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SMART Reading thanks Tualatin for grant; program serves kindergarten students at Tualatin Elementary
Summary
Representatives from SMART Reading described how the city grant supports volunteer-run literacy sessions at Tualatin Elementary, serving about 60 kindergarten students and distributing classroom and take-home books.
SMART Reading representatives told the council on Feb. 10 that the organization uses outside-agency grants and donations to run volunteer reading sessions in Title I schools and Head Start sites, and they thanked the council for a recent grant to support the program at Tualatin Elementary.
"We are in 3 kindergarten classrooms. We serve about 60 to 63 kids," Becky Bard, site coordinator at Tualatin Elementary, told the council. Bard said each child receives one or two books every month for their own collection and that the program expects each student to assemble a personal library of up to 14 books by June.
Nut graf: SMART (Start Making a Reader Today) is a statewide nonprofit that supplies volunteer readers and new books to young students; the Tualatin Elementary partnership supplies classroom volunteers and books aimed at improving reading confidence and attendance.
Sharon Benson, SMART’s senior development officer, described the program’s statewide scope: the nonprofit operates in about 250 schools and Head Start sites, engages roughly 5,000 volunteers and has a budget near $4 million. Benson said SMART does not teach reading but complements classroom teachers by modeling shared reading and getting books into children’s homes.
Program outcomes and local details cited in the presentation: - At Tualatin Elementary the volunteers project that by June each kindergarten student will have up to 14 books to take home; the site had distributed 232 new books to date in the current year. - SMART staff said 64 percent of participating children nationwide were on track with reading benchmarks at the end of a program year in their internal comparisons; the organization reported improvements in reading confidence and comprehension among participants. - The program’s approximate per-student cost is about $320, Benson said, funded mostly by donations; SMART reported serving roughly 25,000 students statewide last year and distributing about 200,000 books.
Councilors praised the program and encouraged volunteer participation. The presenters said SMART can partner with libraries and other community groups and accepts donated children’s books for its book bank.
Ending: The SMART representatives invited council members to visit Tualatin Elementary on Tuesdays at 1:35 p.m. to see the program in action and provided contact information for volunteers and donors.
