The AR Kids Read organization is seeking 500 or more volunteers to spend an hour a week listening one-on-one to children in Pulaski County area elementary schools practice their reading skills.
The organization initiated its annual recruitment campaign for volunteers with a Wednesday event at The Innovation Hub in North Little Rock. The building block-themed event featured not only hard-hat-wearing elementary pupils from Little Rock's Williams Magnet Elementary, but also U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark. and other business and education leaders who emphasized the importance of reading for individuals and for the community.
Hill praised AR Kids Read and its executive director, Charlie Conklin, for its record keeping on the achievement levels of the pupils who have been served by the program's volunteer tutors in past years.
"When I was [Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce] president back in 2013, one of the challenges we gave Charlie was we wanted to see outcomes. We know this is important. Kids learn to read through the third grade and then they read to learn after third grade. We know that is fundamental. That is why we are doing this. I'm so pleased to see you are doing that kind of measurement."
In 2015-16, according to data provided by the organization, 94.4 percent of the 980 children served showed test score gains. More than 95 percent of 800 pupils who worked with AR Kids Read volunteers showed test score gains in the 2016-17 school year.
"That is exactly what parents and citizens want, and we cannot do it without adults," Hill said. "We don't have a money problem in Little Rock, we have a volunteer problem, and we need more people mentoring our young people. A great way to do that and a fun way to do that is with AR Kids Read."
The congressman praised his long-ago teachers at Forest Park Elementary in Little Rock as well as his grandmother as inspirations for his lifelong love of reading and history. He held up a child's history book on American explorer Daniel Boone as one of his early and favorite reads.
The organization wants to put volunteers in 46 schools in the Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski school districts as well as Lisa Academy-North charter school in North Little Rock and St. Theresa Catholic School in Little Rock.
The volunteer tutors are asked to spend one hour a week -- 30 minutes with each of two children -- from October through March.
Completion of a 45-minute training program and a background check are required for the volunteers, Conklin said.
More information about the program and signing up as a volunteer is available on the organization's website arkidsread.org or by texting the word Tutor to 51555.
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, former President of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce Gary Smith, and volunteer Andrea Lewis, who is also the outreach director at First Security Bank, were also among the speakers and audience members Wednesday who promoted the tutoring program, in part by stacking up cardboard building blocks on the stage.
"Wow! Building strong readers really does build a stronger community," pupils Madelyn Deloney, Bala Seenivasan and Jaxon Owoh, fourth graders at Williams, said in unison as the wall was constructed.
Metro on 08/31/2017