CES READ United Program catches attention of Georgia Superintendent

Superintendent of Schools for the Georgia Department of Education, Richard Woods visited Centerville Elementary on Tuesday to take a closer look at their READ United Program. The program is an initiative of the United Way of Central Georgia and the Centerville Rotary Club. 

The program currently tutors 42 second and third graders split between Tuesdays and Thursdays for 25 minutes per session. During each session, volunteers read with students as well as play games such as Sight Words Bingo as well as crossword puzzles and word searches that go along with the book assigned to the child. Students work with vocabulary flash cards and comprehension poems, and they also participate in a read-along at the end of each session.

Suzanne Keiser, the READ United Coordinator for Centerville Elementary, said the program has a special place in her heart, and that she has seen growth in the students’ abilities.

“The children are growing so much by being in here just twice a week. It makes my heart so happy to see that they are improving in their reading, because reading is just so important,” Keiser shared. Participating students are selected for the program by their teachers. Keiser explained that the children selected are not being pulled by other teachers and are doing well but “need a little push.”

Keiser and Dr. Shelton Land—Manager of Educational Programs for the United Way of Central Georgia—said that the results of the program are measured by feedback from the teachers as well as the results from the district’s map reading fluency assessment. Land said that they align with whatever tool the district uses to measure the academic growth of the student.

Walon Smith, who chairs the READ United project for the Centerville Rotary Club, said that his journey with the initiative started when he went to a Georgia Chamber of Commerce meeting, and one of the speakers said, “If you want to help your community, teach your third graders to read on a third grade level.” Smith said he thought the statement was odd because the speaker didn’t expand on it. Smith explained that he then started to research the subject and found that this is a benchmark, and that up until the third grade, students are learning to read, but after third grade students are reading to learn.

“If you get behind, by the end of the third grade, your chances of catching up are not good unless you have got some type of outside assistance, which a lot of these kids don’t have,” Smith said. He further noted that if children are not “proficient” in reading by their exit from grade three, they are four times more likely to drop out of high school.

Smith then heard of Bibb County’s READ United program, which exists in 11 schools in that district, and the Rotary Club was able to establish a pilot program at Centerville Elementary. So far, according to Smith, the kids enrolled in the program are reading at or above grade level by the end of their third grade year.

Kathy Hart, a READ United volunteer and Centerville Rotary Club Member, shared her experience in the changes she has seen in the children. Hart said that the kids develop a comfort level when it comes to reading in front of others, and they enjoy it.

“What you see from the very first encounter to the last day of the year is phenomenal. You see kids that are very unsure in the beginning, and they don’t want to try to say a word or sound it out because they are afraid that they are going to be wrong. But by the end of the year, they’re creating words. They aren’t afraid to attempt even if it’s wrong. It’s okay, that’s how we learn,” Hart shared.