Plans are in the works to get a growing early literacy program to come to Columbus this summer. The effort is part of an early childhood literacy initiative being organized by Mayor Keith Gaskin.
During his press conference Wednesday, the mayor announced he is forming the Mayor’s Coalition for Early Childhood Development, which looks to work with both local and state agencies to help build childhood literacy efforts.
The program will work alongside existing efforts, such as the ongoing Excel By 5 certification process, which is a community certification group that works to prepare Mississippi children from birth to age 5 for success in education.
Gaskin said he contacted Mission Acceleration and began the effort to bring them to Columbus as an early step in starting his own initiative.
Mission Acceleration, is a program housed at the Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction at the University of Mississippi. It is planning to hold summer camps for Columbus students struggling with reading.
Mission Acceleration is a high-impact tutoring model funded by the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, established with federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding, said Mission Acceleration Program Director Ashley Sheils.
“We’re looking to help students in kindergarten through fifth grade who have experienced significant academic loss or who have lost instructional time due to COVID-19,” she said.
Sheils said the loss in literacy skills, especially for students who were already struggling, is stark.
“Struggling students, students from underserved populations, students of color, students from poverty, students where English is not their first language, they have all seen substantial loss,” she said. “There is data to support that many students lost six to eight months of reading growth over the first year of the pandemic especially.”
Students who don’t participate in summer programming, especially if they are already disadvantaged in other ways, can experience the “summer slide,” losing as much as three months’ worth of literacy skills, she said.
Mission Acceleration is trying to turn that around with high-intensity reading instruction over the summer.
“We need at least 30 minutes (of tutoring) three times a week,” she said. “This summer we are looking for 30 hours of tutoring over the course of about seven weeks, which will come to 60 to 75-minute sessions three to four days per week.”
The results are dramatic, she said.
“On average we see about four months of growth in as little as six weeks,” she said. “That’s exciting for students who are struggling or who have been stagnant.”
The program is working to attract college students to work as “academic guides” for the participating children, she said.
“We’re looking to recruit the best and the brightest,” she said. “They must have a minimum 3.25 GPA and be enrolled at a Mississippi college or university. We will train them and do all of the things to get them ready.”
Each guide will tutor small groups of three or four students each, she said.
“Students will work with the same guide all summer to get the social and emotional connection, but also so they can individualize to the students’ needs instead of a one-size-fits-all approach,” she said.
Academic guides can come from any major as long as they meet the other requirements, she said.
Mission Acceleration has already reached out to Mississippi University for Women and Mississippi State University for guides for the summer, as well as students at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, she said. Rising college freshmen can serve as long as they meet the requirements.
Anyone interested in participating, or who wants information about enrolling their child, can visit www.msmissionacceleration.org or email [email protected]. Information is also being pushed out in the city school district, she said.
Gaskin said the program will be housed at the old Boy Scout hut at the Hitching Lot Farmers’ Market and will begin June 1. The specific times of day have yet to be determined.
“Many issues we face in Columbus and across the country stem from lack of education,” Gaskin said. “Poverty, crime, all the serious things we face, you can trace back to the lack of education. There is no reason why we should not be at the top of our game in public education.”
Preliminary stages of collaboration
Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Cherie Labat said she welcomed the program, and the mayor’s efforts to build childhood literacy.
“When a community recognizes and prioritizes the importance of literacy, our future is bright,” Labat said. “This initiative shows the depth of focus on students and education by Mayor Gaskin. He has always championed education because he understands that this community must invest in its youth. He understands that the city of Columbus thrives when students are prepared for their choice of being college, career or enlistment prepared.”
Community member Julie Parker is collaborating with Gaskin on his planned education coalition.
“We’re in the very preliminary stages of all this, and we’ve still got a lot of work to do pulling people together,” she said. “(Gaskin) recognizes the impact that quality early literacy programming has, especially for children of families who are low-resourced, where parents are trying very hard to provide for their children but don’t have the financial capability for early care or enhancements for their learning trajectory.”
Parker said the coalition is working to build relationships with MUW, the CMSD, the Lowndes County School District and the Mississippi State Department of Health, among others.
“Spending resources to start (early literacy) projects in the city will provide opportunities to partner with families to help their children grow,” she said. “We have met with state agencies that will potentially fund us, but we are still in negotiation.”
Penny Mansell, director of the Child and Parent Development Center at MUW and certification coordinator for the local Excel by 5 program, said that her team had been in contact with Gaskin about working together but nothing concrete was in place yet.
“We are very much working to try to find some cohesive projects,” she said. “We want to get together and work as one team so holes can be plugged and we’re not working in silos. You need everybody at the table.”
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