Innovative employee benefit assists working parents through one-on-one online literacy tutoring with certified teachers for children in pre-K to grade 6

Hoot Reading, the leader in online literacy education, today announced the launch of Hoot for Companies (H4C), a corporate benefit that provides educational support to the children of working parents. This flexible and highly customizable benefit enables businesses to prioritize the needs of staff and their families through free or subsidized access to the Hoot Reading online tutoring service. Through H4C, real classroom teachers who specialize in early childhood literacy skills development provide live guided reading practice, one-on-one for 20-minute lessons, with students from pre-K to grade 6, over video chat from the comfort of their homes.

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Parents with access to the H4C benefit can pre-schedule Hoot Reading lessons for their children, ensuring they have a predictable learning schedule that aligns with their workday and their children’s school and other activities. H4C also enables parents to book lessons on-demand for those times during the day when they need a last-minute activity for their kids due to an unexpected meeting or an important task that requires a parent’s full attention.

At Accenture, Hoot Reading’s first corporate partner, H4C is helping to support the company's ongoing commitment to the well-being of its people, offering its working parents in North America the option of pre-scheduled lessons with one of the 250+ experienced classroom teachers on the Hoot Reading platform, plus the dedicated support of on-demand teachers through Hoot Reading. To date, more than 32,000 lessons have been delivered online to over 850 children, exceeding 15,000 teaching hours. On average, children have experienced an increase of 3-4 reading levels in just 12-15 lessons.

Raising readers amid the pandemic and well into the future

Since the onset of the pandemic and the transition to remote learning, children have experienced significant learning loss. H4C ensures that kids continue to advance their reading skills, even as working parents juggle a number of responsibilities while working from home.

According to Carly Shuler and Maya Kotecha, co-founders and co-CEOs of Hoot Reading, traditional corporate benefits do not typically cater to the needs of working parents. They also noted that 26 percent of working parents who have children under 10 are considering leaving the workforce and another 30 percent are considering downshifting their careers; and these numbers are far higher for women. “If we truly want to create a workforce that is equitable and diverse, we need to consider the unique needs of working parents. Together with corporate partners such as Accenture, Hoot Reading is dedicated to creating a future where working families thrive. If we look at the big picture, by helping working parents with their children’s learning, we are playing an important role in unlocking the potential of our children.”

A recent McKinsey report noted that among the high costs of this prolonged period of remote learning is the loss of student learning. The report notes that students impacted by the historic shutdown of U.S. schools may have experienced a cumulative learning loss of five to nine months by the end of the school year, with students of colour at risk of being six to 12 months behind. Similarly, a September 2020 reading assessment of students in Grades 1 to 3 in Edmonton, Alberta saw a decline in reading assessment scores that puts students six to eight months behind. The author of the study notes that 75% of children who don’t overcome their reading difficulties by Grade 3 never catch up later on.

For additional information on this new corporate benefit, visit Hoot for Companies online.

About Hoot Reading

Hoot Reading is a leader in online reading education, offering one-to-one lessons that can be completed online, from the comfort of home. Hoot connects kids with experienced classroom teachers to practice reading over a proprietary video chat App, which was designed based on a research project at Sesame Workshop (the creators of Sesame Street). Their customized reading programs – Hoot Enrich, Hoot Tutor, and Hoot Junior – are designed to ensure that all readers (of any age or level) receive the attention and help they deserve. Hoot Reading’s mission is to close the gap on the 4th grade reading slump and help all kids develop a lifelong love of learning. Visit www.hootreading.com to learn more.

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