Monthly Lunch Meeting 12:00 Noon - 1:30 pm
Presentation: By Rachel Alger of the JCL
My name is Rachel Alger and I am an AmeriCorps VISTA Program Associate with the Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL), a non-profit that is dedicated to advancing childhood literacy in the Bay Area. As part of our mission, we recruit and train hundreds of volunteer tutors each year and place them in more than 50 public elementary schools in the Peninsula, East Bay and San Francisco, to provide one-on-one or small group reading support to struggling readers in grades K-3. We require our volunteers to commit a minimum of 1 hour per week with their students
The ability to read fluently is essential for success in life. Yet, only 28% of children who completed third grade in California public schools achieved reading proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test in 2015. Proficiency in reading by the end of third grade is a crucial marker in a child’s educational development. It’s when children shift from ‘learning to read,’ to ‘reading to learn.’ If kids can’t read by the end of third grade, they are much more likely to drop out of school in later years, limiting their options for the rest of their lives.
JCL tutors provide one-on-one reading support for struggling readers (grades K-3) from low-income homes. We work in TITLE I schools with large numbers of English Learner students, where most students qualify for free or reduced price lunches and underperform on state tests. We conduct workshops for parents with limited English skills to help them better engage their children in the reading process and make stories come alive. We also donate high-quality books and other reading materials to JCL students and their parents so they can read together at home.
