The Niagara Falls City School District is expanding its partnership with the Read to Succeed Buffalo program, bringing it to another elementary school.
The district announced Friday that the program helping elementary students improve their reading skills will include Harry F. Abate Elementary School for the upcoming school year. Program officials say they have a goal of helping 140 more students across Buffalo and Niagara Falls with reading this coming year — but they need at least 10 more volunteers here to make it happen.
“We want these young students and all of our students to be their absolute best,” said incoming Falls Superintendent Stan Wojton. “This program is going to give us the opportunity to prepare these students for their future.”
This school year, 12 volunteers provided one-on-one tutoring to 36 Bloneva Bond Elementary students in 1st through 3rd grades. Including work within the Buffalo City Schools, 137 tutors provided 11,000 sessions to more than 400 students.
Wojton said they felt Abate was the appropriate place to expand since it is Bond’s sister school, though they are open to including additional schools in the future.
Read to Succeed Buffalo is an AARP Foundation Experience Corps program that was launched in Buffalo Schools in 2016 in order to help young students who were having trouble reading at their grade level. The age 50-and-older volunteers worked with students individually twice a week for 30-minute sessions throughout the school year.
Program Executive Director Anne Ryan said that last year, 80% of the below-grade-level students they worked with achieved national benchmarks in oral reading accuracy. Every student they worked with saw an increase in their confidence.
“Confidence is a huge telltale sign of success in the future,” said Ryan, attributing that to the volunteers who have come out.
Chiquita Foster got involved because she always enjoyed reading and wanted to do something constructive with her time. The books she reads to her three second-grade students are about ants, pirates, and whales, and she has noticed improvements in their reading, fluency, and comprehension over the year.
“Sometimes it’s challenging, but there wouldn’t be any growth if there wasn’t a challenge,” Foster said, planning to come out again this coming school year.
Those looking to be a tutor can fill out a volunteer interest form on the Read to Succeed Buffalo website. There will be an information session at 1 p.m. on May 19 at the Earl W. Bridges Library for those interested.