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ACHIEVE3000 helps boost literacy of NMI students
The women of ACHIEVE3000. From left, regional VP for International Implementations Lee Anne Housley, director of sales-international Rhea Backe, Implementation manager for the CNMI Helene Manning, and Implementation manager for Guam Shiela Trianni. (Bea Cabrera)
CNMI students remain college- and career-ready, thanks to almost seven years of partnership between ACHIEVE3000, the Public School System, and privates schools.
To celebrate that success, students and teachers were recognized for their reading gains and participation at the 2019 ACHIEVE3000 Literacy All-Star celebration held Wednesday last week at the Seaside Hall of Kanoa Resort in Susupe.
Lee Anne Housley, ACHIEVE3000’s regional vice president International Implementations, said that ACHIEVE3000 is about providing access to literacy.
“We are all about helping students to learn how to read better. …We have been working with schools close to 20 years and we reached 3.5 million students worldwide last year,” she said. “The schools and teachers that we work with make it happen. …We have had students come to us to thank us for the program as it helped them get into college and start a career.”
ACHIEVE3000 was created to help students improve their reading and comprehension levels. This program is focused on helping students improve their “lexile”—the measurement of a student’s reading and comprehension skills.
“So if a student is a first grader but has a reading skill equal to Kindergarten level, the program provides reading materials with content that aligns with their lexile so nobody gets left behind,” said Rhea Backe, ACHIEVE3000 director for international sales.
“This program recognizes that everybody has different skills in reading and comprehension and helps them develop and improve that and ultimately for them to be college- and career-ready.” she added.
One of the students given a certificate of achievement was Luis Taman of Garapan Elementary School. His mother, Kayla Litulumar, is overjoyed how his son found the passion for reading because of ACHIEVE3000.
Education Commissioner Glen Muña said that ACHIEVE3000’s program is aligned with the PSS’ objectives. “The success of the students is very important to us. Our partnership with ACHIEVE 3000 is one of the things that we would like to continue to foster,” he said. (Bea Cabrera)
