Parents and teachers tend to use the word magic when describing Reading Quest, a Santa Fe-based childhood literacy program that is helping about 450 elementary school students learn to read every week through one-on-one professional tutoring.
“It’s like magic,” said Amanda Mendez, whose 11-year-old son, Lorenzo, has been in the program for two years. “Amazing, amazing, amazing results. For Lorenzo, yes, he has improved in his reading skills. But, more so, his confidence. He’s definitely come so far.”
For many young students, reading and self-confidence go hand in hand. Struggling to read at the level of their peers can be discouraging and can impact their ability to keep up with other subjects. Learning to read can boost their self-esteem and improve their overall success.
Reading Quest was founded by Rayna Dineen, who started Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences and the Hooked on Books literacy campaign. Since its beginnings in 2015, the program has grown to have a paid staff of 22 highly trained adult reading specialists and 13 college and high school students who provide free structured literacy tutoring and social emotional support for hundreds of striving readers. 
Programs include free Reading is Magic summer camps, free onsite tutoring in seven Title I schools in Santa Fe and West Las Vegas, individual tutoring at the Reading Quest site and coaching and professional development for teachers."  
“We work really hard to make Reading Quest a safe place to read,” said Dineen, the executive director. “No kids are making fun of anyone."

As a fourth-grade teacher at Kearney Elementary School and an academic interventionist at Tesuque Elementary School in Santa Fe, Lisa Moyer referred many students to Reading Quest for tutoring.
“Reading became something they were interested in and looked forward to rather than ran away from,” she said, adding that the tutors met the students “where they were” and helped them reach goals. 
One third grader who could not read has become a flourishing student with aspirations for the future. “It was amazing. That child’s life was flipped around,” Moyer said. “Reading is a social justice issue. When they're behind, it affects their whole future.”
Moyer’s 6-year-old son also participated in Reading Quest for two years, going from very far behind during the pandemic to now being at grade level.
Instruction at Reading Quest is based on the science of reading, which uses strategies such as phonics and direct instruction. Mary Ellen Dannenberg, principal of Turquoise Trail Elementary School, said her school shares that approach.
“They make great connections with the kids, so everyone wants to go. It has somebody paying attention just to them and helping them with a problem,” she said. “It changes their whole attitude about learning. It's empowering to go, ‘Oh, my gosh, I finally understand this. It's not hard anymore.’”
Teachers at Turquoise Trail also observe the tutors to get ideas and take advantage of the training programs so they all are following the same playbook.
“We're really invested in what Reading Quest does,” Dannenberg said, adding that the school has two tutors two days a week who work with 12 children and hopes to expand to three days a week this year. They also sponsor some students in the summer camp.
Literacy is a major challenge in the United States, and especially in New Mexico. Nationally, 65 percent of fourth graders read below grade level, which contributes to 8,000 high school students dropping out of school every day, according to Reading is Fundamental. The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress found 33 percent of fourth graders proficient in reading nationally. New Mexico came in last of the 50 states, with only 21 percent of fourth grade students able to read proficiently or above, Dineen said.
Some Reading Quest students start out one to three years behind grade level, but the program has a strong and measurable positive impact. “Our kids are making two to three times the expected growth on the standardized test scores – really remarkable growth,” Dineen said.
In the last school year, Reading Quest students at Sweeney Elementary School improved their standardized reading test scores by more than the expected growth rate, and third and fifth graders improved by almost twice the expected rate, for example.
“The thing that makes our program so effective is our teachers are able to develop really strong relationships with the students, trusting, caring relationships,” Dineen said, adding that they use games and songs rather than worksheets to make the tutoring fun. In a model based on video games, students also win books every time they reach a new level based on their effort. 
Learning to read is an “incredibly powerful tool to combat poverty and inequity,” she said. 
Reading Quest partners with Native American Student Services in Santa Fe and has seen great progress in some pueblo students it has been tutoring during the past few years. Dineen hopes to expand services to local pueblos. The program also has been serving 17 Afghan children and their families for more than a year.