Author and speaker John Corcoran began the non-profit John Corcoran Foundation in 1997. After John learned to read at the age of 48 he began to devote his life to promoting his newfound knowledge that reading can be taught to anyone.John told his story in his first book, The Teacher Who Couldn't Read and he proposed solutions for American illiteracy in his second book, The Bridge to Literacy : No Child or Adult Left Behind. Our mission is to end illiteracy by providing effective, ONE-ON-ONE literacy instruction to any person who wants to learn to read. Newly acquired literacy skills enable people to be better parents, better students, better workers and better citizens. We advocate for policies that promote a literate society. By recruiting qualified tutors and training them in evidence based methods of phonics instruction, we bring one-on-one instruction to thousands of students through in-school and online programs. Using technology as a tool we provide students with computers, software and periodic assessments to measure progress. Students who work hard with their tutors often show 2 to 3 grade levels of progress in a semester.