i’ve written several times about the Family Literacy Project we have at Luther Burbank High School where we provide computers and home Internet access to immigrant families. They, in turn, use them to develop English skills. Student assessment results have been so impressive that the project was the Grand Prize Winner of the International Reading Association’s Presidential Award on Reading and Technology.

I’ve also shared about the extraordinary work that the Sacramento Mutual Housing Association has been doing to expand our project more deliberately to parents. Their first three-month workshop resulted in phenomenal improvement in participants’ English and technology skills. After graduating from the class, families received a free home computer and Internet access.

The second class just graduated with equally impressive results. The parents’ English initial assessments averaged 54.4%, while their final average was 82.4%. The initial technology assessments averaged 38.8% and the final assessment averaged 94.4% (by the way, the philosophy of the Mutual Housing Association’s workshop was very similar to Burbank’s philosophy — neither one of us believe in teaching to the test).

You can view the online projects created by participants here. More will be posted next week.

Both workshops were led by Xee and Kou Vang, the bilingual aides who have been key leaders of the home computer project since it began.