America Reads & Counts

Introduction

The Associated Students Community Affairs Board and local school districts work together to implement UCSB’s response to the national America Reads America Counts challenge. America Reads America Counts (AR/AC) is funded through Federal Work Study and trains 35 UCSB students to be tutors in elementary schools. Each tutor is expected to encourage students in the subject areas of Reading and Mathematics, and support children in their school development. Tutors work directly with kindergarten through sixth grade students to improve their reading and math proficiency skills. Tutors perform one-on-one work with individual students, do group work, or class activities. In 2016/17, AR/AC provided services in classrooms and after school programs at Isla Vista Elementary, El Camino Elementary, Harding Elementary, and Adelante Charter School.

In March of 2017, the USC Readers Plus program with the Joint Education Project at the University of Southern California, gathered America Reads and America Counts programs from throughout Southern California.  ARAC programs were invited to USC for a one day symposium to share ideas, and best practices.  Undergraduate tutors, current and former program administrators, financial aid representatives, and expert researchers shared information via panels, and facilitated breakout sessions. Discussions covered topics ranging from training, recruitment, and service learning. Panels reviewed the historical program structure of ARAC, funding, and student tutor experiences. In the future, they hope to share best practices and trainings with ARAC networks nationwide.

USC Readers Plus and the Joint Education Project conference participants

Symposium participants currently facilitating the America Reads America Counts Program in Southern California included:

Azuza Pacific University

CSU Dominguez Hills

CSU Fresno

CSU Fullerton

CSU Los Angeles 

UC Irvine

UC Los Angeles

UC San Diego

UC Santa Barbara

San Diego State University

University of Redlands

University of Southern California

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