McGuffey Reading Services
The oldest, continuously running university-based reading service in the country.
McGuffey Reading Service Offerings
Educational Assessments
McGuffey Reading Services offers comprehensive educational assessments for school-age children (pre-kindergarten through high school) and students in college or preparing to enter college. Assessments can span the academic domains of reading, writing, and math, but most often, educational assessments with McGuffey Reading Services focus on main areas of literacy development: reading, spelling, and writing.
We specialize in a variety of formal educational assessments and complete complimentary informal assessments to gain an in-depth understanding of someone’s literacy achievement. Our evaluations offer a close exploration of specific areas of concern such as reading readiness, reading fluency, reading comprehension, or continued spelling or word recognition difficulties. Families often reach out with questions about dyslexia and dysgraphia. McGuffey Reading Services often works on interdisciplinary evaluation teams to offer families more comprehensive psychoeducational testing when literacy is one area of particular concern.
Educational Assessments
For questions about educational assessments or to schedule an appointment, please reach out to the contact listed at the bottom of this page.
Reading Interventions
McGuffey’s reading programs are designed for school-age children in need of intervention to either maintain or work to build their literacy skills. Students attending our programs are in grades kindergarten through middle school. Our programs are designed to meet the needs, and build on the strengths, of students who may have struggled along their literacy path.
Program Features
Students work one-on-one or in small groups with teachers and trained tutors to develop an instructional program to best meet the needs of their students. Our lessons follow a structured literacy format and can include the following components based on individual needs:
- Systematic teaching of phonemic awareness, phonics/decoding, and spelling to build word recognition;
- Targeted fluency instruction to build reading accuracy, rate, and prosody;
- Advanced decoding and spelling examining syllables and meaning parts (including affixes and roots);
- Comprehension instruction to include both background knowledge/vocabulary and strategy use; and
- Writing instruction for application and/or for supporting comprehension.
Intervention Schedule
McGuffey reading interventions run on an academic schedule (i.e., fall, spring, summer). Our registration forms become available usually in July/August for fall sign-up, November/December for spring sign-up, and March/April for summer sign-up. We offer our available spots to current families first and then to new students on a first-come, first-served basis. Due to our limited number of spots, we encourage families to register as soon as the forms are available.
Reading Interventions Key Information
- Virtual Fall Intervention—Key Information FULL
- The fall 2024 virtual session is now FULL. You can turn in a registration form to get on our waiting list and be added to our spring email list.
- The fall session includes 18 lessons; the dates are September 16 – November 21, 2024.
- Each student participates in two lessons per week; each lesson lasts 45-50 minutes on average.
- Virtual tutoring is on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- All virtual students work with their tutor one-on-one.
- The fee for fall is $525, and a need-based sliding scale is available. To confirm eligibility for the sliding scale, please submit a 2023 IRS 1040 tax form with your registration form.
- In-Person Fall Intervention-Key Information FULL
- The fall 2024 in-person session is now FULL. You can turn in a registration form to get on our waiting list and be added to our spring email list.
- The fall session includes 18 lessons; the dates are September 16 –November 21, 2024.
- Each student participates in two lessons per week; each lesson lasts 50minutes on average.
- In-person tutoring is on Mondays and Wednesdays.
- All in-person students work with their tutor one-on-one.
- The fee for fall is $525, and a need-based sliding scale is available. To confirm eligibility for the sliding scale, please submit a 2023 IRS 1040 tax form with your registration form.
Registration Process
- Complete the registration form and submit using the contact information on the form. Please note, we accept forms until full so submit as soon as possible to secure a spot. If you are requesting the sliding scale, you should also submit your 2023 IRS 1040 tax form.
- Complete the scheduling survey. Reach out to the McGuffey Reading Services program (contact information at the bottom of this page) to receive a link to the scheduling survey.
- Please note: Your registration is not complete until you have submitted both the form AND the survey.
For questions about the reading intervention program or registration process, please reach out to the McGuffey Reading Services program (contact information is found at the bottom of this page).
Reading Intervention Registration
Registration is open for our fall reading intervention programs.
Please note: Your registration is not complete until you have submitted both the form AND the scheduling survey linked here.
The registration form is linked below.
Contact for Educational Assessments and Reading Interventions
If you are interested in these services please contact the McGuffey Reading Services team at 434-924-9349.
About McGuffey Reading Services
Contact the Sheila C. Johnson Center
Sheila C. Johnson Center for Clinical Services
The Sheila C. Johnson Center for Clinical Services is a multidisciplinary clinic that provides personalized assessment and intervention services. Our mission is to deliver the highest quality science-based clinical services to the people of Charlottesville, the UVA community, Albemarle County, the Commonwealth of Virginia and beyond.
- (434) 924-7034
- Monday-Thursday: 8:30 am-5:30 pm; Friday: 8:30 am-5 pm