Goals and Objectives- Unit 4

Briana Elliot
1. Profile of the funder:
City National Banks Reading is the Way Up
According to their website, City National Banks Reading is
the Way Up Literacy Grants Program has awarded over
$800,000 to elementary, middle, and high schools for creative
literacy projects since 2005. City National Bank's vision is for all
children to discover the joy of reading and to experience a
lifelong love of books. Research confirms that children learn
better and are more likely to be literate later in life when they
have access to books. The size and quality of a school library is
the best predictor of academic achievement. Their multifaceted
literacy programs were created to help recognize investing in
the community offers the greatest possible returns, particularly
when efforts are focused on youth. These young people are our
future leaders, entrepreneurs, clients and colleagues. Our belief
is that a good education and the ability to learn throughout one's
career are vital to success in today's world- and it all starts with
reading. Their high priority of linking the act of reading to
overall student academic success is important in that this valuing
clearly supports our Reading Intervention Program goals of
providing students who are reading below grade level with extra
support in reading, as well as fueling a valued sense and love of
reading itself.
Through City National Bankss multifaceted literacy
program, Reading is the Way Up, the company actively invests
in: school libraries with gifts of books; K-12 schools with teacher
grants to enhance innovative literacy efforts; Community
partnerships focused on enhancing literacy. These funding
interests and priorities are particularly pertinent, and matching,

to our own objectives with Rosa Parks Reading Intervention

Program, and our newest goal to begin providing free, highinterest books regularly (monthly) to all participating student
readers to help stimulate and enhance the students motivation,
as well as support empowerment through book ownership.
What difference is that funder trying to make?
City National Bank's vision matches nearly identically to
our qualitative goals listed above, which is again, is for all
children to discover the joy of reading and to experience a
lifelong love of books. Research confirms that children learn
better and are more likely to be literate later in life when they
have access to books. The size and quality of a school library is
the best predictor of academic achievement. Collectively, Rosa
Parks Reading Intervention Program and City National Banks
vision and funding priorities are striving to make the same
important difference to diverse communities that they personally
serve.
City National understands their responsibility for making a
difference in the communities where we live and work. Since
2002, a plethora of their invested achievements through Reading
is The way up has manifested, City National Bank has donated
more than 115,000 books to California, New York, Tennessee,
Georgia and Nevada school and classroom libraries; Awarded
more than 640 teacher grants totaling more than $500,000 to
enhance literacy; Reached more than 100,000 children in the
areas where we work, live and do business; and supported
colleagues who have volunteered to read to children. In 2005,
City National Banks received the President's Volunteer Service
Award, the 2005 Corporate Philanthropy Award from the Los
Angeles Public Library and the 2006 Corporate Award from the

Getty House Foundation; Was honored as the 2007 Corporate

Visionary Partner by The Wonder of Reading for supporting
children's literacy programs. They request partnerships that help
young people discover the joy of reading and to inspire a lifelong
love of books; this is one of Reading Interventions main goals.
An additional plus is that City National Banks Reading is
the Way Up Literacy Grant specifically is available to certain
named counties across five states, one of them being Alameda
county in California, exactly where Rosa Parks Elementary School
is located. Of the most recent 2013 recipients of the grant
includes Berkeleys neighbor, the city of Haywards Colonial
Acres Elementary, who proposed their literacy project, I Want to
Choose My Own Book, Please!, which has very similar aims to
Rosa Parks Reading Interventions own objectives and goals.
Another 2013 recipient includes a local San Franciscos
Downtown Highs literacy project, Get Graphic, supplying great
graphic novels to their student readers, which also aligns with
our own objectives of providing reading motivation and external
incentives by gifting our struggling student readers with the
choice of choosing their own books, preferably a monthly goal,
and we would like that many contemporary graphic novels,
(which already hold our readers personal interests), be of the
books the City National Banks Literacy Grant will help fund and
provide. In this recent local recipients list alone, we can see that
Rosa Parks Reading Intervention goals and objectives in
providing free books monthly to our students for additional
motivation, clearly align with previous recipients literacy
projects described above.
Motivation from having the opportunity to choose their own
book, to bring home with them, can have great, positive impact

on how struggling readers can begin to feel about reading, and

about books themselves. There is also measurable positive
impact seen when struggling readers from diverse socioeconomic
backgrounds, some of whom report personally owning very few
or even no books at home, are given an open choice to select
books that they themselves find interesting and want to read
them. The excitement is written across their excited little faces.
Fostering a healthy love of books, reading, and progress in
reading achievements are paramount to our Reading
Interventions new goals of providing students with free books, in
support of their regular attendance aiming to get them up to
grade-level in reading.

Other grant funding interests of City National Banks

include Community Reinvestment, that fosters healthy
communities through small business and farms investments and
community development lending equity investments to
strengthen local neighborhoods, as well as its Vendor Diversity
by awarding financial investment and support of business vendor
owners from diverse backgrounds. These priorities just highlight
City National Banks overall interest in granting financial support
to organizations and businesses who value the crucial
investment in community, diversity, multiculturalism, and
literacy. Such values clearly align with Rosa Parks Elementary
schools own dedication to providing outstanding literacy support
and programming that service our diverse community of
students and their academic needs.
Rosa Parks Elementary School has a large English
Language Learner (ELL) population. We have been a two-way
immersion (TWI) school for the last 16 years. This means many

students get classroom instruction in Spanish and are taught to

read in Spanish first and transition to reading in English in the
third grade. Roughly 19% of the student population starts
reading in English in 3rd grade. Teaching English Learners in their
native language promotes long-term academic achievement and
confidence, as well as English proficiency. There is a wealth of
national research establishing that TWI is a highly effective way
to increase the achievement of English Learners; however, it
takes eight years for the full program to be effective. During that
time our ELLs are expected to perform in English on standardized
tests. Many of these students are reading below grade level in
English.
The Reading Intervention (also called Reading Club)
curriculum we use is the Leveled Literacy Intervention,
developed by Fountas & Pinnell, implemented at Rosa Parks
beginning in the fall of 2011. The program is built into the
structure of the after-school program and provides small group
intervention (6 students maximum per group) for students
working on reading comprehension, fluency and/or accuracy.
Students are grouped based on the skill they are working on and
their current reading levels. The groups meet 4 days a week after
school for 30 minutes each. Students are assessed every 6-8
weeks so that students who are making steady progress can
advance to upper groups with the goal of reaching their grade
level in reading. Many parents of our ELL students have also
expressed that they would like their children to stay in reading
club even when they reach grade level so that they can continue
getting small group support in reading. In the long term, this will
ensure that students will stay at or above grade level in reading.
Even though our groups never exceed 6 students to every one

Reading Intervention teacher, the most current research

suggests that even a smaller ratio of teacher to students (1:3),
create the optimal environment to improve in reading level and
comprehension.
In the winter of 2013, as more and more 5th graders
succeeded in reaching grade level in reading and graduated from
reading club, the program was expanded to include 1st graders,
as research suggests early intervention is key to keeping
students on track with their reading capabilities. Currently there
are 65 students in grades 1-5 who are being served in Reading
Club by 6 instructors.

2. List of organization documents to support the case for

funding:
-Full write up and envision of the Literacy Project proposal
needed for application (Free books monthly & possible midyear/end-of-year book parties)
-Full Client Profile with recent statistic success of the Reading
Intervention Program
-Current Budget and Strategic Plan for Rosa Parks Reading
Intervention
-Current numbers of students enrolled in Reading Intervention,
including grade levels and reading level stats
-Data on attendance (as a measurable, accountable way to mark
the success
-Design a student reader survey for participants: charting and
describing how they feel about books, how they feels about
having ownership of books, opinions on getting to select their
own high-interest books, feelings on attending Reading
Intervention, how they measure their own progress and reading
achievements, etc.
3. Goals and Objectives-

What are the projects qualitative goals?

Reading Intervention has the following goals:
-to teach students who are below grade level the skills to
become better readers.
-to give students more time to practice reading.
-to instill a love of reading in the students.
-to instill a sense of pride in their reading accomplishments.
-to teach students the skills necessary to stay at or above grade
level in reading.
-New goals:
**Each of our students (roughly 30-60) will receive one book of
their choice, (a book ranging from $5-$10 each), including the
choice of high-interest books, including graphic novels. Ideally
this free book gifting will happen once a month, for every student
reader.
**Providing student readers with a choice of books gives them
motivation for reading and motivation to consistently attend
Reading Intervention, as well as empower our student readers
with the ownership of books they love and are proud to own.
**The impact of the gifting of free books regularly to our students
would be measurable and held accountable mainly by keeping
careful attendance records for every participating students, as
well as Reading Intervention Instructors taking careful, uniform
notes about student behavior, student engagement, student
achievements, and attendance, (and noting any changes), after
free books are given out regularly. Particularly tracking (in written
form) any positive changes in student reader motivation would
support our main objectives and goals for instating this new
literacy project within our existing Reading Intervention Program.
**Keeping track of which books are given to each student, as well
as the number of total books given to each student will also
indicate the success of the free book project.
**Attendance and student/community surveys will also help
measure the impact and/or positive changes occurring within the
Reading Intervention Program, from the free book party(ies) held
for all reading participants at the projected end of the school
year cycle, roughly May/June 2015. (Potentially, funding will
support more than one of these free book parties, perhaps to be

held in early Spring, Feb/March 2015).

What are the projects expected quantitative outcomes?
Students who are in the Reading Intervention program start
as low as 2.5 grade levels behind to .5 grade levels behind. The
goal of the program is to get the students up to grade level
before they leave elementary school. As students improve at
different rates, and students enter the program at all different
reading levels, the goal of the program is to make the gap
between current reading levels and benchmark reading levels
narrower for each individual student as they all participate in the
program. Students are assessed every 6-8 weeks to more
accurately place students in appropriate Reading Intervention
groups. Upon reaching grade level in reading, students graduate
out of the Reading Intervention program.
Previous Results
Since 2011, there has been a steady average of 60-65
students enrolled in the program at one time. When students
reach benchmark in reading, they graduate out of the program.
When the program started in 2011, only 3rd-5th graders were
enrolled. In 2012, as students graduated, the spots were taken
by 2nd graders since no additional 3rd-5th graders were below
grade level. In 2014 as more 3rd-5th graders graduated, spots
were opened up to 1st graders as there were no additional 2nd5th graders below grade level in reading. We are now serving 12
first graders, 7 second graders, 16 third graders, 10 fourth
graders, and 19 fifth graders.
Of the students that started Reading Intervention in 4th
grade in 2011, 21.4% graduated by the end of 5th grade in 2013.

These students that graduated from Reading Intervention have a

much higher chance of success in reading, and academics in
general, because they left elementary school at or above grade
level.
Of the students that started Reading Intervention in 3rd
grade in 2011, or started in 2nd or 3rd grade in 2012, 34.8% of
students have already graduated. Students that start the
program early have a higher chance of developing the skills
necessary to graduate earlier.
42.4% of current 5th graders (who started in 3rd of 4th
grade) have graduated as of mid-5th grade in 2014.
37.5% of current 4th graders (who started in 3rd or 4th grade)
have graduated as of mid-4th grade in 2014.
20% of current 3rd graders (some of whom started in 2nd grade)
have graduated as of mid-3rd grade in 2014.
At the end of the 2009-2010 school year, 54% of students
were performing at benchmark in ELA. 2010-2011, 58% of
students were at benchmark in ELA. The next school year we
started the Reading Intervention program and jumped to 75% of
students at benchmark. We have maintained that 75% ever
since.
Rosa Parks API for the 2010-2011 school year was 825.
Reading Intervention began in the Fall of 2011. For 2011-2012,
our API was 885 and we were no longer a Program Improvement
School. Our current API is 904.

Additional Information for City National Bank & People Involved:

CONTACTSCary Walker, (213) 673-7615cary.walker@cnb.com
Debora Vrana, (213) 673-7631debora.vrana@cnb.com
Paul Stowell, (702) 952-4415paul.stowell@cnb.com

REFERENCES
Client Profile on Rosa Parks Reading Intervention.
Application Form available from
https://www.readingisthewayup.com/apply/.
City National Bank (Reading is the Way Up site). Retrieved from
https://www.cnb.com/about/ritwu.asp.
City National Bank 2013 Reading is the Way Up Literacy Grant
Recipients. Retrieved from
http://www.readingisthewayup.org/documents/2013-2014-GrantList.pdf.
Literacy Grants Program- Reading is the Way Up. Retrieved from
http://www.readingisthewayup.org/literacy.php.
Literacy Grants Program Eligibility and Requirements. Retrieved from
http://www.readingisthewayup.org/requirements.php.