Rapides Parish Schools Bring Literacy Buses to Improve Student Reading Levels
The Rapides Parish School District is rolling out a unique way to help improve literacy rates amongst students.
To push their literacy program, three school buses will be transformed into mobile literacy labs.
Rapides Parish School Board Superintendent Jeff Powell says only 43 percent of the students perform Mastery or advanced on the 3rd grade LEAP test in the English Language Arts.
Jeff Powell says these units will travel across Rapides Parish to generate excitement and interest in reading.
“We all have to come to an understanding that literacy is work force issue, it’s a health issue, it’s a safety and security issue, it’s a community wide issue.”
According to recent LEAP test scores, 57% of the students leaving 3rd grade are not prepared for success. Teachers are pulling together to increase the literacy rate by making reading fun for students.
Teacher for Educators Rising Club Teri Mayeux says she is proud to be a part of the Reading Revival Camps.
“I feel like it not only helps brain development, but it also helps create imagination and creativity and furthers possibilities down the road.”
The labs will be equipped with resources to help parents foster their children’s love of reading.
Teri Mayeux says, “I will actually take my Ed Rising students and they’ll be able to read to the younger kids throughout the process and also allow the younger kids to read to them and then we’ll have a chance to meet with the parents and help them understand the importance of reading at an earlier age.”
Maegan Schropper is passionate about helping students reach high reading levels.
“If you don’t know how to read, then the world is closed to you. But whenever you do know how to read, the world opens up new possibilities and new endeavors that you are able to engulf yourself in because you know how to read.”
Maegan Shropper says the literacy buses will bring reading to life for students.
“What better way to push this initiative, then to take our students that are wanting to be teachers as well as our teachers that are invested in creating the future teacher workforce and bringing them together and learning how to read together because whenever it is a community effort, we’re able to see even more growth.”
The Rapides Parish School System is committed to engaging families within their own communities to ensure their children have successful futures.
A reading revival tour will start in the fall and the Rapides Parish School Board will announce when and where the buses will be located.
