[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 50 (Wednesday, April 29, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E706-E707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MINNESOTA AMERICA READS PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 29, 1998

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the work of Minnesota 
volunteers participating in the America Reads program. There is perhaps 
no issue more important to the future of this nation than education. 
The volunteers I speak of have shown a true dedication to the welfare 
of our youth by ensuring that children in Minnesota elementary schools 
get the attention and assistance they need to improve their reading 
skills.
  Twenty-three Minnesota colleges and universities are currently 
involved in the America Reads program, which was started by President 
Clinton in 1996. The goal is to ensure that every child can read well 
and independently by the end of third grade. We all know of the links 
between literacy and future success. However, according to the National 
Assessment of Educational Progress, 40 percent of America's fourth 
graders aren't reading at basic levels. The America reads program 
reaches out to children and gives them the individual attention 
necessary to make sure they don't fall through the cracks of the 
system.
  If children lose interest in reading early, their chance of being 
successful later in life is difficult. Quoting an educator who recently 
visited with me, ``In the first three grades, children learn to read. 
The rest of their lives, they read to learn''. Volunteers help students 
realize that reading is not only fundamental, but fun. The time spent 
with tutors enables children to relax and enjoy books, which is 
something that can't always be done in the classroom.
  I have attached an article from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press for my 
colleagues' review. It describes the America Reads program in 
Minnesota, and highlights just one of the many success stories this 
initiative has produced. I applaud the efforts of these volunteers, and 
wish to thank them for their dedication to the education of our youth.
  I am especially pleased to note and thank some familiar names and 
friends who are highlighted in these reports--our former colleague 
Senator Harris Wofford, Saint Paul's former Mayor James Scheibel, and 
his spouse Mary Pat Lee. Their willingness to share their time, talent 
and energy is an extraordinary example of public service, and I wish 
them continued success in their endeavors; helping students learn to 
read so that they might read to learn!

        [From the Pioneer Press/Pioneer Planet, April 20, 1998]

       Volunteers reap the rewards of teaching youngsters to read

                         (By THOMAS J. COLLINS)

       No tear-welling crescendo or awe-inspiring fireworks marked 
     the encounter last week between a middle-aged Minneapolis bar 
     owner and a bubbly St. Paul first-grader.
       Life-changing moments rarely are showy. If you see them at 
     all, they are reflected briefly in a gleam of an eye or a 
     confidently raised chin--unspoken signals between David Arone 
     and Kiara Renfroe as they read together in a Daytons Bluff 
     Elementary School classroom.
       Yet it is partly as a result of this encounter that the 44-
     year-old Arone, whose family has owned Arones Bar in 
     Minneapolis since 1935, has decided to pursue a new career by 
     becoming an elementary school teacher.
       For Kiara, 7, the encounter also has been a transforming 
     experience, giving her the help she needs to continue to 
     teach her brothers to read.
       Scratch the political pronouncements and doomsday warnings 
     about the decline of America's public schools and you'll find 
     enclaves, like this one created by Arone and Kiara, where 
     just the reverse seems to be true.
       He is a volunteer in Metropolitan State University's 
     America Reads programs and spends 15 hours a week helping 
     first- through third-grade students at Daytons Bluff improve 
     their reading.
       She is a first-grader on a mission to make something of 
     herself despite challenges that define her inner-city 
     elementary school--high poverty and student mobility as well 
     as many students who do not speak English. And, of course, 
     looming in her future is a deadline: National research shows 
     that if she doesn't learn to read by the end of third grade, 
     she'll be more prone to a lifetime of ignorance and poverty.
       On this particular day, Arone is leaning over Kiara as they 
     read a book about fishing bears. Together they sound out 
     difficult words, ``shh . . . shh . . . shake.'' She glides 
     over words she recognizes. ``Good job!'' he says, as she 
     masters each page.
       Later, he bends close to Kiara and whispers in her ear: 
     ``Some day you will write a book.''


                       Minnesotans heed the call

       It is not only Kiara's life that has been changed, thanks 
     to President Clinton's plan to mobilize 100,000 work-study 
     students and other volunteers under the America Reads 
     program. Arone's life has taken a new turn as well.
       ``From my experience here at Daytons Bluff, I've decided to 
     change careers and go into teaching,'' he says, with a hint 
     of shyness in his voice. ``This is going to sound corny, but 
     I knew this is where I needed to be. I love this atmosphere. 
     I love kids, And I've loved being here.''
       Clinton's call to improve reading for young students seems 
     to have been embraced with particular enthusiasm in 
     Minnesota.
       Metropolitan State in St. Paul was the first Minnesota 
     college or university to join more than 70 colleges and 
     universities nationwide that joined the reading program in 
     1996, its inaugural year. The school, long involved in 
     community partnerships to help educate children and their 
     parents, also developed a college course to better prepare 
     its student tutors for their often challenging urban K-12 
     students.
       Twenty-two other Minnesota colleges and universities now 
     have developed programs of their own to buoy educational and 
     community partnerships and training provided by the 45 
     members of the Minnesota Campus Compact. The wide-ranging 
     programs include reading to at-risk children and a study of 
     ways to strengthen the housing stock and economy of the 
     Daytons Bluff neighborhood.
       The campus compact takes seriously its goal of changing 
     lives and communities, says Mark Langseth, executive director 
     of the compact.

[[Page E707]]

       ``There has been much too much effort elsewhere on the 
     romantic and recreational notions of volunteerism,'' he said, 
     noting that his coalition is in the second year of a 10-year 
     focus on early- and family-literacy programs, of which 
     America Reads is part.
       To that end, Harris Wofford, a key player in the America 
     Reads program nationally, will address the Youth Service 
     Leadership Conference later this morning at the Minneapolis 
     Convention Center.
       The campus compact also is co-sponsoring a gathering 
     Tuesday in Minneapolis of 20 college and university 
     presidents, 20 superintendents of Minnesota public schools 
     and various corporate and foundation leaders. The meeting is 
     expected to result in stronger campus community and school 
     partnerships throughout the state, Langseth said.


                             New approaches

       The compact's interest in America Reads and other literacy 
     programs was piqued by a startling statistic: Four of every 
     10 fourth-grade students failed to attain the basic level of 
     reading on the National Assessment of Education Progress in 
     1994.
       The resulting trend was equally alarming: Students who fail 
     to read well by fourth grade have higher dropout rates and 
     often have much more difficulty learning to read later in 
     life, explains Catherine Korda, the compact's VISTA literacy 
     coordinator.
       However, she noted that national research shows 
     ``sustained, individualized attention and tutoring after 
     school and during the summer, when combined with parental 
     involvement and quality school instruction, can raise reading 
     levels.''
       Armed with the knowledge, Clinton called for college 
     presidents to increase their work-study allocations to 
     finance 100,000 America Reads tutors. As of Feb. 23, more 
     than 900 colleges and universities nationally have accepted 
     the challenge.
       Congress allocated $52 million to improve and expand 
     existing programs that support children's and literacy 
     programs as well as training teachers to run them. The 
     Corporation for National Service got an extra $24 million for 
     VISTA programs, $25 million for AmeriCorps, and $19 million 
     for the National Senior Service Corps. programs to aid in 
     that effort.
       Beginning in July, 14 VISTA workers will be assigned to 
     Minnesota college and university campuses to organize 
     literacy programs like America Reads in elementary schools. 
     In a break from the past, college students no longer will 
     have to be eligible for federal work-study programs to 
     participate in America Reads.
       ``This is such a natural fit for college and university 
     students to tutor other students,'' said Jim Scheibel, senior 
     adviser to Wofford and a former St. Paul mayor. ``You can't 
     sit with these kids and become part of their lives and not be 
     committed to paying attention to the kinds of schools we have 
     for young people.''
       Scheibel understands the process all too well. For the past 
     four years, he has served as a mentor/tutor for Antonio 
     Murden, a poor Washington, D.C., public school student.
       Scheibel and his wife, Mary Pat Lee, successfully sued the 
     district school system to help Murden, now 17, get the 
     education he needed in a private school for special needs 
     students. (The Pioneer Press profiled Scheibel's efforts to 
     help Murden two years ago.)
       ``We've seen great improvement in Antonio,`` Scheibel said. 
     ``He recently went up another level in school. His spelling 
     is terrific, and I've seen his whole self-image greatly 
     improve as he's learned to read.
       ``We have to do this just like that--one student at a time, 
     one school at a time, one neighborhood at a time. Just look 
     at the work Metro State has done in St. Paul.''


                      `An incredible opportunity'

       Metropolitan State's tutors and volunteers in the America 
     Reads program this year have served more than 200 students at 
     Daytons Bluff and the Richard R. Green Central Park School in 
     Minneapolis, said Susan Giguere, director of the university's 
     Center for Community-Based Learning.
       All told, the university and its community partners 
     provided child and family literacy services to 420 people 
     during the academic quarter ending March 31.
       ``It's hard to judge from (standardized) testing whether we 
     are making a difference because many of the students you test 
     today will be going tomorrow,'' Giguere said. ``But I can see 
     progress in the eyes of these students. They are reading more 
     now. Even their parents are excited about reading.''
       Maureen Sauve, 35, a single mother of 2-year-old Hannah, is 
     such a believer in the program that she will begin work on a 
     master's degree in education at the University of Minnesota 
     this summer. Like Arone, she hopes someday to be a licensed 
     teacher.
       ``This has been an incredible opportunity for me,'' she 
     said. ``At first I was really distracted. The kids have so 
     much energy. But I can see the progress these children are 
     making. All of a sudden, reading clicks for them.''
       The former legal secretary returned to school after the 
     birth of her daughter to fulfill a lifelong dream of being a 
     teacher. She's getting a taste of that dream on a federal 
     work-study grant through Metropolitan State.


                         Four books, no doubts

       Arone didn't qualify for a work-study grant because he 
     makes too much money. But he, too, was hooked by volunteering 
     in Metropolitan State's after-school and family-literacy 
     programs at Daytons Bluff.
       He decided to return to school two years ago at the 
     suggestion of his wife, Debra, after working in a smoke-
     filled bar began to irritate his asthma.
       Now he gets to work in a smoke-free environmental and has 
     the incalculable pleasure of seeing a young mind bloom with 
     the joy of reading.
       His reading session this day with Kiara ends on a positive 
     note. She has read four books, her progress marked by tiny 
     footprint-shaped stickers that eventually will earn her a 
     free book.
       Kiara, like her mentor, has no doubt she will achieve her 
     goal.
       ``I was the first one to learn to read in my family. So I 
     will be able to do more things when I grow up,'' she 
     volunteers before breaking into a broad smile. ``I'm the most 
     responsible one. I do the chores around the house. I also 
     taught my little brother and biggest brother to read.''
       Arone sits nearby with a big smile of his own, 
     acknowledging later that by fitting him into her busy 
     schedule, Kiara has changed his life as well.

     

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