ALEXANDRIA TUTORING CONSORTIUM INC

There is no greater gift we can give a child than the skills they need to learn to read!

Why donate to the Alexandria Tutoring Consortium (ATC)?

• Because the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS)/ATC Book Buddies* based program works! Of the 142 first graders in Book Buddies, 85% percent reached or exceeded their grade level literacy benchmarks on Virginia’s end-of year test. In the Reading Readiness program, 27 of the 28 kindergarteners reached their end-of-year grade level literacy benchmarks.

Why Reading by Third Grade Matters

• If a child doesn’t learn to read by third grade, he can’t read to learn in 4th grade and beyond because half of the printed fourth-grade curriculum is incomprehensible to students who read below that grade level.
• Unfortunately, 25% of Alexandria City Public School’s third graders did not reach reading proficiency on Virginia’s spring 2011 literacy test. According to the Casey Foundation “Kid’s Count” report, those 262 3rd graders are at risk of being on the dropout track.
• Researchers at TeachSafeSchools report that “reading competence by grade four is one of the best predictors of which student will finish high school, become employable, have a successful adult adjustment and avoid problems with the law.
• Conversely, children with low reading achievement by grade three have a greater likelihood of school retention, dropout, drug abuse, early pregnancy, delinquency and unemployment.”

*A program developed by UVA’s Curry School of Education in which reading specialists provide volunteer tutors with customized lesson plans tailored to their tutee’s reading needs.

To learn more about ATC and to sign up to tutor next fall, please go to www.alexandriatutors.org or call 703-549-6670, ext. 119.

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