Published:
California Schools Use Volunteers to Help Boost Test Scores
MILPITAS, Calif., Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- When Aaliyiah Smith arrived in
Ms. Natalie Baird's fifth-grade classroom at Berkley Maynard Academy last
fall, "She wouldn't raise her hand to participate in class, and she wasn't
doing her homework at all," says Baird.
Aaliyiah was one of 45 children at Berkley Maynard Academy referred to a
program run by Reading Partners, the Bay Area's fastest growing children's
literacy nonprofit organization. Reading Partners trains community volunteers
to tutor struggling young readers, and partners with underserved schools to
integrate individual tutoring into the student's regular school day.
Schools inCalifornia are held to an "Academic Performance Index" or API
standard set by the 1999 Public Schools Accountability Act, which is also used
to hold schools to the No Child Left Behind Act. WhenCalifornia's API scores
were released this past Thursday, schools that had implemented Reading
Partners' literacy programming for at least one school year, tripled their
state-mandated 2007-08 growth targets.
"The future of America depends on children's ability to read," says
Michael Lombardo, the Executive Director of Reading Partners. "We're thrilled
that principals have used our free service as part of an overall strategy to
help improve their test scores."
Reading Partners provides tutors to students who have fallen behind one to
two grade levels in reading. After its 2007/8 assessments, Reading Partners
showed that with thirty hours of tutoring, on average a student in its program
will advance an entire grade level.
For Natalie Baird, though, that statistic doesn't tell the whole story.
"Aaliyiah raises her hand in class now and turns in her homework. She looks
at a word and knows how to break it down. It's really about the strategies
she's learned, and the relationship she's built with her tutor."
About Reading Partners -- Reading Partners, formerly YES Reading, is the
Bay Area's fastest growing children's literacy nonprofit, supported by Bay
Area corporations and foundations. Reading Partners has hundreds of trained
volunteers working one-on-one with 500 students on the campuses of twelve Bay
Area schools. Seeking to reach 900 children in the 2008/9 school year, Reading
Partners is opening new locations inOakland,San Jose, andLos Angeles. For
more information, please visit http://www.readingpartners.org
SOURCE Reading Partners
Copyright © 2008, PRNewswire
Copyright © 2008, NewsBlaze,
Daily NewsTags: ,EDU,CHI,NPT,CA-Reading-Partners
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