Both Bessemer and Kemp are in districts that also showed considerable improvement despite high poverty and student mobility rates. Those factors are often cited by educators as major obstacles to learning. Bessemer fourth-graders improved from 12 percent in reading in 1997 to 74 percent this year. Bessemer Principal Gary Trujillo said. The program emphasizes the senses.
Students observe their own speech in mirrors.
We talk about how we use our eyes to see, our ears to hear and how we use our mouth,'' said reading teacher Karen Brown. All staff members at seven schools are being trained in the techniques, while children performing below grade level at three other schools are being bused daily to a six-week intensive reading clinic at Bessemer. Schools and districts that make that kind of commitment will make dramatic improvement,'' Commissioner Moloney said. At Kemp, there aren't any special reading programs that are being touted for the success, just a focus on literacy from the time students come into the school until they move onto middle school. In the preschool classroom, everything is labeled so that the young students are exposed to letters and writing.