Target's PRESS program helps student readers
MINNEAPOLIS -- Every student in Ann Matthes' kindergarten class at Anne Sullivan Communication Center has a book in hand. Some work quietly by themselves, others work with Matthes or another adult.
Two of the adults are teachers in training, funded by a program called PRESS, Path to Reading Excellence in School Sites. It's a $6 million initiative bankrolled by Target, and making its debut in six Minneapolis public schools.
The Minnesota Reading Corps and the University of Minnesota Center for Reading Research are partners in the program, providing the expertise in the classroom, the framework for the program, as well as tools to evaluate how well the program is working.
"We've united these groups at Target with one clear goal in mind, and that is to get every child in Minneapolis who is off track, to reading proficiency by the end of third grade," explained Reba Dominski, Director of Community Relations and Educational Initiatives at Target.
Target has pledged $1 billion for education by the end of 2015. While it's good community relations, the Minnesota-based company also sees it as an investment.
"We know that we need an educated work force today, and an educated workforce into the future, and that's why we invest in education," said Dominski.
Target will track the results of the PRESS program with plans to roll it out in more schools if it achieves the desired results.
Target has also commissioned an education and philanthropic landscape study in the Twin Cities to determine how and where other companies and organizations are contributing to education, with a goal of determining how to most effectively work together to get results in Twin Cities schools.
With more than $2 billion shifted away from school funding as state lawmakers try to balance the state budget, this kind of corporate support comes at just the right time.
Anne Sullivan is not just the beneficiary of the PRESS program, Target also provided the school with a media center makeover, one of 76 nationwide. At the unveiling, every student in the school received seven books from Target, and each one of their siblings also got to take home seven books, to build a family libarary.
Principal Ron Wagner knows his school is lucky, and he believes the initiatives are benefiting students and teachers.
"The teachers' arms can only extend so far, and PRESS and Target, the partnership, has extended the teachers' arms to encompass all the students, to move all students forward," Wagner said.
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All rights reserved.)