What’s Right With Our Schools: Crawford County Elementary School uses STAR Program to enhance students’ reading skills

ROBERTA, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Crawford County Elementary is getting their students a jump with reading.

The school is using the “STAR Program” to motivate students to read.

“It’s really hard to get kids reading so we’re really trying to focus that and show them and help them get that love of reading,” says academic coach, Melissa Valtierra.

The STAR Program allows students to pick a book of their choice from the library, read it, and then take online quizzes on information about the book. Valtierra adds that the students are more likely to read a book and do well on the quizzes if they are selecting the books on their own.

“It is actually helping me a lot. And in my reading, I’m getting better at it and better,” says second grader, Lavonda Adkins.

The principal of Crawford County Elementary says the teachers also benefit from the program.

“It helps the teachers as far as guiding instruction and planning instructions. They can target those strengths as well as students’ weaknesses,” Paris Raines, the school’s principal said.

Students work on the program every other day for about 50 minutes to improve reading skills.