In the Trenton Public School System, fewer than 12% of students are reading at grade-level proficiency compared to their peers across the state.
Mercer Street Friends, a nonprofit organization that works in collaboration with social and human service organizations, is working to change that.
Recently, it celebrated the reading achievements of 125 students in the Trenton School District, who participated in the Reading Intervention Program that is part of Mercer Street Friends’ nationally recognized Community Schools Initiative.
As part of the Reading Intervention program, dedicated educators meet with small groups of students four times per week for 30 minutes to concentrate on phonetics, reading comprehension, inferencing, predicting, character traits and other reading skills. As students mature in their skills, the program focuses on cause and effect, sequencing and higher order thinking questions for comprehension.
Students from the Reading Intervention Program at Luis Muñoz-Rivera and Benjamin C. Gregory Elementary Schools marked a successful school year of reading progress and academic growth, demonstrating their reading abilities in front of family members, friends and supporters, before receiving certificates of achievement.
Mercer Street Friends CEO Bernie Flynn highlighted the academic growth of students.
“The most rewarding aspect of the Reading Intervention Program is seeing it open doors for students as their literacy skills grow,” Flynn said. “Empowering students to take ownership of their educational journeys is a source of great pride for all of us at Mercer Street Friends.”
