Partnering with faith-based institutions to increase literacy among low-income students

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Abstract

In Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods, faith-based institutions, supplied with funding, pedagogy, and training from Public/Private Ventures (P/PV), promote literacy while enhancing their ability to use effective methods that deliver measurable outcomes. Although local institutions have previously provided such useful services as homework help or supervised after school "safe havens," launching Youth Education for Tomorrow (YET) Centers meant moving from a caretaking role to a developmental one that has yielded substantial outcomes. This effective practice describes the YET model of literacy and provides a link to an in-depth analysis of the program. Excerpted from the February 2002 report, Mustering the Armies of Compassion in Philadelphia: An Analysis of One Year of Literacy Programming in Faith-Based Institutions.

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Issue

Effectively delivering literacy services based on proven practices to youth in low-income communities.

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Action

Youth Education for Tomorrow (YET) is a motivational program, whose components are secular and research-based, that encourages students to participate in class, and to understand the connection between reading, speaking, writing, and the events of the world around them. The target population is students three years or less behind their grade level, and the goal is to bring them up to grade level. The following effective practices are used in the program and are excerpted from the report, Mustering the Armies of Compassion in Philadelphia: An Analysis of One Year of Literacy Programming in Faith-Based Institutions.

  • YET Centers operate in churches and other faith-based institutions throughout Philadelphia, and receive management assistance from Public/Private Ventures (P/PV). Sites provide the space, the students, and the volunteers, and handle the paperwork. P/PV provides the funding, pedagogy, and the training for all involved staff.
  • Classes are held after school for 90 minutes, four days a week, throughout the school year (or the summer for summer programs).
  • Students and a teacher engage in four basic activities in each class; an oral language/vocabulary activity (talking about words and ideas in the context of current events, holidays, issues in the news, or other things of interest to students); the teacher reading aloud to students (so students hear what good reading sounds like); student reading; and writing (so they learn that writing is "thinking on paper.").
  • Teachers must be professionally qualified and are paid out of the sites' YET Center budgets. They are approved by P/PV and assisted by unpaid volunteers brought in by the site.
  • Volunteers (recruited by the site and trained by P/PV) assist teachers, listen to students read, read aloud to students, and help in other program areas.
  • Take-home materials supplement classroom reading. Students at the elementary level use reading books of increasing levels of difficulty at their independent reading levels. Students are coached by teachers and volunteers using strategies that make clear what they are expected to do at each skill level. Sites teaching older students use age-appropriate books and reading materials that focus on current events.
  • Students are tested for reading levels at entry, midway through the year and at the end of the year. Each student is tested individually using standardized instruments that provide teachers with students' independent reading levels.
  • Although sites are faith-based, reading materials are deliberately secular.
  • Other essentials of the program include: a clearly posted daily schedule, displays of student work, and a "word wall" on which students can see high frequency words.
  • YET sites are asked to make sure that their students have access to library cards and access to books in class.
  • YET sites are required to assist P/PV's efforts to gather data on students and their families, through interviews with students' parents and teachers.

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Context

In March 2000, a group of faith-based schools, churches and community organizations in Philadelphia was trained to operate an innovative, best-practices-based literacy program developed by Public/Private Ventures (P/PV). P/PV was awarded The Community Serving Ministries (CSM) grant by the Pew Charitable Trusts for their work, with a promise of funding for seven years. The CSM project was developed with significant input from John J. Dilulio, Jr., the University of Pennsylvania professor who was appointed Assistant to the President and head of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (2001). The literacy project was named Youth Education for Tomorrow (YET) and is a literacy model that complements in school reading instruction. Between June and October 2000, P/PV launched YET centers in 21 different faith-based institutions and enrolled a total of about 885 youth through 7 summer and 23 school-year programs.

Founded in 1978, Public/Private Ventures is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the effectiveness of social policies, programs and community initiatives, especially as they affect youth and young adults. In carrying out this mission, P/PV works with philanthropies, the public and business sectors, and nonprofit organizations.

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Citation

Hangley, Bill Jr. and Wendy S. McClanahan. Mustering the Armies of Compassion in Philadelphia: An Analysis of One Year of Literacy Programming in Faith-Based Institutions. Public/Private Ventures, February 2002.

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Outcome

According to the authors of the report, Mustering the Armies of Compassion in Philadelphia: An Analysis of One Year of Literacy Programming in Faith-Based Institutions, the effectiveness of YET Centers can be measured using four categories of data: recruitment, retention, requirements and results. Performance and results varied from site to site, in part because influences at home and at school affect the lives of students. However, in general:

  • Sites were able to recruit significant numbers of students. All but five sites met or exceeded their recruitment goals.
  • Retention was uneven. Sites' ability to retain students varied widely, with some sites showing more than three-quarters of their students attending 60 classes or more, and others less than a quarter. Overall, less than half the students recruited attended 60 classes or more (enough classes to have a significant impact on reading).
  • With P/PV's active assistance, every site was able to implement the basics of the YET Center model, and the data suggest that the more effectively sites implemented the model, the more their students improved. However, sites' ability to implement the program consistently and in detail varied, with each site displaying different strengths and weaknesses in different areas of the program.
  • Students who consistently attended YET Centers usually improved as readers. Among those that attended long enough to be tested twice, elementary school students averaged a gain of more than a grade level between their first and second tests (at least 90 days apart); older students averaged a gain of more than 1.5 grade levels.
  • Students' progress as readers quickly translated to progress in other areas. Students who had participated in the program demonstrated improved social skills, self-esteem, classroom behavior, focus and self-confidence.

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Posted On

October 15, 2002

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For More Information

Public/Private Ventures
Philadelphia Office
2000 Market Street, Suite 600
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: (215) 557-4400
Fax: (215) 557 4469

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