Children who are reading behind on grade level need additional intervention supports. The Cougar Tutor Program was created in 2017 as part of a larger effort, called the Third Ward Schools Initiative, aimed at helping more students in the community read at or above level by the end of third grade.

Through the Cougar Tutor Program, UH students are hired, trained, and placed in elementary classrooms within high-need schools to serve as literacy coaches and tutor students in small groups or individually, to build their vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and other reading skills. Cougar Tutors spend 12 to 15 hours each week in a designated classroom. Tutors receive hourly pay for service and gain experience, while the students they work with build a trusting relationship with a caring adult and develop stronger literacy skills.

During the 2022 - 2023 academic year, 20 Cougar Tutors served 5 elementary schools and provided 8,400 hours of tutoring. The Third Ward Schools Initiative is a partnership among the University of Houston's Advancing Community Engagement and Service (ACES) Institute and the five HISD elementary schools located in Third Ward -- Blackshear, Hartsfield, Foster, Lockhart and Thompson.

The goal of the initiative is to ensure that every student is reading at or above grade level by the end of the third grade. A key strategy is the Cougar Tutor program in which UH students are specially trained to provide one-on-one and small group, in-school reading intervention to striving readers in designated classrooms throughout the school year.