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I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here.

 

In 2006, we began a family literacy project by providing computers and home internet access to fifty immigrant families of our students.

The project was the winner of the 2007 International Reading Association’s Presidential Award for Reading and Technology.

The Sacramento Bee wrote two articles about the effort in 2008, including Luther Burbank High’s program to teach English targets not only students but their entire families.

It was very successful, with huge English proficiency gains for members of entire families compared to controlled groups not involved in the program, and became a model of both parent engagement (families themselves co-designed the program) and language-learning throughout the country.

You can read much more about it, and other similar and not-so-similar past and present efforts at The Best Resources For Learning About Schools Providing Home Computers & Internet Access To Students.

Unfortunately, we had to end the program four years after it began due to budget cutbacks because of the Great Recession, but former students and their families still mention to me how helpful the project was to them.