Reading for the Stars

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

In the spring of 2010, former county Supervisor Fulton Brock attended a National Conference where he was shocked to hear that some states use the reading scores of third and fourth grade students to project future prison populations. Motivated by that disturbing information, Supervisor Brock asked Dr. Don Covey, Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools, to create and implement an initiative to prevent school-age children from becoming a statistic in the judicial system. Supervisor Brock and Dr. Covey called upon members of the business, education and sports communities to rally in support of schools in some of Maricopa County’s highest juvenile crime areas. Their collective mission was to create a support system to intervene and change the trajectory that would place too many students on the path to delinquency and incarceration. MCESA's initiative, Reading for the Stars, empowers fourth-through sixth- graders with the competence and confidence to succeed. The program goals are to increase student achievement, increase students’ belief in themselves, and reduce factors that lead to future delinquency. Reading for the Stars provides a replicable framework that promotes reading achievement and positive youth-development, moving students from being “at risk” to “at hope” so they will succeed in school and life.