Over 3,000 volunteers attended a Detroit Public Schools Reading Corps rally and orientation at Renaissance High School.  (Photo by HB Meeks/Tell Us Detroit)

Thousands of metro Detroiters turn out as DPS Reading Corps gets under way

By Karen H. Samuels/Tell Us Detroit

DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - Balloons, music and Detroit public school staff greeted Reading Corp volunteers, who by the thousands streamed into the gymnasium of Renaissance High School Saturday morning to become what Robert Bobb called “Champions for Children”. First Lady Yvette Bing, Council President Charles Pugh and Keith Johnson, President of the Detroit Federation of Teachers all took the stage to rally the Corps in a well organized session of learning and inspiration. If the message is in the music, the assembled volunteers heard it loud and clear from young DPS students performing musical selections that included, “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Things Are Happing” by the DPS I’m in Singers”.

"We need to make it happen," Bobb told the volunteers during the rally. "Together we can make it happen for every child."

Paul Anger, Vice President and Editor of the Detroit Free Press reached out to Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb to offer support following reports of DPS poor performance on a nationally standardized test. The beginnings of the Reading Corp emerged as the paper moved from reporting the news, to helping solve the problem.

From West Bloomfield to Harper Woods to Ypsilanti, volunteers hail from across Detroit and the metro area, including 138 municipalities and jurisdictions. Financial Manager Bobb said people from Ohio, and as far away as Coral Gables, Florida answered the Call to Action. In all 3,639 citizens pledged to become part of the Reading Corp, their commitment translates into 434,187 hours of time spent with Pre-K Kindergarten children coaching them to read.


Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager for the district, called the volunteers champions for children. Bobb said, "All of you are part of the solution." (Photo by HB Meeks/Tell Us Detroit)

The unprecedented call for volunteerism by DPS and its Detroit Free Press partner has an ambitious goal, to have every child in DPS reading at grade level or above by 2015. The goal Robert Bobb explained reminded him of President John F. Kennedy’s call to the nation given in 1962 to land on the moon. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard...” And in completing the message of that speech, Bobb said “We are unwilling to postpone for one day getting our students to read”.

The consequences of not being literate are sobering, students are held back, fall behind and by ninth grade start to become socially promoted; they are ill prepared for the workforce and often are classified as special ed. Robert Bobb said in the case of African American males, this labeling as is too often the result of illiteracy and not due to cognitive limitations.

Bobb said studies have shown that kids who do not do well in school commit crimes at a higher rate than those who do. "We haven't made the investment on the front end, we make it on the back end," Bobb said of the government's funding for schools compared to jails and prisons.

To reverse course Bobb says it’s time to operationalize the promise to help children, he said “Failure is not an option”.

Reading Corp Orientation
Volunteers were given a packet of teaching materials and tips during their hour long orientation session. The time was well spent explaining how the 30 minute coaching sessions will work, going over teaching points, lessons tips and even role plays to demonstrate how to interact with the children.


FILE - Chrysler Elementary School Students in Detroit prepare to go out doors after a full day of class. Dr. Robert Bobb, Emergency Financial Manager who said, the abysmal NAEP scores are not the fault of children . (Photo by HB Meeks/Tell Us Detroit)

There are 90 schools with Pre-K programs and volunteers signed forms identifying their preferences. In addition, forms agreeing to background checks were completed to ensure student protection. A commitment to volunteer for at least one year was requested, and ideally the Corps will stay with their charges through the third grade. This reporter made that pledge and commitment and will continue to report, from time to time, on the efforts of the Reading Corp.

All volunteers, who hailed from all around Metro Detroit, had to submit to criminal background checks and fingerprinting in order to lend a hand.


"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." — Frederick Douglass


 

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