11/3/2008


AFTER SCHOOL TUTORING IN READING HELPS MIGRANT CHILDREN TAKE A STEP UP

By David Mekeel
Reading Eagle


As the new girl in town, Siris Duran, 13, felt lost three years ago when her family moved to Reading from the Dominican Republic.

A seventh-grader who barely spoke English, she struggled to keep up. In fact, she often was terrified sitting at her desk in class.

"It's scary because everybody is talking, and I don't know what they're talking about," she said.

She didn't do well in school, especially on the annual Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, known as the PSSAs.

Then she found a place to go for help.

Duran started going to St. Luke's Lutheran Church in the 900 block of North Ninth Street after school three days a week for a program to help migrant students with reading, math and English.

In its third year, the program is a joint effort of the Reading School District and Berks County Migrant Education Program.

For Duran, the extra academic attention has made a huge difference.

"I think that it is very helpful for everybody," she said. "It has really helped me a lot. I'm doing much better now."

The program, held from 3:45 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, serves as many as 30 middle and high school students. It runs from October until mid-May on a budget of about $15,000, funded mainly through the state Educational Assistance Program.

Sergio Mery, Berks County migrant education coordinator, said most of the students who walk through St. Luke's doors looking for help have found themselves in the same unsettling circumstances as Duran.

Moving frequently as their parents follow job opportunities, they are seldom in one place long enough to get comfortable.

"When you come to a new country, you don't know the culture, you don't know the place, you don't know the language, you don't know your peers," he said. "Everything is new for them."

He said the migrant after-school program is a refuge for those students - a place where they can find the extra help they desperately need to catch up without feeling embarrassed or scared.

"It gives the kids an opportunity to raise their scores, to know more English, to be with other kids who have the needs and problems they have," Mery said.

Despite the nature of their parents' jobs, Mery said, the program is able to retain about 85 percent of its students. Berks County's migrant population is fairly stable and many migrants stay in the area for as long as a year at a time, he explained.

Students are eligible for the program if they are involved with the Migrant Education Program and have tested basic or below basic on the math and reading PSSA tests. The program is free and optional for the students.

Students are broken into three groups, split up by how well they speak English, Mery said. Each group spends 45 minutes a day getting lessons in reading, math and English. Three Reading School District teachers lead the classes.

With a student-teacher ratio of 10-to-1 - not including Mery and a teaching assistant - the program is able to offer a personal touch that the school district doesn't have the resources to match.

Jodie Madueno, director of the Educational Assistance Program for the district, said the program has been successful.

"What we're looking for is growth, and we have seen that so far," she said. "We'll see during PSSA time if the students are making gains."

•Contact reporter David Mekeel at 610- 371-5014 or dmekeel@readingeagle.com.

http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=112377