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In Memoriam
On August 31, 2010, WePAC Board members and staff joined the family and friends of Thomas S. Stewart (June 30, 1938-August 25, 2010) at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church to celebrate Tom's long life. At a moving memorial service, some of Tom's oldest friends, children and a brother remembered him with stories about his childhood mischief, skills as a magician, world travel, and devotion to his wife Cindy and their three children. A former banker and Presbyterian Elder, Tom's vision of urban-suburban unity helped to create WePAC. He served as a Board member and Treasurer. Tom will be missed by the WePAC community. His commitment to the children of West Philadelphia will continue to encourage and motivate the work of the organization.
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In its recent report, EARLY WARNING! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters (May 18, 2010), the Annie E. Casey Foundation concluded that, “[T]he process of dropping out [of school] begins long before a child gets to high school.” The chances of a child graduating from high school can be predicted with reasonable certainty by knowing a student’s reading skill at the end of third grade, according to the National Research Council. Without sufficient literacy skills in the early school years, students fall behind grade levels, become frustrated with school, and fail to master the basic skills for educational success.
The risk is especially great for low-income and minority students. Eighty-three percent of students from low-income households failed to reach the “proficient” level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test in 2009. For low-income African-American students, the figure is an astounding 89%. The Casey Foundation study observes that, “[W]ithout a dramatic reversal of the status quo, we are cementing educational failure and poverty into the next generation.”
West Philadelphia children are especially at-risk. The West Region of the Philadelphia School District serves 16,000 students. At many schools, the entire student population is low-income. At the others, a large majority of the students are low-income. Median household income is below $20,000 per year, and more than one-third of adults do not have a high school diploma. More than 90% of the students in the region are African-American.
These students need and deserve our support. It is in everyone’s interest, but particularly the interest of the young students, that they develop their literacy skills. Reading, writing, and information skills are crucial as children enter adolescence, so that they can continue their education and enter adulthood with the tools to excel. As the schools continue to focus on reading and curricula, and teachers work with their individual classes in often heroic ways, budget, facilities, and staffing issues have left a void at many schools – the school library.
Only four of more than 20 elementary schools in the West Region have full-time librarians. Others either have no library at all or have a library room which is closed because there is no staff to maintain and run it. Through its innovative Open Books Open Minds school library initiative, the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (“WePAC”) is addressing this issue and bringing public school libraries to life.
During the 2009-10 school year, Open Books Open Minds opened four closed school libraries in West Philadelphia using trained community volunteers. At two other schools, WePAC provided volunteers who assisted school personnel in running the libraries. At yet another school, WePAC donated more than 4,000 books to a library with a very limited collection. All told, in its first year, Open Books Open Minds provided more than 2,050 elementary students with their first access to a school library. It also provided more than 1,050 students with increased access to a school library. In addition, Open Books Open Minds donated 25,000 books to the libraries and circulated 2,500 books per month to students.
WePAC’s focus on libraries and literacy stems from a large body of research. The Pennsylvania Department of Education, in a research study of 400 schools entitled, “Measuring Up to Standards: The Impact of School Library Programs & Information Literacy in Pennsylvania Schools,” concluded that: (1) reading scores tend to increase by 10-15 points when all school library predictors are maximized; (2) the size of a school library’s staff and collection is the best predictor of academic achievement; (3) and students who score higher on standardized tests come from schools with more school library staff and more books, periodicals, and videos, regardless of other factors. The National Council for Education Research has concluded that, “The extent to which books are borrowed from school libraries shows a strong relationship with reading achievement.”
The Open Books Open Minds concept and model are simple. WePAC works with school administration to identify schools which have no, or very limited, library services. Volunteers who are interested in working in a library receive orientation and submit to criminal and child abuse background checks. Volunteers commit to as few as two hours every other week or as much as an entire school day once a week. They then choose which school they would prefer to work in and join a team of volunteers who staff and operate the school library. Teachers bring their classes to the library on a scheduled basis, where volunteers read to younger children, help students with research, support the content being taught in the classroom, and help students select and check out books. The model is designed to engage students at a young age in reading and to foster a love of the written word.
As Open Books Open Minds’ first year comes to a close, the lessons learned guide its direction and growth. One-hundred percent of teachers surveyed described their students’ experience in the library as “very positive.” Ninety-six percent of teachers described the program as “very helpful” in improving their students’ literacy learning. The large majority of teachers wanted the library to be open for more hours and wanted to have their classes visit more frequently. Most importantly, 98% of students reported that they enjoyed going the library, and more than 90% stated that they would like to come to the library every week and that they found at least one book that they really liked. Nearly 40% of students said that the school library was the only library they visited.
As WePAC plans for the 2010-11 school year, feedback from students, teachers, and administrators guides the direction of Open Books Open Minds. Goals include opening the existing libraries for more than their current one or two days a week; identifying schools without libraries and bringing the program to those schools; upgrading information technology; and conducting literacy-rich after-school activities, such as school newspapers, books clubs, poetry contests, and reading challenges. By partnering with those who want to see these children succeed, we are advancing toward those goals. For example, WePAC this month secured a donation of 40 refurbished laptop computers to be used next fall in school libraries that do not have computers.
Open Books Open Minds is in a unique position to improve educational outcomes for thousands of children in West Philadelphia. With a core belief that that children, even those facing economic and social challenges, are eager to learn and will learn when provided with the opportunity, WePAC is addressing one piece of the educational puzzle. While Open Books Open Minds is working to increase the number of school libraries available to students through its volunteers, we firmly believe that all schools should employ a full-time, professional librarian. Until that happens, Open Books Open Minds will continue its literacy enrichment initiative by opening and staffing closed school libraries.