I read. How about you?

Dear volunteers,

The title of this blog is a weak double entendre at our newly introduced i-Ready program. At LHCC, our mission is to provide scholastic, spiritual, and social support to equip and empower our underserved neighbors. During the past eleven years, we have been astutely aware of the challenges that our young students face in public school.

Based on the latest proficiency scores, 41.7% of Black third graders and 39.2% of Latino third graders in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools were proficient across key subjects, compared to 80.8% of white students. That means 6 out of ten are behind. Unfortunately, the gap only gets larger as they progress to middle and high school.

In addition to the tremendous efforts of all our volunteers who support our English Language Learners (ELL), we have invested in iReady. For the first time, LHCC has been using printed iReady lessons on Tuesday evenings. Each kid has a lesson printed off in their folder to do with their tutor/mentor. Feedback has been receptive so far and we are confident that doing these lessons will be helpful to the kids. We have also engaged the parents in the process of promoting and monitoring reading at home.

LHCC has implemented another iReady "challenge" that will run through the Christmas break. Students who complete and pass the most activities, show the most growth, etc. will have reading rewards, just in time for the holidays. We are hoping this truly motivates kids to do iReady outside of our program and to take the lessons seriously. Thank you to all our volunteers for helping to make our students the best they can be,

Over the 2022-2023 school year, the educational gap amongst well-funded schools and title 1 schools worsened:

-       Within the 178 CMS schools, the top ten ranked schools have an average reading proficiency of 83%.

-       The lowest ranked schools have an average reading proficiency of 12.4%

Thank you again for caring for all our students.

Appreciate you all,

Brent

October, 2023