Carla James spent 17 years teaching 2nd grade. Then she did the math.
"I had 24 kids in my class. Six of them needed one-on-one phonics work I couldn't give them during a 90-minute reading block. Every year, those six fell further behind. Not because they couldn't read. Because nobody had an extra hour."
After her last year at Bruns Avenue Elementary, Carla recruited eight tutors from her church's adult Sunday-school class. They met twelve 2nd graders in the school library every Tuesday afternoon for one hour. By spring, eleven of the twelve had moved up at least one Lexile band. One had moved up three.
The next year, three CMS principals called her. The year after that, the Levine Family Foundation called. In 2019, Brightline Tutors filed for 501(c)(3) status.
Carla James · Founder & Executive Director · Former CMS reading specialist, M.Ed. UNC Charlotte
