Our Mission

The Reading Center is committed to offering solutions-oriented, prescriptive services in partnership with families, schools and communities to improve literacy outcomes for both school-aged children and adults who have: a) diagnosed disabilities exclusive to or co-morbid with reading, writing, speaking and listening difficulties or b) evidenced markers associated with reading disabilities or later reading difficulties as a result of insufficient or limited literacy instruction.

Our Vision

To encourage, inspire and empower families, leaders, teachers and communities to create a literate world that transcends race, disability, culture, class, and gender.

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About Our Founder and Director

Kendra N. DeWalt

Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction/Reading Education, University of Virginia
M.Ed., Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy, University of Missouri-Columbia
B.A., Psychology, Hampton University

Dr. Kendra DeWalt founded The Reading Center in 2007 in West Columbia, South Carolina.

For more than 17 years, she has designed and implemented individualized literacy plans for students and adults who have reading disabilities and other characteristics associated with reading, writing, speaking, and listening difficulties. She has also facilitated literacy solutions in private, public, and alternative school settings for more than a decade. To date, her work has impacted thousands…

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History

Dr. Kendra (China) DeWalt founded The Reading Center to ameliorate poor literacy outcomes among subgroups of children who are most often under identified and underserved in both public and private school settings. Determined to help address the lifelong consequences associated with low literacy performance, she established the Center with the intent to save lives and communities, even if it meant one child at a time.

Dr. DeWalt dedicates much of her work to her late grandfather, Fred China, Sr., an electrician, and entrepreneur despite his limited literacy skills.

2007: The Reading Center was established

Located at 1514 August Rd. West Columbia, SC. The Center provided Intervention & Remediation Services, Case Management, and Family Advocacy & Support.

2017: Evaluation & Implementation Services

Dr. DeWalt noted similar patterns of instruction and low literacy performance among subgroups of children in both economically disadvantaged and economically advantaged communities across the East Coast. As a result, she developed scalable implementation plans and support to help schools and districts overcome barriers contributing to low literacy performance, especially for their most vulnerable students.

2018: Expanded Services [Grant Writing Support]

As a grant reviewer and an implementation scientist, Dr. DeWalt realized that resource allocation contributes to the success of schools’ literacy performance. In many instances, schools and districts (even those with designated grant writers) lack significant resource to improve and sustain literacy performance among students. As a result, she began providing services to schools and districts that needed more support in building both the infrastructure and the resources to improve literacy performance, and, ultimately, the lives of students.

2019: Reading Center was rebranded to align with the expanded services. [new logo, new space]

2019: New Location

1226 Pickens Street Columbia, SC 29201

2020: Community Partnerships

Dr. DeWalt saw the need for schools and communities to join forces to overcome barriers of cultural norms and differences, so she redefined how the Center engages community-based organizations that focus on improving educational outcomes and experiences for students and families within their community.

Our Values

The Reading Center CARES!

C

Compassion

We care about the future, our clients, and our partners.

A

Accountability

We are accountable to our mission and our vision.

R

Respect

We cultivate a community of trust and respect.

E

Excellence

We develop and maintain excellence in our partnerships.

S

Sustainability

We facilitate and implement sustainable practices.

Compassion

We care about the future, our clients, and our partners.

Accountability

We are accountable to our mission and our vision.

Respect

We cultivate a community of trust and respect.

Excellence

We develop and maintain excellence in our partnerships.

Sustainability

We facilitate and implement sustainable practices.
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We Believe…

All students can achieve.

All students should have access to equitable, instructional opportunities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Schools are one of the greatest assets of a community.
Students, families, teachers, leaders, and communities are stakeholders in improving literacy and learning outcomes for all students within a community.