The Challenge
The ability to read and comprehend begins early in a child’s educational experience. Elementary school children develop oral reading fluency and comprehension skills through repetition. Difficulty can arise with students of low socioeconomic status who lack the foundational skills necessary to achieve success in reading (Hart & Riley, 2003). They do not acquire the expressive language and vocabulary skills, and access to experiences as their peers from more affluent households (Hart & Riley, 2003).
HOW IT WORKS
The Solution
The major way to best prepare children for college success and their career is to ensure early reading success. By reading more, children will become more proficient and possibly develop a passion for reading that can help them become lifelong readers.
I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Rewards and Recognition Program provides students with incentives, such as toys, computers, electronic items, and mountain bikes. This encourages students to increase the amount of time they read for pleasure.
While the I.N.S.P.I.R.E. program is new to New Orleans, the program has been successfully implemented at schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama.
Our mission is to get students reading more through the incentive program. Students not only accomplished their goals during the school day, but 72% of students logged 2,700 additional hours on Achieve 3000 after school hours.