Five Questions With: David F. Guertin Jr.

"Read to Succeed is deeply focused on the neighborhood of South Providence."

David F. Guertin Jr. has served as the executive director of Read to Succeed since 2011. He is also president of Vantage in Philanthropy, a nonprofit management and fundraising consulting firm based in Newport. Here, he discusses the mission of the nonprofit Read to Succeed and efforts to track student outcomes.

PBN: Read to Succeed’s motto is you don’t have to be “affluent” to be “fluent.” How did the focus on summer reading programs for underprivileged youth come about?
GUERTIN:
Ralph Papitto of Cranston founded Read to Succeed in 2007, but the concept was one he devised decades earlier. As a child of a hard working family, Ralph did not have many material possessions, yet Ralph’s mother encouraged him to read anything he could to expand his base of knowledge. Ralph took the advice to heart, which helped propel his career as an accountant and then as a successful business leader. When Ralph and his wife, Barbara, were ready to establish Read to Succeed, research on the well-documented summer learning loss among low-income students was very concerning to them. Thus, the vision of filling this void during the summer as a literacy bridge between school years became a clear objective and a well-purposed use of philanthropic resources.

PBN: What is the territory you serve and why is there this focus?
GUERTIN:
Read to Succeed is deeply focused on the neighborhood of South Providence. When our Board of Directors requested a five-year strategic plan, we sought advice from a number of education leaders, including the Rhode Island Foundation, on how best to expand. While neighboring cities welcomed Read to Succeed, we came to the conclusion that having a deep impact on one community would provide a long-term measurement of our positive influence versus a program that stretched thinly across the state. It was a challenging decision, but when we drive through South Providence we know this is exactly where Read to Succeed needs deliver its literacy program and college scholarship incentives.

PBN: How does the reading program work?
GUERTIN:
In partnership with our three South Providence schools – Community Preparatory School, Highander Charter School and Bishop McVinney Elementary School – students select six books to read from a list of approximately 40 book provided by their teachers. The books are provided free of charge, and the students are very excited to have these in their possession. Students commit to reading these books over the summer and take a comprehension exam on each book.
Upon completion, successful students earn a $1,000 college scholarship in the RI College Bound fund saving account program. Students may enroll in the Read to Succeed program as rising 4th graders and continue through 8th grade, so there is the potential to earn $5,000 for college before a student enters high school. The combined benefit of continuous summer reading to improve comprehension skills and the college scholarship incentive is designed to provide students with a determination to excel in school and work toward their college dreams.

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PBN: How many kids have benefitted to date from the program? And how many participate in more than one summer program?
GUERTIN:
Read to Succeed has opened 135 accounts thus far with over $228,000 in college scholarships invested to date. In 2015, we will enroll 235 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students into the program. While every 4th grader will be new to Read to Succeed, approximately 145 students will be returning for their second or third summer.

PBN: Are you tracking or do you plan to track student outcomes? How do you know the programming is making a difference?
GUERTIN:
We track student outcomes first by the number of students who enroll and receive their books in June against the number of students who successfully complete the program. There is a 58-percent completion rate with a number of known factors that we continue to work on such as written reports for students without Internet access for the exams.
Increasing parent engagement is our highest priority toward improving the student success rate. We know that we are making a difference because our schools track individual reading proficiencies carefully and the students who are falling behind in reading are identified as needing to complete our program.
Also, students and parents tell us in writing and in person that Read to Succeed is “a gift too good to be true.” Parents simply cannot believe that there are people who want to give their children money for college. It’s a very touching interaction that Ralph and Barbara Papitto, our board, and our donors, cherish at every scholarship presentation.

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