Ashley Singer thought her life path would lead to the theatre world as a stage technician. Lucky for us and those with reading deficits, the Kent County native found her true calling as a literacy professional and is now the Executive Director of Open Doors, a non-profit literacy tutoring program she co-founded with Associate Director Julie Blyman.
Singer says her interest in helping children with reading difficulties arose when asked to babysit a friend’s dyslexic child, a student at Radcliffe Creek School. The school impressed Singer, and she was invited to teach there.
However, after meeting renowned educator Dr. Fran Bowman, Singer realized she wanted to fully develop her skills as a reading educator.
Bowman, who passed away in 2021, was instrumental in promoting the Orton-Gillingham training method, a multi-sensory approach originally formulated to teach people with dyslexia and now used for a more comprehensive array of reading challenges. The technique teaches tutors to use sight, hearing, touch, and movement to help students connect language with words.
When Covid hit in early 2020, Singer and Blyman realized that school closures and remote learning were going to take a toll on reading skills, especially in underserved communities where internet access is often limited.
Nationwide pre-Covid studies found that only a third of eighth graders were proficient in reading and math and about 30 percent of fourth-graders were proficient in reading. Post-pandemic, reading problems have spiked to historic levels.
In Kent County, “less than 11 percent of third graders perform at a proficient level of English Language Arts according to the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program scores from Fall of 2021.”
For Singer and Blyman, the challenge is clear. Reading skills, already in decline, have suffered a dramatic setback during the pandemic. The challenges are even more pronounced for students already hampered by reading disabilities.
The Spy met with Executive Director of Open Doors Ashley Singer to talk about their mission to provide one-on-one tutoring to those with reading deficits.
This video is approximately eight minutes in length. To find out more about Open Door, go here.
Chrissy Aull says
Learning to read is a basic student right. Left unaddressed, children who can not read the way schools teach them become emotionally wounded non-readers, doomed for a lifetime of struggle. Parents of children who are in the special education maze must spend tens of thousands of dollars, engage attorneys, give up time from work, endure hours of testing for their child, meetings during which they are outnumbered in order to try to secure proper reading instruction and support within the public system. Parents either do not know their rights and abdicate authority to the schools or they run out of money and emotion to keep trying. Children who can not read suffer in all school settings and are at higher risk for depression and anxiety as they age through the grades. Ashley and Julie through Open Doors, are offering a sustainable path forward so that dozens more Kent County kids, whose families can not afford a private school education, will learn to crack the code that is reading. A partnership between KCPS and Open Doors holds promise for the future of our kids and a bargain for the schools. I can not think of a single valid objection to those outcomes. Keep up this good work Ashley and Julie and your team.
Judith Oberholtzer says
Ashley, What a treat to see and hear the committed professional woman you have become! (We knew you in high school and early college.) OPEN DOOR sounds like a wonderful way to address systemic reading deficiency! Thank you for focusing our attention on this basic skill!
Judie Oberholtzer
Deirdre LaMotte says
Good work Ashley! A rural area such as ours needs this service as driving to Columbia , MD is not so easy.
Literacy is what enable people to live a full life and be an aware citizen. Thank you so much for all your group is doing!