United Way, who gave $10,000 to school, will monitor students’ progress throughout year
At risk kindergarten students at Luling Elementary will take part in a new program this year that aims to make sure they move on to the first grade after the United Way of St. Charles gave $10,000 towards its implementation.
The money from UWSC will be used for a part time teacher’s salary and educational materials to assist students at the school who need additional support in the areas of letter identification, letter sounds, phonemic awareness skills and early reading strategies.
“One of our goals is to be supportive of education and supportive of agencies that help people,” John Dias, the executive director of the United Way of St. Charles, said. “More important though is to do what we can to prevent a need from arising years from now. With this program, we are catching kids in kindergarten and doing what we can to help them now so we don’t need to invest in a high school drop out program 10 years from now.”
Dias says that Luling Elementary approached the UWSC for help in getting the program started and several meetings were held between school representatives and volunteer members of the UWSC. The board then approved awarding the funds to Luling Elementary.
“The educational materials that will be purchased with the money are important, but the main thing is that the kids are going to get another teacher,” Dias said.
Improving letter identification and reading skills will ensure that students will be able to meet the academic requirements that are needed for them to move on to the first grade. Each student’s progress will be monitored every month to plot and chart growth in those skill areas. End of the year testing will be administered in late April or early May of 2009 to determine the success of the program and if changes are needed in order to continue to improve learning at Luling Elementary.
“The kids have tests that they have taken before the program begins on their skill sets,” Dias said. “The end of the year test will tell us how effectively the program is working.”
The results of those tests will be reported to the UWSC while maintaining student confidentiality.
The program reflects the UWSC’s Success by Six initiative, which strives to ensure that all children living in St. Charles Parish have their basic health needs identified and met and are prepared to enter school at age 6.
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