School may be out, but R2S is still going strong!

June has been an exciting and creative month for Read To Succeed. We wrapped up the year with coach/student ice cream parties - presented students with personalized books - and held our annual board meeting, setting goals for the upcoming year.

But wait, there's more!

Coach and student at end-of-year party.

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Sneak Preview: Our New Look

We’re pleased to release our new logo, developed by our talented graphic designer, Sue Stoveall to illustrate the power of literacy and the growth that Read To Succeed has experienced in our community. It will soon be seen across our print and electronic media.

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On the air

And on June 4 Pat Bastian, Volunteer Executive Director and Diane Amos, Secretary/Treasurer, interviewed with Ned Ryan Doyle on “Our Southern Community.” This powerful 40-minute radio interview addresses the literacy gap and its correlation to socioeconomics and politics. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the interview (it’s available at this link), here are some highlights:

• Research tells us  that by age three, children from high literacy homes have heard 30 million words and have a vocabulary of 1,000 words. This is compared to children from low literacy homes, which have heard 10 million words and have a vocabulary of 525 words.
  

• Read To Succeed’s ultimate mission is to close the achievement gap in the Asheville City Schools. Data as of 2014 indicates that 88% of white children in the Asheville City Schools pass both Math and English end of the year examinations, compared to 26% of black children who pass both examinations. 

• According to Pat Bastian, low literacy is correlated to issues of socioeconomics, single parent households, and a lack of available time for home-based reading activities..

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NRD: This problem with literacy is hardly localized in Asheville or Buncombe County, it’s a national problem, crisis in some ways, a lot of people throw that term around, but for the United States to have such illiteracy rates its pretty staggering . . .

PB: It is a crisis, I’m going to throw out a couple of more statistics . . . Students who aren’t proficient readers by the third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. Now when you combine that with poverty levels, students who at that point are unable to read at the end of the third grade and experience one year of poverty are six times more likely to drop out of high school. 

NRD: It’s a very slippery slope if they don’t get a good start.

DA: That is so true and that was why I joined because children learn to read from kindergarten through third grade and then after the third grade, they read to learn. So if we don’t have them reading by third grade they are lost. That is what’s so unique about this program is that we only target those three years.   

She further explained that her reasons for volunteering for Read To Succeed in 2010 were political:

NRD: Diane, the same question to you, your background, and your motivation that got you into this program?

DA: I would say politics got me into it.  When the Republican legislature in 2010, took over and slashed the education budget, I was horrified and said what can I do and about that time, I got an email from a democratic activist saying there is this Read To Succeed program and I said, ok, that’s for me.

Be sure to listen to the entire interview here.

Thank you for being part of our community and supporting Read To Succeed.


Ile Adaramola
Read To Succeed Board Member