By The Numbers

42: Program participants

8: Current board members

109: Books given to program participants before Winter Break

3.54: The highest GPA achieved by a Reach tutor

57: Additional hours of instruction provided to our tutors

28: Additional hours of instruction provided to our students

$32,500: Largest contribution

7: Contributions of $5,000 or more

2: Law firms that held "Jeans Day" to benefit Reach

1: Current program site

53,225: Dollars pledged for 2011

4: Program Instructors

1,437,049: Lessons learned *

194: Donors during 2010

60: Percent of grant proposals that were funded

400: Books in Reach's library

3: Fundraising events

2: Volunteers that help with instruction

157,648.28: Dollars raised in 2010

Thank you all for making it such a great year!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

* This number is an estimate.

Reach Welcomes Two New Board Members!

Reach is excited to announce the addition of two new members of the organization's Board of Directors: Crystal Moore and Dianne Samuelson.

Currently, Crystal Moore is a ProInspire fellow at DC Public Schools. ProInspire is an organization that helps develop, "the next generation of leaders for the nonprofit sector and [helps] organizations effectively achieve their missions." Crystal's bio from the ProInspire website follows:

Crystal Moore is an Inspire Fellow at the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). As a Business Analyst in the Office of Secondary School Transformation, she conducts analysis necessary to make data-driven decisions that forward the districts’ reform efforts of becoming the preeminent urban school system in America. Crystal is responsible for analyzing the key drivers of secondary school performance, enhancing performance management, the project management for test administration, and managing strategic initiatives. Crystal started her career as a Corporate Finance analyst with Accenture in Washington, DC. There she worked in the Health and Public Service Operating Group managing, consulting, and outsourcing contracts and business units for public sector clients. Crystal graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration-Finance from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2007; where she served as Student Body President and was the recipient of the Saint Katharine Drexel Award, the University's highest student honor. She has been a passionate volunteer and member of several non-profit organizations throughout her career, including College Summit, Junior League of Northern Virginia, and Greater DC Cares. Additionally, she currently serves on Xavier University Young Alumni Board.

Dianne Samuelson is the founder of Samuelson Educational Consulting, a senior researcher at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and a founding member of the Disability Resources Advisory Board for the Center for Advanced Learning at Washington University in St. Louis. Before she entered the field of education, she held senior level positions in the management consulting industry with such firms as Booz, Allen & Hamilton and The Analytic Science Corporation.

In Dianne's current consulting work, she assists students and their families in navigating the educational system by translating the students' educational assessments and academic history into an integrated plan to address student needs. In her role as a researcher at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, Dianne is a Co-author of a grant proposal which was awarded funding through Harvard Medical School’s Milton Fund. The research study is investigating the effect of technology on writing behaviors and performance. She is a graduate of Virginia Tech and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Reach is very excited about these two new additions to our board, and we look forward to working with them toward Reach's continue growth and progress!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

My Best Reach Moment...

On the last day before break, our students were asked, "What's been your best Reach moment so far?" Below, enjoy some of their answers:

"My best Reach moment was when my student Qur-An learned how to read a book. It made me feel good inside." - Destiny

My best Reach moment was..."when Willis came and he wanted to learn - it made me feel good about my job." - Jonathan

"My best Reach moment was when I first met my student and we took a picture together. It made me feel like a real teacher, because I never got a chance to work with little kids before." - Crystal

My best Reach moment was..."When I was teaching Aaron how to spell. It made me feel accomplished." - Romello

"My best Reach moment was when I found out that my first student improved in her reading. It made me feel that I was doing a good job." - Joyce

"My best Reach moment was when Kamari read a book without me helping. It made me feel good that I taught her something." - Eriq

"My best Reach moment was when I was able to give Taylor her books [through 'Books For Break'], because it made me feel closer to her...When she looked me in the eye and said, 'thanks,' I felt different. She was happy and that made me happy." - Chynna

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

A Month Late

We're told to give thanks at Thanksgiving. I mean, it's in the name, so it does make sense. However, I tend to take time to reflect as the year comes to an end. When schools empty, I'm able to take a few moments to think about our 2010 accomplishments. It is during these reflective moments that I become most aware of our need to give thanks. Before the end of the year, I'll use this space to talk about our goals for the future and highlight some 2010 accomplishments. For today, we give thanks:

• During 2010, we have raised over $150,000 from over 200 wonderful supporters.
• We currently have the wonderful honor of serving 45 students at Hyde Leadership Public Charter School.
• We are in the financial position to explore expansion opportunities for the fall of 2011. Additionally, we have been named an approved after-school provider, so we have the flexibility to explore opportunities in both public and public charter schools within the District of Columbia.
• When we ask our tutors about their best Reach moment, we get to read this: "My best Reach moment was when I got to give [my student] her books [from Books For Break]...it made me feel like our bond grew stronger. I felt connected to her. When she looked me in my eye and said thank you, I felt different...like she was happy and that made me happy."
• A few Wednesdays ago, while leaving Hyde Leadership, we got to hear Bilal say, "Mr. Mark, I'm excited 'cause tomorrow we have tutoring!"

More than anything, we can be thankful that we're going to get bigger and stronger and better. This is only the beginning.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

A White Christmas

I got to live out a dream this week - shopping at a bookstore with an (almost) unlimited budget. If I could have a shopping spree anywhere, it would, without doubt, be at a book store. This week, I got to have some fun!

Today, each of our elementary school students received three books. These level-appropriate books will, we hope, keep our students reading during Winter Break. Shopping for the books, however, was not entirely easy. The title of today's blog is intentional: so few of the available children's books feature characters of color. Though this has improved, to some degree, during recent years, there is still very little children's literature available that represents the cultural reality of Reach's students.

Improvements have been made, yes. There are now books about children in Africa and Mexico and China and even Indian Reservations in Oklahoma; however, few characters have lives similar to my kids.

Today, it seems that many authors have chosen to make main characters ethnically ambiguous (for example, the Wimpy Kid is a stick figure). While this may avoid accusations of overt trends, it does little to actually address the issues faced by our students. Even when characters are ethnically ambiguous, they live in nice houses with nice yards and both parents and comfortable beds in safe neighborhoods. This is not the experience of my children.

This is not to say things aren't improving. I was able to give many children books by Ezra Jack Keats - an author that tries to depict real scenes of inner city life. And, without doubt, there is a universality to the experience of children - it's why some of them fall in love with the Wimpy Kid or Captain Underpants. But, there's a long way to go. One day, perhaps Reach's tutors - who now notice these things - will be the ones that write the stories that the next generation will read.

One day, maybe Christmas won't have to be quite so white.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Waves

Yesterday, we sent our December Update to Reach's mailing list. Many of our loyal supporters sent congratulatory notes; they were so pleased to hear all our good news. Our donors were happy, everyone was pleased with our progress, and I was really proud to be able to share such good news.

Everything seemed to be going so well. Then...

On Thursdays, I usually have three teachers assisting with program implementation. Today, for various reasons, all of them were absent. In addition, we had two - count them, two! - fights between boisterous elementary school students. Bad days happen, but handling them alone is difficult.

Today was the first time I left Hyde Leadership with an aching head. It was a strong reminder of the journey that remains. Today made it feel like the entire program was held together with scotch tape and rubber cement, like an elementary school arts and crafts project.

Despite all these difficulties, there is always a silver lining. DaJohn learned deescalation techniques - and implemented them well - while working with one of the fighting students. Binetou effectively lined up our elementary school students and walked them out to their waiting parents. And, for the most part, our tutors and students ignored the distractions and continued working hard.

Perhaps the universe felt that yesterday's update was too positive. Lesson learned.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Books For Break

Tony has helped Bilal dramatically improve his reading fluency. Destiny's student Qur-An recently read her very first book. Eriq has worked with Kamari to develop more advanced text comprehension skills. Though it seems that our work just started, we are already seeing tremendous advances in the reading skills of our students at Hyde Leadership!

Despite all the progress made to this point, a significant concern looms on the horizon. Studies show that learning loss occurs during school breaks, and this loss is particularly bad for those students who do not have access to books at home. We can, however, combat this learning loss by providing our students with high-interest books to take home during Winter Break.

With your help, we can provide each of our students with 2-3 books and an activity workbook for use during the Winter Break. Please help us to make the holiday season both relaxing and productive for all of Reach's students!

Click Here to Support Books For Break!

Challenged By Success

During Reach's planning year, there came a point when I knew that planning for possibilities had become futile. We had done all the learning we could do in the abstract, and we needed to launch programming to learn through our experiences. This week brought another unexpected challenge, but one that we will undoubtedly learn from.

Two of our third grade students recently left the program. One day, they came in and told me that they would be attending a different after-school program. Due to their teacher's illness and the Thanksgiving holiday, I didn't get an explanation of this decision for a number of weeks. The explanation: the two girls had improved so quickly that they had become more appropriate for some of the school's other offerings.

Both girls entered the program with very low reading abilities. Despite other concerns, their teacher felt that basic literacy remediation was the most pressing need. The girls were not yet in a place to benefit from one of the school's other tutoring programs, one that focuses on reading comprehension and testing strategies. By November, that had changed. Their basic literacy skills had improved so dramatically that targeted instruction in comprehension and testing strategies was now appropriate.

My response to this news is two-fold. It's fantastic that our intervention is creating such dramatic improvements in basic literacy skills like decoding and fluency. However, I believe we could have continued to help those students by developing the higher-level comprehension skills as well. Sadly, we were never given that chance. As Reach grows, I have no doubt that we'll show our ability to move with the changing needs of our students. Our ability to be successful with our students will lead to increased confidence in our efforts. A day will come when we will no longer lose students due to our success.

When I explained this transition, and the explanation, to the tutors that had been working with these two girls, they were surprised. While they were pleased to hear that this transition occurred due to their success, they were also frustrated by what could have been. When I told Joyce, one of the tutors, that the girls were seeking targeted instruction in more advanced skills, her response was simple: "We could have done that."

She's right. One day, we'll have the opportunity to prove it.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark