The Literacy Programs of Save the Children: Results from the 2008-09 School Year

Since the 2003-04 school year, Save the Children, U.S. Programs, has supported programming designed to improve reading skills among struggling students in rural areas. The literacy program includes both afterschool and in-school interventions with small groups of children. These are implemented by well-trained paraprofessionals and are designed to provide a range of activities aimed at increasing literacy achievement. During the 2008-09 school year, Save the Children selected 118 sites in rural communities to implement its reading initiative. Twenty of the 118 sites continued to offer literacy programming begun in 2003-04 or 2004-05, fifty-one began operating during 2005-2006 or 2006-07, 19 during 2007-08, and 26 sites operated for the first time in 2008-09. Services at the 118 local sites included the delivery of integrated in-school and afterschool literacy activities for children in kindergarten through sixth grade. This paper presents the key findings from this analysis. A more detailed explanation of normal curve equivalent (NCE) scores is appended. (Contains 27 exhibits and 6 footnotes.) [This report was prepared for Save the Children, U.S. Programs.]