CLEVELAND — Cleveland’s east side has volunteers who have proven that their commitment to students at Charles Dickens School is for the long haul.
“It is one of those wonderful volunteer experiences where you can see that you're making a difference,” says Fran Stewart, a reading volunteer at the school.
Just before the COVID shutdown of 2020, WKYC helped launch the Dickens Reads program after learning none of the third graders at the school were reading at grade level.
“The need was so great at that time, and we could see it. And then everything shuts down for COVID,” Stewart explains. “We come back the following year in 2021, and the kids are so far behind.”
Amanda McNamara Lowe, the owner of Stretch & Catch Reading Center, joined Dickens Reads in early 2022. She has used the Science of Reading to create individualized programs for each child who attends tutoring sessions.
“Our students are taught how to use the developmental phonics patterns and spelling to decode unknown words in reading,” McNamara Lowe says. “That in a nutshell is the Science of Reading.”
According to McNamara Lowe, 33% of students in Dickens Reads this year grew two or more reading grade levels, with one student growing three.
“There was nobody ahead of a first-grade level when they started, so we had second, third, and fourth graders,” McNamara Lowe adds. “We started all of our lessons at preschool, kindergarten and 1st grade …“We’re just really helping the teachers here be able to teach the curriculum that they’re supposed to teach by getting the students to the levels they need to be.”
Third grader Isabelle Grace has grown her confidence and her reading by nearly two grade levels thanks to Dickens Reads volunteers.
“I feel proud of myself,” Grace shares. “My volunteer helps me sound out the words if I don’t know the words.”
According to data from Stretch & Catch Reading Center, Grace has attended 39 tutoring sessions, jumping her reading level by 1.7 years.
“It is one of those wonderful volunteer experiences where you can see that you're making a difference.” Steward shares.
This academic year, 18 volunteers have worked with 21 second through fourth graders even after WKYC moved on from Charles Dickens to the station’s second Cleveland adopted school, Harvey Rice Wraparound.
Not only did students who received tutoring from Dickens Reads see literacy gains, but the statistic that launched the program has improved too.
According to the latest state data, the number of third graders at Charles Dickens that scored proficient on the state’s reading assessment has grown from zero to 12%.
“I believe [what] we’re doing at Dickens Reads is we are showing the kids that they’re smart enough to do this,” Stewart says. “We’re showing the kids that they can be successful.”