Stephen Guffanti

I created Rocket Phonics to teach my 5 year old to read. After she announced, “I’m sorry mommy, but I’m not going to learn to read.” At third grade she was reading at 12th grade level. Five years later I created the Rocket Phonics program.

In order to be sure it wasn’t just my daughter I asked UCLA to do a study. In 2001 UCLA released the results and in 3 months our average improvement was nearly 1 year.

I then offered the program to the general public. Thousands have used it since then with similar amazing results. 

Recently, I started a Foundation to bring this program to low-income-low-literacy kids in America. These kids are 2 to 4 years below grade level. In months we can bring them to grade level. As you might imagine reading below grade level leaves you lost and confused. By the time these kids are teenagers many are enraged and prone to violence. They are also unemployable.

If a child reads below grade level at the end of third grade 74% will face a 50% unemployment rate for the rest of their life. This is a heavy price for a 9-year-old to pay. We are literally ending a cycle of poverty that has plagued their families for generations.

We tutored a parent with the program to help her get her GED. (It takes a humble, persistent adult to play kid games to learn to read. She had failed her GED 7 times before.) But here she is in her cap and gown. She went on to college and is now working as a CNA. The first job she has ever had. (She was very tired of welfare and all that it implied.)