AT FAMILY LITERACY PAJAMA PARTY
400 Students, Parents, Recording Artist Yolanda Perez, and Others Join Celebration
Maywood, CA (June 8, 2009) – More than 400 students and their families attended the Family Literacy Night Event at Heliotrope Elementary School in Maywood. Students came to school dressed in their pajamas to listen to teachers and invited guests read their favorite stories. The invited guests included television and radio personalities as well as the surprise appearance of popular recording artist Yolanda Perez who joined students in Grades K-5 in the festivities. The event was an opportunity to celebrate the academic achievement of the students who worked hard to improve their API scores and have as a result surpassed expectations. Heliotrope’s student population is 98 percent Latino and 100% low-income.
With students from homes where Spanish is their first language, Principal Luis Camarena believes SRA/McGraw-Hill’s research-based approach of the Open Court Reading program has been instrumental in helping his students. “Heliotrope Elementary has relied on SRA’s Open Court Reading series since 2002 and we’ve found it to be very effective with our students,” added Camarena. “We are confident our students will continue to excel.”
Since the program’s implementation, Heliotrope has drastically improved its academic performance scores. California’s API measures academic performance with a state goal of 800. Heliotrope has improved its API from 389 in 1999, to 759 in 2008. Scores on the English Language portion of the CA Standards Test have also soared.
“We applaud Principal Camarena, his staff, his students, and their parents for proving that the achievement gap can be closed,” said Sharon Lane, vice president sales manager for SRA/McGraw-Hill. “The Family Literacy Night celebrated the partnership between educators, parents and the programs that support student achievement. Open Court Reading includes a variety of ways to involve parents in the learning process and extend learning into the home.”
Open Court Reading is a leading Pre-K–6 reading and language arts program published by SRA/McGraw-Hill. Developed from 45 years of intense study and field-testing, Open Court Reading incorporates sound teaching practices from scientific research. In the schools and districts where the program has been implemented, not only have students’ reading test scores increased, but teachers and principals also are seeing gains in student achievement overall.
SRA has recently introduced its latest in research-based reading and language arts programs: Imagine It! The California State Board of Education approved SRA/McGraw-Hill’s Imagine It! reading and language arts programs for Grades K–6 for the 2008 Reading/Language Arts–English-Language Development adoption list. For more information, visit SRAImagineItCA.com.
