Latest news with #ReadtoSucceed
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Read to Succeed Buffalo branching to Niagara Falls schools
The Niagara Falls City School District is looking for senior citizens to help elementary students read. Read to Succeed Buffalo, an AARP Foundation Experience Corps program operating in Buffalo since 2016, will be expanding to Bloneva Bond Primary School on Niagara Street starting next school year. SCHEER: Want to help a Falls school student? Volunteer to read Dr. G. Lawrence McNally didn't want to stop providing medical advice to children and their parents. The program wants to bring 10 to 20 people ages 50 and older to help improve the reading skills of kindergarteners, first-, and second-graders. 'The promise is, from the district, you will be welcomed,' said Supervisor Mark Laurrie, encouraging people to become volunteers during the program announcement on Friday. 'You'll be accepted. You'll be supported, and you'll work with great kids from Read to Succeed.' After the volunteers complete a two-day training session in September, they will start working with students in October. A literacy coach supporting the tutors curates a library of read-along books they and the students read. The helpers meet the students individually twice a week for 30-minute sessions for every week of the school year. Read to Succeed is eying between 30 and 36 students to participate, who are arranged to be taken out of English or language classes for their sessions. Anne Ryan, the executive director of Read to Succeed Buffalo, said that by the end of the third grade, 78% of Niagara Falls students are not reading at that grade level, with two-thirds of fourth-graders across the state not reading at that level. Studies were done to show that tutoring like this has provided gains in student learning, with all the participating students in Buffalo schools last year improving their reading ability, reading fluency, and social and emotional learning. 'Even if they (the outcomes) weren't great, they appreciate the one-on-one mentoring that these adults provide,' Ryan said. Read to Succeed is looking to have 10 volunteers each at Bloneva Bond and Henry J. Kalfas Elementary on Beech Avenue, remaining only at Bloneva Bond if they get less than 10 to 12. It is looking to expand to the district's other elementary schools in the future. G. Lawrence McNally, a retired pediatrician, has been volunteering at Buffalo schools since 2023 after hearing from one of his wife's friends who also volunteers. He has found the experience very rewarding, with students he works with calling him Dr. Lars. 'It was really rewarding to see all my first graders be below the benchmark, and by Christmas. ... they were all doing more at a first-grade level,' McNally said. The school district is using some of its Title I funds to bring this program here. Those interested can look further at
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Longview celebrates school's new book vending machine
LONGVIEW, Texas (KETK) – A book vending machine ribbon cutting ceremony was held in Longview on Thursday afternoon. Tyler's annual Egg-Stravaganza returning this month The Greater Longview United Way program, named Read to Succeed, is the nonprofit's ongoing effort to enhance literacy in Gregg County's youth by providing easy book access using vending machines. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Bramlette STEAM Elementary in Longview to celebrate the 19th book vending machine coming to East Texas. Principal of Bramlette STEAM Elementary, Portia Hood spoke about the value of installing a joy for reading into her students. 'Reading can take you anywhere and that is one of our focal points here at Bramlette, we want to install a love of reading,' Hood said. Students will receive special tokens allowing them to purchase a book from the vending machine. Each book is around 200 to 300 pages. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
28-03-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Douglas Higgins, who in middle age returned to a career in education, dies
Douglas Higgins spent a quarter-century in real estate management before returning to his roots in education and spending 16 years as the principal and assistant principal of elementary and junior high schools in Bloomingdale, Steger and Calumet City. 'He loved the children, and everything that he did was about teaching and learning,' said Anita Rice, the superintendent of Lincoln Elementary School District 156 in Calumet City. 'He was deeply committed and he was very thoughtful.' Higgins, 81, died of complications from congestive heart failure on Feb. 27 at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, said his daughter Rana. Born in Cleveland, Douglas Allen Higgins grew up in Evanston and attended Loyola Academy in Wilmette, where he played baseball and basketball. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Notre Dame in 1965. After picking up a master's degree from Notre Dame in 1966, Higgins taught English at Washington High School in South Bend, Indiana, for two years. He substitute taught in Chicago before taking a full-time job in1969 teaching English at Crane Tech High School on the West Side. In the early 1970s, Higgins switched careers and began working in property management for Draper and Kramer real estate, and later with other firms. Then, in 1998, he left real estate and went back to school at National Louis University, earning what then was known as a type 75 certificate — now a professional educator license — to become a school administrator. 'He always was passionate about education, and he regretted leaving it,' Higgins' daughter said. 'This was an opportunity for him to change career paths. He was in his 50s at the time and felt very invigorated and didn't want to retire.' In 1999, Higgins was hired to be an assistant principal at DuJardin Elementary School in Bloomingdale, starting the position at an age, 55, when most teachers and school administrators consider retiring. He was at DuJardin for two years before taking a job as the principal at Central Junior High School in Steger. A year later he became principal at Lincoln Elementary School in Calumet City. 'He felt a lot of fulfillment and felt he could really make a difference and really make an impact, and I think working (as a principal) harked back to his days in the Chicago Public Schools,' his daughter said. 'He regretted not doing more at that time, so this was his opportunity to make more of an impact.' While at Lincoln, Higgins launched the school's Tiger Token store and program, as a way to encourage positive and constructive behavior from students. He also initiated the Read to Succeed program and quarterly raffle programs as a way of recognizing pupils who scored 100% on accelerated reading exams. Bonnie Walker, an assistant principal at the school, said Higgins built a strong culture of trust in his staff. 'It wasn't a big 'I' and a little 'you' — it was a team,' she said. 'I stayed at the school because the three of us had such a strong bond. The purpose was to teach children, educate them and develop them socially so that when they left Lincoln, they'd be prepared.' Walker also pointed to the fact that Lincoln students' test scores increased significantly during the years that Higgins was principal and she and Rice were assistant principals. 'He cared for people deeply, and the teachers loved him as an administrator and as a friend,' Rice said. At age 71, Higgins retired from Lincoln in 2015 after 13 years as its principal. Higgins practiced daily meditation for more than 50 years, and was a longtime follower of the Indian speaker and author Prem Rawat. Two previous marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, Higgins is survived by his wife of 30 years, Gabriela; another daughter, Emily; a son, Daniel; two stepdaughters, Banafsheh Siadat and Marwan Siadat; a brother, John; and three grandchildren. Services were held.
