Program tackles state's reading achievement gap; 70% reach goals

Updated 10:00 AM July 6, 2004

Program tackles state's reading achievement gap; 70% reach goals

By Joseph Serwach
News Service

The U-M America Reads literacy program, which is used as a model nationwide, is helping close an achievement gap that leaves 40 percent of children unable to read at their grade level by third grade.

Each year, the University sends 125 University students into nearby low-income areas to serve as tutors for young elementary school children who are at least a grade level or more behind in their reading.

U-M research conducted to assess the program shows more than 70 percent of kids who complete the program are able to catch up to reading at grade level.

"We've committed to getting these children up to par," says Whitney Begeman, program director of U-M's America Reads Tutoring Corps., which is based at the Ginsberg Center for Community Service & Learning and supported by the Office of Financial Aid and the School of Education. "When we pick a certain literacy skills area to hone in on, we can get success rates to 90 percent. It's always a work in progress."

The program focuses on pre-kindergarten through third grade, when most reading skills are taught. Research has found that students who fail to catch up with their peers by fourth grade are unlikely ever to catch up on their own.

Each University tutor works with three to four young, disadvantaged children per year. The tutors go to 12 sites in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Willow Run and Ypsilanti, making U-M's one of the largest America Reads programs in the nation. Miami University in Ohio recently revamped its America Reads program to model itself after U-M's, and other programs also have used the program as a role model.

Tutors spend 30-45 minutes twice a week with their students during the school year. One of the biggest challenges for education reform efforts, Begeman says, is that about a third of low-income children are from families that move frequently.

America Reads programs began in 1997 as part of the Clinton administration's efforts to improve education. Since President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002, the federal government has continued to provide funding for student tutors, who have starting salaries of $9.25 per hour at U-M.

But programs now are organized locally with far less federal guidance, putting more decision-making at the local level.

Begeman, an alumna in her fourth year directing the program, says many tutors from all academic fields get involved with the program as freshmen or sophomores and remain committed to it throughout their years at the University, working 10 to 20 hours per week. As the tutors gain experience, their skills improve—further boosting the reading scores of the elementary school students they serve, Begeman says.

For more on America Reads, visit http://www.umich.edu/~mserve/areads/.

Program tackles state's reading achievement gap; 70% reach goals

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