Guadalupe Summer Academy students were awarded for their accomplishments in the United Way Power Reading program on July 11 with certificates, gift cards, school supplies for next year, and root beer floats.
One hundred students from fourth through eighth grades enrolled in the United Way program at Mary Buren Elementary School this summer as a way to improve their literacy skills and abilities. Several students were able to move up a grade level in the first few weeks of the program.
Power Reading is being offered to schools and home study students as a way to improve a community’s literacy skills. A press release sent out by United Way said that more than half of Santa Barbara County students read below appropriate grade level standards. The goal of the Power Reading program is to cut that number in half by the year 2020.
This article appears in Jul 18-25, 2013.