LearnUp Centers

LearnUp is an outstanding organization that truly makes a difference! The Tattum Method is highly effective for students who have struggled in other programs, helping them not only improve their reading skills but also build their confidence. LearnUp opens doors to education for students who might not otherwise have the opportunity, recognizing and valuing the knowledge they already possess. I am proud to be part of a program that offers essential services to families in need, particularly those who may not have the means to afford one-on-one reading tutoring for their children.

I started working for LearnUp in February 2021 in my final semester of undergrad. I didn't realize how much I did not know about phonics when I began my training. Training was very hands on and I was able to get additional one on one training sessions to ensure total confidence. I have been working for LearnUp ever since and do not plan on stopping anytime soon. I see how this program works for students and I will continue working to make sure it can reach more students.

LearnUp empowers tutors to give back to their communities with the gift of reading! I have had the privilege of working with LearnUp for three years and am still amazed by the life-changing transformation of students into readers.

I've been with LearnUp for just over 2 years now and it's been a great experience overall! I've worked within education and with students for several years, and it's been really awesome to see the impact that the LearnUp reading program has on students first hand. I really feel like I am able to make an impact on my student's lives and see their reading improve each day. For those interested, there's also tremendous opportunity to grow into other roles at this organization!

I've been a tutor with LearnUp for 6 years now and could not imagine a more effective program. It delivers results as I have experienced with numerous children! It is the most efficient investment parents and nonprofit organizations can make for teaching reading to students. Laura B., tutor

I love being a part of the LearnUp team. The tutors here are passionate about helping children succeed. I feel incredibly supported by my coworkers, who create a collaborative and positive environment.

The work LearnUp does is truly rewarding—seeing children learn to read and gain confidence in their abilities is an amazing experience. The program is well-designed, and it works! It’s heartwarming to know we’re making a real difference in the lives of the students we serve.

It's excellent experiences for my son because the teacher Miss Maya is very patient and very nice to teach my son's reading. She did a awesome job and made my son love to have the classes with her. It definitely improved my son's grade with the efforts of Miss Maya. I wished my son can join this classes earlier so he can catch up more. But anyway, it' s grateful that having such an amazing centers to improve the reading and writing skills of the students.

What a joy it has been to work at LearnUp! I have been working as a reading tutor for almost two years. It has been very rewarding to be part of a supportive company. I love being able to work with different students and see them grow. Many of my students have improved their reading grade levels and gained confidence in their reading abilities. This has been so satisfying!

My son was diagnosed with dyslexia in March 2024. We knew that we immediately had to find the RIGHT program for him that was going to lay the groundwork of understanding phonics.

Finding Learn Up was such a blessing for our family because we watched our son transform from a reader that struggled with basic sight words and phonics to a reader that is thriving and reading well above grade level in just a few short months.

He has also formed a deep connection with his tutor, Mei. He has never once complained about having to go to his lessons because she has made it fun, has kept him engaged AND has made him feel confident.

As parents, we could not ask for more and are incredibly proud of our son for his commitment to the Learn Up program. We also are so thankful for Learn Up because it works....watching your child read fluently and understand the content is such a gift.

LearnUp was great to work with - they accommodated our scheduling and financial needs, which made it possible for our student to receive support he needed.

LearnUp Centers has given me the opportunity to teach students and train tutors from all kinds of different backgrounds. I've seen the amazing work that our tutors do with their students and we continue to grow as an organization. It's one thing to teach a student to read, but to see them completely transform and radiate with confidence is priceless. I've proudly been working for LearnUp Centers since 2016 and it has helped me grow personally and professionally. I will forever be grateful for this nonprofit organization and proud of the work we do for our students and the community.

Having been with LearnUp for over 2 years now, I have had the pleasure of working with students of different ages and reading abilities and seeing them grow! Tutoring is a very fulfilling role as I have personally been a part of all my student's journeys in learning to read and improve their spelling, writing, and comprehension skills. It is amazing to see each of them grow but more so when they see it for themselves and they even end up enjoying to read. It has also been great working with this company as I have seen my personal growth in helping welcome new members and passing on my knowledge so they can make changes in the student's lives too. I truly enjoy my role and will continue to help others learn as much as I will learn through my experience at LearnUp!

As a recent addition to the LearnUp Centers' team, my experience has been nothing short of inspirational. Even in my brief tenure here, the profound impact of LearnUp's structured literacy program on struggling readers is evident. The dedication to teaching students to read with confidence shines through in every aspect of our mission.

The team at LearnUp Centers is a testament to the power of collective passion for educational empowerment. Their welcoming nature and shared commitment to our cause have made my integration seamless and incredibly rewarding.

In our pursuit to reach every community, I've already observed remarkable strides in our students. Witnessing the transformation from hesitant readers to confident learners is a daily reminder of the significant and positive impact LearnUp has.

In short, it's a privilege to be part of an organization where the drive to make a real difference is matched by the effectiveness of the program we deliver.

I've recently joined LearnUp, but already see the positive and tremendous impact it has on so many lives! It's an incredible experience to see students make progress and fall in love with reading. The atmosphere between people working here is very supportive too. I really enjoy the sense of fulfillment one gets from doing work that matters.

LearnUp is great and I am so proud to be apart of their team. With the help of the Tattum Method I have seen many students grow into stronger and more confident readers while also learning about spelling, comprehension and writing.

LearnUp is an amazing organization! The Tattum Method works for students who have not succeeded in other programs and it allows students to grow in confidence as well as reading ability. LearnUp provides access to education and teaches students who would otherwise not have had the opportunity. LearnUp gives students credit for what they already know and use motivational games and tutoring bonding to meet students where they are at and pull them into reading at grade level!

Found LearnUp recently and training has been supportive and comprehensive so far! The reading technique is unlike anything I've seen and extremely effective, particularly for young readers who thrive on imagination. I know that LearnUp will continue to support me and my students going forward as they have already demonstrated an encouraging and welcoming work culture.

I have been a Special Education teacher and a Reading Specialist for over 25+ years and taught in six countries. Having been trained for two years in the OG and Wilson Reading System, I found the training by Steve Tattum for the Learn-Up sessions to be thorough, practical, explicit and a game changer in teaching reading to struggling readers. The leveled story books, teaching every skill and a systematic template of lesson plans to teach Reading & Writing has helped my students stay engaged, see regular progress & excellent results in actually enjoying reading. The feedback from parents have been gratifying to see too. I am ever so thankful to Learn Up for being SO caring and on a mission to increase the reading levels for all students. Their training, support and access to great resources helped me immensely to reach out to my struggling readers. I highly recommend Learn Up as a nurturing & much needed organization to support all students at any reading level.

I have been working with LearnUp since February 2023 and I feel very proud to be a part of this organization. Not only do they support kids with their reading, but they also support their tutors and staff so well! LearnUp's unique approach to reading instruction has taught me so much as I continue through my career in education. Watching my students become more confident in their reading continues to be such a rewarding experience. Everyone who is part of this organization truly cares about the children and families we work with, and it shows!

My family was lucky to find LearnUp at the beginning of our reading journey. My daughter was able to take lessons online. She connected so well with her reading tutor and really improved her reading. As a teacher, I took their course and learned so much about how to teach reading. It was eye opening. I'm grateful for how easy they made it for me to access information and to be a part of a larger community of people advocating for literacy for all.

I have the greatest respect for LearnUp and recommend them highly to any families with reading struggles. I also took the 40 hour professional development course they offer educators and found it inspiring and innovative. I think it is the best reading program in the country and they are improving student's lives profoundly.

It was such a blessing to find this organization. I couldn’t believe that my daughter who is a mainly AAC user can actually read. Everyone we met here are super kind and patient. My daughter loves to read and write with her tutors. There is a will, there is a way. LearnUp makes it happen. Thank you for being so accommodating to us. We feel so blessed.

Learn Up changed my daughter's life. She went from a struggling reader in 2nd grade, falling way below grade level, to meeting and exceeding grade level and now has developed a life long love of reading. She was finally diagnosed with dyslexia in 5th grade after we went through the Learn Up program, but did not need the diagnosis to get the help we needed. She is applying for high school now and I have mentioned Learn Up in our applications as helping her get on the road to success.

I went through training last May. I started tutoring a student in mid July. He was a rising fourth grader. After giving the pre-assessment, we began with Start 1 with CVC work and Tales of Mystery book 1. We just completed book 2. He is looking forward to starting book 3! His family states that he now loves to read and is so much more confident. I only see him once a week or every other week now that school is back in session, but his progress is awesome, especially his ability to read multi-syllable words using the Vowel Tag method, as well as his fluency. This program, along with his hard work, is really paying off for him and changing the trajectory of this boy’s life!

These guys know their field and are doing great work to try and break down the barriers that some kids have access to text. I've gotten students from them who they have helped when the schools couldn't, and also been trained in their methods.

I've been working at LearnUp Centers since 2019 and it has been the most beautiful time. The team I work with has been amazing and supportive. Both Steve Hagler and Steve Tattum have been the best mentors to learn from. They have taught me what it takes to be a team and a great tutor for the students. It has also been an honor working with so many outstanding students. The growth I've seen throughout our program has been astounding! The program always surprises me with how helpful it is for the students and how much it brings up their confidence in reading and writing. Thank you Learn Up Centers for all the opportunities you have given me!

Learnup has a great mission to eradicate illiteracy. The organization is working hard to teach as many children to read, as possible. Learnup has provided wonderful opportunities to teach teachers, parents and tutors about the alphabetic principle and has worked diligently to streamline the structured literacy process for creating fluent readers in a short amount of time. The magnetic tile board and digital tile board for remote learning are the best I've seen. I look forward to see how this critical nonprofit evolves.

I am fortunate to work along such passionate and dedicated individuals who genuinely care about teaching children how to read. The results have been profound and matches the effort and time each tutor spends with their student. A great team to be a part of!

LearnUp is an incredible organization with a very ambitious and noble mission: make every student a reader. In this endeavor, they are particularly well-equipped. I'm amazed at the caliber of tutors they are able to find. Their recruiting, training and professional development methods are without equal in the field. Each tutor is thoroughly screened and only the best, most committed applicants get to join in on the crusade. Also impressive is the amount of data LearnUp collects about each students' progress so that parents are intimately involved in their child's growth process. You can trust that if you enroll your child/student in LearnUp they will receive the most effective, fast-paced, research-based reading program in the country at the hands of a highly capable tutor with a deeply invested, highly educated company supporting them all of the way.

I've been working with LearnUp as a tutor since September 2022. It is an amazing nonprofit where everyone has a passion for helping kids succeed in reading. Everyone is truly compassionate and patient and wants the best for the kids. The reading and phonics curriculum is thorough and interactive with engaging stories to explain spelling concepts. I highly recommend LearnUp to any child who wants to improve their reading by leaps and bounds!

I have been fortunate to serve on the LU team and have also been a recipient of a Reading assessment for my youngest daughter. If I could sum up the organization in two words, I would say heart and expertise. Everyone who I’ve come across in the organization definitely has a heart for the work that they do and the students they serve. The staff knows their stuff and they can really identify the students’ needs then they get right to work!

It was just by luck that I found LearnUp in March of 2020! I had always wished I had known how to teach reading in a better way. Since being trained, I have helped 13 students become much more confident readers, all of them over Zoom!

By mid first grade, my grandson was not able to read, although he was in a private school with excellent teachers. In addition, the school recommended a reading tutor, but very little, if any progress, was being made. Fortunately the family knew of Steve Hagler and his work at LearnUp Centers. We contacted the organization, and LearnUp confirmed that our grandson is dyslexic, and he was immediately enrolled in LearnUp's program. He didn't mind the program at all; in fact he loved his tutor and looked forward to working with her. After a frustrating and disappointing experience at school, he was reading above his grade level in only three months.
He is in fourth grade now, and recently, when we were hiking together he mentioned that he loves the Percy Jackson series, a young adult fantasy series. He told me many of his friends have read the entire series, and now he can read it too.
Vicki B.

I am dyslexic. My daughter is dyslexic. So it was no surprise that her son, my grandson ,was dyslexic. He was diagnosed in first grade. We turned to Learnup for help. In about half the time it takes other programs to address this challenge, Learnup had him reading at grade level. He now enjoys reading and takes pride in sharing what he he is reading. Learnup is responsible for this and I am deeply grateful.
Hal C

I have been working with LearnUp since the beginning of COVID. I tutor young children experiencing homelessness online. The initial programming was very helpful and thorough. They have continued to provide excellent support and access through additional seminars and drop in sessions. I receive weekly updates and reminders to provide me with whatever I might need to best serve my students. LearnUp has been an amazing organization to work with and has enhanced my ability to provide my students with excellent methods and materials for learning. Rosemary Shinbane, tutor for School On Wheels/Los Angeles CA

Learnup has helped me to provide my students with the support they need in an efficient and effective way. The program offers chapter books that are phonemically aligned to the lessons I'm teaching! This is one of my favorite aspects of the program along with the syllable work using nonsense words. The program is also tailored to individual needs allowing me the ability to further customize my lesson plan for each student. As Steve Tatum says - "As fast as you can and as slow as you must." A first grade student I worked with last year knew a handful of sounds. By the end of first grade she was reading 30 words per minute. Without this program and the emphasis placed on reading for half of our time together I do know she would not have improved this much! I had been working with a 5th and 6th grader with another program and started them on Learnups program and watched their decoding, understanding of decoding and reading comprehension improve faster than in the year before. I have been working individually with students for 20 years and I really do see the difference this program makes and I highly recommend them. Pam Mazurkiewicz

I am so grateful for finding LearnUp as it has helped our community greatly. As a literacy based speech language pathologist, I have seen this program help children gain 3 years of reading levels in 1 year of time. LearnUp has helped me with teaching reading to older children and adults when all other programs have failed them. I am very thankful to have found this amazing organization.

The Learn Up Centers training I participated in has been the single most influential professional development that I have been a part of as a teacher. I am a 3rd grade teacher and the techniques I learned for teaching reading has transformed the way I teach my students. It gave me so much background knowledge about the English language that made me more prepared to teach. Moreover, the easy to “connect to” ways of explaining spelling rules has made my phonics curriculum more accessible to my special needs students. They are more able to hold onto the rules and apply them using the unique stories that are infused into the techniques. My students are moving up so quickly (like I never experienced before). I have had so many inquiries from other teachers, ESL teachers, and special ed teachers when they see me using the techniques I learned from Learn Up! I absolutely love sharing my new found knowledge and helping other teachers implement the techniques. Thank you Learn Up for making me the best reading teacher I can be! I am forever grateful.

My son was a LearnUp client in first grade, when he was tested at a Kindergarten reading level. After going through a full tutoring series with LearnUp after school, he has been at grade level reading ever since and is now reading books for pleasure in fourth grade.

We have a history of dyslexia in my family. My son had been receiving supplemental reading help at school, but we needed extra help. Our LearnUp tutor was very kind and was a great fit for my son. I was so impressed with how quickly he was helped - in half the time of other programs we looked at - that I've been serving on the Board of LearnUp. I recommend them highly!

-Russell H.

Our family is deeply grateful to Learn Up for teaching our son to read. Our son was enrolled in a French/English bilingual school and he did not meet grade level in English reading at the end of 1st grade. A pediatric vision specialist ruled out a vision issue and recommended intensive tutoring.

From the first time I connected with Steve Hagler to schedule an evaluation, I felt like I had found the right solution for our son. There was almost no wait for an evaluation and in less than an hour Steve Tattum outlined the areas where our son needed additional help. Dyslexia evaluations can be emotionally challenging for kids but Steve T. was able to evaluate our son without incurring any stress on him. Our son completed the program and has been able to maintain grade level in English ever since, despite having been diagnosed in 3rd grade as dyslexic.

From my perspective, there are four components of the program that contribute to its success:
- A mission-driven approach. The commitment of LearnUp's staff to teaching more kids to read is palpable.
- Well-trained, empathetic tutors. It was magical that our tutors could keep our son's attention during the tutoring sessions and inspire him to practice at home.
- Approach that tracks reading fluency and inspires kids to consolidate learnings through repetition. Daily measurement of words per minute allows parents, kids and tutors to see progress, which inspires commitment to the daily practice.
- Coordinated reading material and phonics lessons. Steve Tattum's "books" are targeted at children and staged so that during reading practice, kids only practice concepts that they have covered with their tutor. The result was a far less frustrating reading experience than we had encountered with commercial "early reader books."

Our mixed dyslexic 9 year olds could read about ten words when we started Learn Up. After 33 hours , she advanced from Pre-k level to Grade 1. If you consider the significance of that
Advance, it is mind blowing. Public school special Ed does not have the ability to teach a true dyslexic child how to read. Learn Up does and it’s faster than other programs out there.

I am amazed at how quickly I was able to learn the techniques to improve my tutoring skills for reading! I have already helped 11 students progress and increase their self-esteem! This program is a concentrated culmination of the best parts of many of the great reading programs! And, it works quicker than other programs!

As a middle school teacher, I especially appreciate the need for not only effective but responsive reading programs for students who have struggled or are struggling to keep up with grade-level expectations. LearnUp's phonetic-based approach is solid, and they meet students where they are. They focus on books...!!!...and the joy of picking up something you want to read. I particularly love hearing from kids who find enjoyment and happiness and classroom confidence because of their work in LearnUp. That is KEY. LearnUp's commitment to equity is very impressive - they provide a good and inclusive opportunity for all readers who need help with scholarships and after-school neighborhood club programs - they partner with Boys&Girls Club in SF, btw.

A one of a kind non-profit! My nine year old son has always struggled with reading and I wish that I knew about Learnup Center years ago. Tutoring is incredibly expensive, but Learnup offers an efficient program for helping our young readers progress quickly. I love that they provide financial support for deserving kiddos. I didn't know that such an organization existed. Thank you, Learnup team, for all that do!