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Mount Vernon Students Receive New books

SEATTLE, WA – This summer in Mount Vernon Washington,  978 students received 11,736 new books for summer reading.
Book Up Summer, a program of Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program, combats summer learning loss by helping students at high-poverty elementary schools maintain their reading skills over the summer, and return to school in the fall ready to learn.  Kindergarten, first and second grade students at the following schools in the Mount Vernon School District received books through the Book Up Summer program this summer:
Centennial Elementary
Jefferson Elementary
Lincoln Elementary
Little Mountain Elementary
Madison Elementary
Washington Elementary
 
Book Up Summer is based on a 2010 Department of Education study centered on increasing students’ access to books in the summer months.  The premise is simple, if we give children their choice of books to read, letting them pick out their own from a wide variety of literature, they will read them.  If we give them enough books to keep them reading all summer long, they will maintain their reading skills, and not slide backward, as happens with so many children from low-income families during the summer months.
Summer Learning Loss
Each summer, while children from affluent families make progress on their reading, the reading skills of students from low-income families actually decline.  When this trend is multiplied throughout 12 years of school, students from low-income families graduate several years behind – if they graduate at all.
Linda Wheeler, recently retired librarian at Beverly Park Elementary School said this about the program:
“Juan Carlos started second grade this year – and his reading jumped 3 levels over the summer!
We couldn’t believe it!  When I asked him how he got so much better over the summer, he said he
‘read all the Book Up Summer books over and over all summer long.’  This is huge success!”
 

About Page Ahead
Page Ahead gives kids in need the chance to read!  The agency is dedicated to helping children in need succeed in school by developing strong reading skills.  For 27 years, Page Ahead has served children, families, and communities, with new books for children, literacy support for families, and reading resources for communities.  As the leading provider of children’s books and literacy services in Washington State, Page Ahead has given 2.7 million new books to 850,000 children in need since 1990.  In October of 2012, School’s Out Washington presented Page Ahead with the Washington State Afterschool Hall of Fame Award for leadership and innovation in afterschool programs.

For more information about Page Ahead please visit www.pageahead.org

 

Information written an d provided by Susan Waller

About the Author

Chris Nelson
I'm a long time Skagit County Resident. I believe in doing the right thing and helping others when you can.

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