A new charter school in Rochester is working to improve literacy skills in an effort to prevent students from dropping out. The Young Women’s College Prep Charter School places a special emphasis on literacy in its curriculum.
Laura Rebell-Gross is the Co-Founder and President of the all-girls charter. She says the most recent statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics show only 24% of students in the United States perform at a proficient rate in reading, math and science literacy.
"Those statistics are testing 8th grade students," Rebell-Gross said. "So our goal is catch the students before we lose them," said Rebell-Gross.
She says every teacher at the school is considered to be a teacher of writing. Rebell-Gross adds students spend about 3 hours a day in literacy courses - including a writing class separate from English Language Arts.
"And that has rotating instructors each day with a 5-to-1 teacher student ratio," said Rebell-Gross. "So our students are writing in every class. They're having a specific writing class every day, and English and Social Studies class every day. They also have advisory which is a separate class which has an 8-to-1 teacher-student ratio," said Rebell-Gross.
She says in the advisory class students learn about non-academic topics including school organization, college preparation and health and wellness.
The Young Women’s College Prep Charter School is being featured on CNN Thursday, September 27, 2012, for its literacy program. The story is part of Anderson Cooper 360's "What Keeps You Up at Night" pre-election coverage.