READING NEEDS Helping South Side kids

THE PROBLEMS
Approximately 35 percent of city residents read below the fifth-grade level.
Reading proficiency among fourth-grade pupils at Cleveland Elementary decreased between 1999 and 2002, while scores improved districtwide.
Cleveland Elementary sixth-grade pupils in 2001-02 had a lower passage rate on proficiency tests, 10.9 percent, than when they were fourth-graders in 1999-2000, 15.3 percent.
NEIGHBORHOOD NEEDS
PROGRAM
All 149 neighborhood people surveyed want an after-school program.
76 percent want the program year-round.
ACTIVITIES
91 percent want academic tutoring.
69 percent want reading tutoring.
67 percent want math tutoring.
74 percent want craft activities.
66 percent want recreation activities.
64 percent want problem-solving activities.
INTEREST
74 percent said their children would attend. The rest have no children or had transportation problems.
97 percent of those who would send their children gave their names and addresses and want to know when the program will start.
THE SOLUTION
A four-day-a-week, year-round program.
Two groups of children each would attend the program twice a week, two or three hours a day.
Children would graduate from the program when their skills meet grade level.
Source: Vindicator files, Ohio Department of Education, Operation Learning Community program