Raising the Bar² offers a progressive reading / literacy service, that provides the student, both the equity and equality deserved.

We are deliberate in distinguishing reading and literacy because there is a difference.

In order to make students ready for work or job training, as well as college, when they graduate from high school,

students must understand how reading / literacy integrates.

We advocate that reading is a thinking process. It allows the reader to use what he or she may already know, also called prior knowledge.

Literacy learning requires instruction and practice, and this learning occurs across discrete stages:

the emerging pre-reader (typically between 6 months to 6 years old);

the novice reader (typically between 6 to 7 years old);

the decoding reader (typically between 7 - 9 years old);

the fluent, comprehending reader (typically between 9 - 15 years old); and.

the expert reader (typically from 16 years and older).