LITERACY URGENCY EMERGENCY! (JUST DO the RIGHT THING)

RAISING A READING CORPS 

NEEDED: 100,000 HOURS OF TUTORING TO LIFT DPS STUDENTS TO LITERACY

In the 1960s, images of women and children being at tacked by dogs and sprayed with fire hoses spurred the nation to real action in the civil rights movement.

Detroit children’s rock-bottom scores on a national test are as shocking a reminder of the work that needs to be done fighting illiteracy, a key civil rights issue of this era.

The scores are dismal.

But from hardship grows strength for revival. From the depths of DPS’ current state, this community can help it rise up again.

Now it’s time to act, for the children.

Today the Free Press, in concert with the Detroit Public Schools, sounds an extraordinary call to this region: Build a Reading Corps of trained tutors to deploy in city schools. Give 100,000 hours over the next year to ensure that city children read on grade-level by the third grade.

The school district will coordinate the effort. The Free Press, the Detroit Media Partnership, the Detroit News, Ilitch Hold ings, Miller Canfield and ABC Warehouse have signed on as charter members who’ll donate time and other resources to meet the goal.

Others must now join the cause. The Free Press will chron icle the efforts and every pledge made.

For now, we begin with a promise, and a plea.

We will do this. We need your help to make sure it’s a success




EDITORIAL

Reading Corps wants YOU 

An appeal for tutors to help Detroit’s would-be readers

The crisis is clear in Detroit’s public schools. Now the challenge is, too.

To vanquish the illiteracy that produced worst-ever scores by Detroit students on a national test last week, emergency finan cial manager Robert Bobb needs an army — a Reading Corps composed of trained volunteers who’ll descend on city schools in the coming months to help young chil dren learn to read.

The goal: 100,000 hours of donated time, from all corners of this community, next year and every year going forward, so Detroit can be sure that ev ery child reads at grade-level by the time he or she reaches third grade.

This community can meet that goal, and will. It’s a high calling and a steep challenge, but this is a region with a history of licking tough problems with hard work. We’re also a people who understand the precious responsibility we all have for educating our children. And we know the connection it has to all of our success.

We know this isn’t just a city problem. The conse quences of Detroit’s failure to educate its children won’t be contained south of 8 Mile.

Let this 100,000-hour challenge be the rallying point for all of us to stand up, join together and beat back this threat to every part of our community. 

Stepping up

Today, the Free Press is stepping forward to help coordinate Bobb’s efforts and to pledge its support as a charter member of the Read ing Corps.

The Free Press will do nate 1,000 hours of its em ployees’ time over the next year to the Reading Corps.

The Detroit Media Part nership, which oversees op erations at the Free Press and the Detroit News, will match that donation with 1,000 hours of its employees’ time. The Detroit News will also participate.

Other charter members include Ilitch Holdings, the professional services arm of the many corporations owned by Mike and Marian Ilitch, the Miller Canfield law firm and ABC Warehouse.

Ilitch and Miller Canfield have pledged 1,000 hours of service each. ABC Ware house will donate computer equipment.

The challenge now falls to the rest of the community — corporations, civic groups, churches, nonprofits and individual citizens — to fill the rest of Bobb’s request.

This won’t be wasted time. Bobb and his team of aca demic advisers plan to train volunteers in the Reading Recovery program, a system atic and highly successful one-on-one program that’s already working on a small scale in the district.

With about four hours of training, anyone can become a tutor, qualified to work with students who are learn ing to read. It’s a more effec tive boost to classroom teaching than having volun teers simply read books to children, a common, laudable way many organizations help in schools. Reading Recovery has a 30-year track record of success, in this country and around the world.

Bobb says the district should be ready to begin training tutors in January, and could begin deploying them later this winter. The tutors’ efforts will dovetail with the intense reading instruction Bobb and his academic advisers are plan ning for the district’s curriculum.

At least initially, Bobb plans to deploy Reading Corps tutors across the dis trict’s 200 pre-kindergarten classes. But eventually, with enough tutors, the program could grow to encompass grades pre-K through third grade. 

Setting a target

Those are the critical years for reading instruction. After third grade, children are no longer being taught to read, but being asked to em ploy their reading skills to absorb and process other knowledge. The rate at which children fall behind with their entire education — in math, science and English — accelerates dramatically after the fourth grade if their reading skills aren’t properly developed.

This is hardly the Free Press’ first initiative to sup port K-12 education. The paper’s award-winning Newspapers in Education program provides newspa pers to 764 schools in Michi gan and publishes a mini newspaper for Detroit ele mentary students. The paper’s high school journalism program helps young jour nalists publish school news­papers. The annual Gift of Reading program has provided more than 700,000 books as gifts for needy children over the past 20 years.

And, of course, many oth er corporations and organi zations have made their own substantial contributions to schools. There are dozens of reading programs at work in Detroit’s public schools right now, representing thousands of hours of donated time by dedicated organizations and individuals.

But, as Bobb points out, the Reading Corps will be different — a focused, coor dinated program to leverage community resources against a singular problem, illiteracy among the city’s young.

It’s about this entire re gion accepting some respon sibility for the state of its largest city’s public schools and for the welfare of its most desperately needy population.

That’ll be a first around here, and a welcome one.

The crisis is real. The challenge is now spelled out.

Who will join the Free Press and other charter members in building the Reading Corps? 

LET THIS 100,000-HOUR CHALLENGE BE THE RALLYING POINT TO STAND UP, JOIN TOGETHER AND BEAT BACK THIS THREAT TO EVERY PART OF OUR COMMUNITY




How to volunteer

The Detroit Public Schools Reading Corps is ready to sign up groups and individu als to pledge time or other resources toward the goal of 100,000 hours tutoring children.

You can sign up via the Internet at www.detroitk12.org/ readingcorps/.

Or you can call the Read ing Corps hotline at 313-870-KNOW (313-870 5669). 

Waging a continuing crusade for literacy 

GIFT OF READING 

For over 20 years, Detroit Free Press Charities has collected new books and money to purchase books to give to children ages 0-12 around the holidays. Since we began, we’ve given over 700,000 books to at-risk children through Head Start programs, shelters, clinics, churches … anywhere there are children in need. Books can be donated to the pro gram at our office at 615 W. Lafayette, or donations can be made by check and on line. See www.freep.com/reading for more information.

NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION

Our award-winning De troit Newspapers in Educa tion program delivers Free Press print editions to 107 schools and e-Editions to 764 schools, and we deliver News print editions to 54 schools and e-editions to 240 schools across Michi gan. Related special pro grams and teacher supple ments are also provided, all aimed at improving literacy and test scores.

Third-, fourth- and fifth grade students in all Detroit public, private and charter schools receive the weekly Yaks Corner — a mini-news paper for young people focusing on local stories, people and current events — thanks to a grant from the Skillman Foundation. Digital editions of the News fea ture weekly “Breakfast Serials,” with weekly in­stallments of two stories each school year.

WWW.DNIE.COM

Our educational website — www.dnie.com — pro vides print and video fea tures to students and edu cators, including vocabulary and geography quizzes, cartoons for the classrooms, and front page talking points.

The site also invites read ers to get involved by mak ing a financial donation to the program, connecting with one of ten featured mentoring organizations, and supporting our “Reading is Fun” events.

JOURNALISM MENTORING

Since 1985, the Free Press has been mentoring journal ism classes at 15 Detroit high schools. Each of the classes visits the newsroom several times throughout the school year to get one on- one help from a Free Press journalist. The pro gram is funded by Ford Motor Co., including news paper production and dis tribution costs, laptops and cameras for the students, an end-of-year banquet and a $24,000 scholarship to the best senior journalist.

The program is run by copy editor Erin Hill, a DPS graduate who got her start in the Free Press program and who won the Ford scholarship in 2001.