Accelerate Reading Achievement with the Science of Learning and the Power of Practice with Paul von Hippel

Paul von Hippel is a professor of public policy, sociology, statistics and data science at the University of Texas, Austin, known for his work on summer learning, summer weight gain, research design, meta-science, and missing data. He also writes children’s books under the pen name Paul Pineapple. He serves on the board of the nonprofit Kids Read Now, which has distributed over 2 million books to children over the summer.

Just Right Reader was founded by Sara Rich, a principal, who is passionate about kids, books, teaching and, most of all, making reading fun and accessible for all.

Sara was a principal for more than 20 years, and she specializes in reading and literacy development. She traveled to more than 35 states training teachers and principals in reading and writing skill development. Because of her success in supporting schools to raise reading achievement levels, she was recognized as San Francisco Mayor's Principal of the Year.

And yet, a few years ago, her own daughter, Izzie, was struggling to read. This was a tough realization. So she jumped in and did what she knew and started working with Izzie to support her as a reader. Sara brought home decodable books from school and celelebrated Izzie's growth. When Izzie conquered a reading skill, Sara would determine her new reading needs and start again.

Sara and Izzie felt that the decodables that they read together could be more engaging and just plain old more fun. So Sara recruited a team of reading experts and phonics leaders and started the hard work of making decodables better for students, families, and teachers. Thus was born the idea for Just Right Reader.

Our mission is to make reading fun and for students to learn to read with engaging decodables that are representative of students in America's schools. When students want to read and feel successful, their achievement rises!