People for People Charter School

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2026 Read Live School of the Year Runner-up

Submitted by Ellen Wedemeyer, Special Education Administrator

People for People Charter School receives a $500 Read Naturally Gift Certificate.

Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Ellen Wedemeyer had to fight to convince her team to try Read Live during ESY in the summer of 2025 with students with special needs. The team had worked hard to implement other programs with little success and was afraid to be disappointed again. But the results with Read Live were so significant that by week three, teachers were fully on board.

Now, almost a year later, Wedemeyer reports, “The confidence [the students] have gained by watching their score go up, and up, and up, on Read Live has pulled them out of their “learned helplessness” and given them a desire to show what they know. I predict that our growth scores on the PSSA for students with an IEP are going to be “through the roof.””

The impact is showing up beyond the classroom, too. One parent who has struggled with illiteracy himself shared of his son, “When he was born, I was given this book as a gift, but I was never able to read it to him. He is reading it to me and his little sister. I have to turn my head sometimes, so he doesn’t see the tears rolling down my face.””

The efforts of the staff at People for People Charter School are changing lives every day. People for People Charter School is a model of excellence in literacy instruction and a very deserving awardee of the Read Live School of the Year scholarship.

Check out their full nomination below including their video submission and their story.

Have you ever seen that saying on a plaque or a pillow, “If you can read this, thank a teacher” - I've often marveled at how simple and yet, how incredibly transformational those words are. Of course, they ring true for us at People for People Charter School, and you just can't tell our story without telling the story of Read Live. I'll take you back to June of 2025. I remember it very well because everyone was mad at me.

We were going into our five-week summer program for students with special needs. I thought it would be the perfect time to introduce Read Live. I told the teachers, “I know you aren't interested in one more reading program that won't work for you and your kids but trust me because this is different. This is Read Live.”

I used Read Naturally years ago, and I experienced what it could do for children with special needs. So, when the opportunity presented itself for us to use Read Live at People for People Charter School, I went directly to the principal, Mr. Fratanduono (Frat), and begged. You know how you have that one thing that you are willing to just straight-out beg for? That was me with Read Live.

No one had any experience with a program as transformational as Read Live. I said to them, “Just give Read Live five weeks and at the end of five weeks if you don't want to use it, we'll go in a different direction.” In the past, teachers had been disappointed by reading program, after reading program, that just didn't work. One of my special education teachers said to me, “I don't want to be disappointed by another reading program but I'll try Read Live because I can see how much you believe in it and that's good enough for me.”

Our five-week plan was made possible in part by having Christy Baldinger from Read Naturally as our guide on this adventure. She was responsive, supportive, knowledgeable, and had a great sense of humor, which we all needed and appreciated. When you're launching a new reading program, for students with reading disabilities, in July, in Philadelphia, in 100-degree heat, you need to have a sense of humor. Christy was a perfect fit for us. Other programs say they'll be there for you. Read Naturally means it!

We didn't need five weeks. By week three, the entire team and their students had been won over. Read Live was a hit! We were able to take a break after ESY, look at the data, and think about how we were going to do things for the school year. We had a lot of questions but Read Live wasn't one of them. We felt like we knew what the program could do for us. We were wrong. We had no idea that the lives of our students and their families were about to change.

Those in special education know that the PSSA crushes our students' spirits. They work so hard on their instructional level all year and then take the PSSA on their grade level and it destroys them. This year, our students are ready. Thanks to Read Live, our students have made so much progress in one year and their confidence is so high that when it comes to the PSSA, our new motto is “Bring it.”

For the first time, the state test must be taken on the computer. Our students do Read Live on a computer every day! Not all students have reached grade level, yet, but the confidence they have gained by watching their score go up, and up, and up, on Read Live has pulled them out of their “learned helplessness” and given them a desire to show what they know. I predict that our growth scores on the PSSA for students with an IEP are going to be “through the roof” and Read Live has played a major part in that.

Some of our parents struggle with literacy. I wish you could hear the combination of joy and astonishment in their voice as they explain how the tradition of passing illiteracy down from generation to generation has been broken by Read Live. As one parent shared in an IEP meeting, “When he was born, I was given this book as a gift, but I was never able to read it to him. He is reading it to me and his little sister. I have to turn my head sometimes, so he doesn't see the tears rolling down my face.”

Winning School of the Year would enable other schools to hear our story. Teachers are discouraged by reading programs that just don't deliver what they promise but they don't need to be. They can take one more chance and do what we did - let Read Live work its magic.

At People for People Charter School, Read Live has; broken the pattern of illiteracy, brought families closer together, made parents crying tears of joy in IEP meetings, built bridges between teachers and students, and given our students confidence in their reading ability and a sense of pride in themselves that they may have never found without Read Live.

Thanks to Read Live, our students with reading disabilities are raising their hands to read aloud in the general education classroom. No matter your decision concerning School of the Year, we have already won!

So, the next time you see that little saying on a plaque or a pillow, “If you can read this, thank a teacher.” Please remember that at People for People Charter School, we say, “If you can read this, thank a teacher and Read Live!”

(Our students would be very upset with me if I didn't add - although we feel like we've already won, we REALLY, REALLY, still want to win!) Thank you for everything. We can't even imagine what Read Live will do for us in year two…We'll keep you posted.

Dr. Ellen Wedemeyer