My Nonprofit Reviews

I left public education after 20 years and one of the reasons I left was because the emphasis was on passing students through regardless of learning, especially with regards to reading. As a math teacher, one of the biggest obstacles I encountered was that many students were reading far below grade level making it very difficult to read the math problems. Little, if anything, was done to actually address the poor reading skills, rather they just had the test read to them, and they were passed along, reading skill/level unchanged. This was true for other subjects as well.

After I left, I worked part time as a classroom teacher at Brookwood and for the first time in my career, I wasn't micromanaged and was allowed to actually TEACH the students rather than "check boxes". Students were also intensely immersed in the appropriate reading class for their level and for success, which not only improved their reading skills, it alleviated much of the stress they had previously, when they knew they were struggling and it wasn’t getting better.

Currently, I serve on the board and am also the Director of Development. Having to familiarize myself with the literacy statistics, it’s concerning that the low literacy rates for this region are estimated between 11% and 20%, which means roughly 147,000 to 267,000 adults are lacking Basic Prose Literacy Skills.

Students who are not proficient readers are 4x more likely to dropout of school than those who are, setting them up for a lifetime of struggles and potential poverty. If we can get each child to his/her maximum reading potential, we can greatly reduce the likelihood of these struggles.

This year our students averaged an increase in reading comprehension of 2.2 years, with 60% of our students seeing at least a 1 year gain, which is a considerable gain given that many have seen no improvement in many years.

I am honored to work with such a dedicated staff and volunteers in a wonderful environment with the best interests of the students at heart.