Pilot reading program helps Kearns-St. Ann Catholic School students reach grade-level expectations

Friday, Oct. 13, 2023

SALT LAKE CITY — Students who face reading challenges are benefiting from a new program at Kearns-St. Ann Catholic School in Salt Lake City.

“Through the generosity of the Dahle Family Foundation, intervention specialists from the University of Utah Reading Clinic are training dedicated volunteers to provide reading intervention to students at Kearns-St. Ann School,” said Dr. Kathleen J. Brown, director emeritus of the U’s Utah Reading Clinic.

Students at the school who need reading help now receive it at least daily and sometimes twice a day in the form of text practice, writing, spelling and phonemic awareness. The help is provided by volunteers who are trained and supervised by the UURC, Brown said.

More than a dozen students in first and second grades are in the program, which is offered during school hours as well as after school, depending on each student’s schedule.

The goal is “to help students achieve grade level expectations for reading and writing,” Brown said.

The intervention team is composed of three UURC intervention specialists and 15 volunteers. Brown said that there are plans for more over time.

“The volunteers from the University of Utah Reading Clinic benefit Kearns-St. Ann School by supporting our mission of ‘We Teach the World,’” said Dominique Aragon, Kearns-St. Ann principal.

Providing this intervention is important because “reading is the cornerstone of academic and professional success in society,” said Brown, who has a personal connection to the school: Her husband and godchildren are KSA graduates.

“Helping KSA students to become more successful readers will directly improve their lives now and in the future,” she added.

Cindy Dahle, the project benefactor, is a retired English teacher who, in retirement, worked at the UURC for a couple of years “and was so impressed that she decided to include [the intervention reading program] in her estate planning,” Brown said.

The pilot program has been successful so far, she added.

“We have been so impressed with KSA students and, by extension, their parents,” she said. “Their motivation to learn and their respectful behavior make KSA a delightful place to work.”