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It is a pleasure for me to be here with all of you, and some of Westport Academyís finest!
And thatís what you are, right?
(crowd mumbles)
You donít seem confident about it. Are you the best students at Westport?
ìYes!î
Alright, thatís what I like to hear.
So Iím certainly glad to be here with the young people today.
You know, thereís--
Number one, every time I get to do an event that highlights the work that we do around
kids, itís always positive for me. And I get to see our partners like, umm...
donít tell me...itís... whatís your name again?
Laura from Boys and Girls Club, and it just reminds me of the partnerships weíre having.
You know, not too far away from here, we have a partnership in Westport,
and we also have one in the Brooklyn area.
And it just reminds me of how important All of this work is. To make sure that we
use all of our resources and all of our partners to ensure that each and every one
of you gets to reach your fullest and best potential.
I want to thank Baltimore City Schools and the Family League for their partnership with
us. And I want to thank Principal Mabry and Vice Principal Wilson for welcoming all of
us into your school today. Today we are here to talk about our effort to secure a more
successful future for each and every one of our public school students. Weíve made good
progress over the past few years to make our schools better and to raise elementary reading
scores. In the 2011 school year, 15% of third graders in Maryland scored below proficient
in their reading. In Baltimore however, 35% of third graders scored below proficient.
That means that in every third grade classroom in Baltimore, one out of three students
feels defeated when they open up a book.
That tells us that weíre just not Doing Enough for our young people.
We have to do more.
If a child doesnít make adequate progress in mastering reading skills early on, then
we have to...
They will have a really hard time acquiring all the information and the knowledge they
need in later grades. Thatís why itís so important--the head start work we do,
the pre-k, the kindergarten--all of that work is important, not because kids need some place
to go during the day, but they need to build a foundation on which they develop all the
skills that theyíll use for the rest of their life. As the saying goes,
ìFirst you learn to read, then you read to learn.î
And that is what is important. As a result, children that have these struggles, struggle
academically, lose interest and motivation as they get older, and tend to have more behavioral
as well as social problems. Eventually, these are the kids that we know will drop out of
school. And when this happens, the costs are high to them, to our communities, and to our
city as a whole.
So we have to work to make sure our young peopleís futures are brighter. And thatís
why today we are launching our new Third Grade Reads initiative. Third Grade Reads mobilizes
people across the city to volunteer as literacy tutors. They provide two hours of one-on-one
tutoring per week to young people who are reading below grade level. Our objective is
to increase students' rate of learning, and to have them to achieve on average one entire
grade level above in their reading skills after 26 hours of tutoring.
We are happy to report that we are on our way to achieving this objective. The Third
Grade Reads has only just begun, but students who are reading with one-on-one volunteer
tutoring are already increasing their rate of learning. That means they are more quickly
picking up reading skills that they need to succeed in school and in life.
Students are gaining ground and breaking the vicious cycle of falling further and further
behind. And we are here today to encourage these students. Students like...
Is there a young man named Malik here?
Malik. Alright, stand up for us.
Malik is enthusiastic and ready to learn each time he meets with his reading tutor.
Is that correct?
ìYes.î
Every tutoring session heís attended, heís taken home a book or returned a thoughtful
book report. Since he started with the Third Grade Reads, heís read
at least 14 books! Is that correct?
ìYes.î (crowd giggles)
Thank you very much Malik. You can have a seat.
And then we have Katherine. Come on up.
Now, Katherine has made great gains in confidence with her first tutoring sessions. With the
guidance of Rebecca, whereís Rebecca, her reading tutor.
Thank you very much.
Katherine has taken charge of her learning. She approaches the texts she reads with a
critical eye, and voices profound opinions and observations.
We like an opinionated young woman. Donít forget that, alright?
Are you enjoying your books?
ìYes.î
Wonderful. Thank you very much Katherine. You can have a seat.
Alright, and last, but certainly not least, we have Tatiana. Alrighty. Now.
What Iíve heard was that you have a lot of energy. Is that correct?
ìYes.î (laughter)
She and her tutor, Ali--Ali? (pronounced differently)
Ali? Sorry...renamed you. (laughter)
Have established a great relationship.
She puts great effort into her reading, and Ali incorporates educational games that allow
Tatiana to learn in her own unique way.
They say that Tatiana is always engaged and eager to read more.
Do you like reading more Tatiana?
ìYes.î
I even see you reading my speech. Do you want to finish it for me?
Thank you very much.
So Iím so happy to celebrate Malik, Katherineís, as well as Tatianaís success. They will proudly
demonstrate their new skills by reading to you later on. And behind the stand, some of
our volunteers that are making this work. They are our reading angels. They look over
kidsí shoulders and give them guidance and encouragement to stay on track. Please, letís
give these reading tutors a round of applause.
Thank you very much for stepping up to join Third Grade Reads and making a difference
in the lives these young people. I also want to take this opportunity also to thank many
of our partners that make Third Grade Reads possible.
Target, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Aaron and Lillie Straus Foundation, The Abell Foundation.
Bob Embry from the Abell foundation is here with us. The Shattuck Family Foundation, the Wright
Family Foundation, and also Reading Partners. Reading Partners is the Cityís implementing
partner for Third Grade Reads. They do an amazing job of bringing community volunteers
into the classroom and giving them the type of structure and support necessary to make
their experience truly meaningful to the volunteers as well as to the students. And finally,
I want to thank the organizations who play such an important role in helping to expand Third
Grade Readsí impact by leveraging their own volunteer recruitment and programs. And there
are so many of them that I canít mention them all, but I do want to thank United Way
of Central Maryland, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Crystal Biles and Foster Grandparents
Project Directors from the Corporation for National and Community Service. Thank you
for getting the word out, and for getting us volunteers to get into the Third Grade
Reads program! And, thank you to the close to 200 private and public partners in Baltimore
Cityís 3rd grade reading coalition. I look forward to continuing this partnership with
the coalition to improve reading proficiency in Baltimore. Our goal is to recruit 250 reading
tutors, to pair up with 250 kids in our pilot schools. And so far, we have recruited 90
people to be reading tutors. So you see we have a little bit of a gap there.
So congratulations. Thank you. Big round of applause, already. And hooray for the tutors!
And thank you for the 90 kids who are getting the extra support that they need from these
tutors. Your success is helping us to get more tutors and more people involved. So Iím
really grateful for the progress that means.
We need 160 more kids to have the opportunity to work with reading tutors right now. There
are 160 kids that we targeted who are struggling right now, and are still waiting for their
reading angel to come and help them. So we donít want to keep them waiting, so Iím
calling on you--all of the people in the community and everyone thatís here, the great people
of Baltimore, our news media--to step up and to become reading angels right now to these
young people. They need you!
Please become a reading angel! Go to thirdgradereads.com right now to sign up! I promise that you will
love it. And that youíll get great kids like Malik, Tatiana, and Katherine, to make sure
that we are all excited and energetic about reading.
Do you want me to call your name too? Do you want me to pretend like I donít see you?
Thank you all very much.