Literacy Gaps Reduced in Half a Year

Students enrolled in Bayside’s Academic Club, an after-school literacy support program, show promising signs of reducing and eliminating literacy gaps. On average, students new to our program began the school year reading 1 to 2.73 years behind grade level. By the middle of the school year, these same students have reduced their literacy gaps by an average of 11%.

Initial reading level gaps among new students.

New student progress after 90 days of enrollment in the Academic Club.

Former students returning to our program for a second or third year demonstrated similar results. In the beginning of the school year, returning students were anywhere from .84 to 1.93 years behind the expected reading level for their grade. While a few of our returning students were reading at or slightly above their grade level, they still wanted to improve their reading abilities. Now, after more than 90 days of instruction by our Academic Club team, students who returned to our program have continued to reduce their literacy gaps by an average 47%.

Initial reading level gaps among returning students.

Reading level gaps among returning students after 90 days of Academic Club instruction.

Program founder, Adam Osorio, attributes the success to, “understanding the support and instruction that each of our students need. Using a student-centered, data-driven model is essential for our team to help close the literacy gaps.”

Another factor contributing to the rapid progress Academic Club students demonstrate is the supportive network of parents, family, teachers, and school site staff. Our team works to bring all of these key players together in understanding and providing for our students needs during every part of their day and week.

“Building a strong connection with the students, their families, and school site staff which allows our team unique opportunities to fill student needs in a well rounded way. Without the frequent and fluid communication we wouldn’t know what our students really need in order to be successful in the classroom,” comments Program Coordinator, Nina Aguele.

She adds, “Our students are hard working and determined. But, unfortunately, we know that those qualities alone are not enough to succeed. Family support it massively important to student progress and we’re thankful for the participation and support we’ve seen from parents this year. We are also very thankful for the generous support of our school site parters at Kit Carson, Linda Vista, and Encanto Elementary this year.”

We are so proud of the hard work and efforts our students, their families, and our school partners have made to support academic achievement. And we look forward to even more progress to come in the second half of the 2021-22 school year. It is our hope that our student-centered, data-driven program will continue to be a fun and effective way to empower students and improve the quality of life for many more students in the coming years.