Eighty-five percent of first-graders in a St. Johns County tutoring program finished the 2025-26 school year reading at grade level or above. INK! St. Johns, the county's education foundation, released the results Monday, Sept. 21.

The Five Learning Years program, known as FLY, served 334 students across pre-K, kindergarten and first grade. Of the 104 first-graders in the program, 85 entered reading at a pre-kindergarten or low-kindergarten level. By year's end, 88 were reading at or above first-grade level. Only 16 remained below.

FLY pairs students with retired teachers who tutor in small groups. Mary Alice Hayes, the program's director, discussed the results on an INK! podcast episode published Monday, Sept. 21.

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The gains extended beyond first grade. Pre-K students entered the program with a 56% literacy gap compared with peers and closed it entirely by year's end, according to INK! Kindergartners narrowed their letter-identification gap to within 6% of peers' scores and their letter-sounds gap to within 4%, while also cutting their Phonological Awareness Screening Test (P.A.S.T.) gap from 68% to 7%.

FLY started as a pilot in the 2014-15 school year and has operated in partnership with the St. Johns County School District for more than 11 years.

Funding comes from a mix of state and local money. The State of Florida, through the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations, awarded INK! $119,450.60 in matching funds for 2025-26, according to INK!'s June report. Combined with more than $160,000 in local donations and grants, those dollars supported FLY and INK!'s Tools 4 Schools supply program. The PNC Foundation is among the community partners.

The program also provides specialized support for students with dyslexia.

No response from the St. Johns County School District on FLY's role in district-wide literacy goals appears in public records as of publication. INK!'s next board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 18.