The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce’s Albuquerque Reads program is a finalist for the big Albuquerque Involved grant.
Voting open to Albuquerque Involved members the first week of July at: https://www.abqinvolved.org/membervote .
If you’re an ABQInvolved member, know someone who is, or want to join, your vote can help ABQ Reads increase its grant award from $500 to $2,000 so we can bring our weekly one-on-one literacy tutoring to more kindergarten and first-grade students this coming school year.
Back in 1984, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce established its Career Guidance Institute (CGI) and its Albuquerque Reads program in response to the business community’s desire to help shape education reform in the city and state. ABQ Reads’ primary mission is to boost literacy achievement among struggling young readers in Albuquerque. And in 2003, kindergarteners at Bel Air Elementary became the first group to receive literacy tutoring from Albuquerque Reads volunteers.
More than 20 years later, we know the program works. By the end of each school year students:
- Demonstrate growth in reading by moving a minimum of two reading levels for kindergarten and four reading levels for first grade.
- Are able to write an age-level appropriate summary of books they’ve read.
- Are able to demonstrate comprehension of a story that is read to them through a dialogue of questions from their tutors.
And by the end of each school year:
- Literacy proficiency scores reflect a 25 percent decrease of students reading at the lowest reading level and a 22 percent increase of students reading at the proficient reading levels.
- Every student receives up to 20 books to add to their personal home libraries.
ABQ Reads relies on over 100 adult volunteers who come from every walk of life: retirees, college students, professionals, military personnel, public servants, etc.. It is a partnership with APS at three of its Title 1 schools: Atrisco, Bel-Air and Whittier. Kindergarten and first-grade students receive 90 minutes each week of personalized literacy tutoring that gives them a chance to possess the life-changing skills of reading and writing.
To become a tutor (you can do it weekly or join a team to make it once a month), check out ABQReads.com.
And if you are a member of ABQ Involved, please vote at https://www.abqinvolved.org/membervote to help us continue giving the gift of reading to more of Albuquerque’s youngest students.