dosage resources we simply couldn’t scale on our own. In public education, personalized instruction is the key to equity, and seeing our students achieve such explosive growth is exhilarating. As educators, there is no greater relief than seeing the data prove these skills are taking hold; it means we are successfully seizing that critical first-grade window and providing the support our kids need to secure their future as lifelong readers.”
Dr. Almudena (Almi) G. Abeyta, Superintendent, Chelsea Public Schools
