Over the past ten years, just shy of 10,000 New Americans have resettled in Onondaga County. Often not native English speakers, these individuals commonly experience discrimination and other hardships due to a language gap. A new program recently brought to Syracuse by the Adult Education Roundtable (AER)* is working to ease this burden through a fun introduction to English-as-a-New-Language (ENL)
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Can you tell the difference between pure and table maple syrup? That’s the question Agricultural Subject Educator, Tess Southern, posed to a fourth-grade classroom one morning at DeRuyter Central. For many students in the room, it was the perfect time to take a break from multiplication and indulge in the sugary substance. Tiny hands shoot up to the ceiling and
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When the school year ends, children in high-poverty environments often lose the opportunity to benefit from healthy food and safe places to spend their days. And their social and economic situations often provide few occasions where they can continue their learning. The cumulative effect is a crisis in the making: students lose an average of more than two months in
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As the Syracuse Academy of Science and Citizenship Charter School (SASCCS) concluded its first successful year of operation, there was much to be proud of: students received ample one-on-one attention, parental engagement thrived, and teachers and students came together to build a diverse learning community. Yet, something very essential was still missing. “Literacy can’t be confined solely to the classroom,”
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Nearly 5,000 Onondaga County residents each year participate in adult education, which includes English-as-second-language, high school equivalency and secondary school completion services. Yet this is only a small fraction of the population that needs help, according to Mark Cass, executive director of North Side Learning Center. “These services are only reaching 15 percent of the adults in our community in
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In rural Cortland County, only 24% of third graders are testing proficiently on New York State English Language Arts exams. This is especially important because third grade marks a turning point in early education: at that time, children typically are expected to stop learning to read and begin reading to learn other subjects. To keep on track towards this goal,
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One summer afternoon in July, an impressive group of 2,000 people – mostly parents and their children – gathered at Destiny USA for Summer Learning Day. Besides having fun with the interactive crafts and sing-alongs, children chose from thousands of age-appropriate books to bring home. Organized by the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County (LCOC), the event aimed to help address
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