K12 Team

Ask any parent what they want for their child and they will likely say, "A good education".  Several studies have proved the linkage between educated parents and the educations attained by their children: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001126.pdf  ;  http://www.macalester.edu/educationreform/blicintellectualessay/Gratz.pdf

Did you know that in some Silicon Valley school districts over 30% public school students in K-8 are at or below the national poverty level (which is correlated to being on reduced or free lunches)?

Did you know that in those same school districts that over 30% of the students are also English language learners? 

Did you know that here in Silicon Valley that many of the parents haven’t graduated high school and many haven’t graduated middle school?

How do we change this?  By giving children more access to an educated team around them.  K12 TEAM is that team.

What do we do first?

K12 Team is focused on early literacy because it is the key to staying on a college track in grades K-12.  Studies also have linked reading proficiently by the end of 3rd grade to the likelihood of graduating high school.  http://www.aecf.org/resources/double-jeopardy/

There is hope.  

For the last 3 school years (2012-13 to 2014-15), K12 Team has been providing additional, explicit reading instruction.  30 students started with us in the 1st year; adding another 40 in the 2nd year and currently have over 70 continuing elementary students.  We’ve taught over 90 since we began.  Starting in the 2nd year, our ELL students began to reclassify as fluent readers.  

To put this in perspective, it is important to know that learning to speak is a natural part of development.  However, learning to read and write requires instruction for almost all children.  And it still takes an average of 2 years to be proficient, even when raised speaking English.  

Our students are becoming proficient and reclassifying to “english fluent”.  This means they are reading, writing and speaking at grade level.  Our parents are so excited that we keep filling up our rooms, word of mouth brings us new students, and the parents are bringing the younger siblings!

We train tutors to teach small groups of students.  The students come twice a week for 2 hours each session.  Our students have had amazing progress!  We are working on accumulating meaningful data.  This will take time because it still takes an average student 2 years to learn to read!  

We are providing classes at Mariano Castro Elementary School, the Mountain View Community Center, and at 2 other locations.  

We need your help so that we can train more tutors and provide more classes to eager students.