Former Angel legends Clyde Wright, Rod Carew, Chuck Finley and Bobby Grich hosted more than 100 second-graders at the Diamond Club of Angel Stadium to celebrate the students’ graduation from the Literacy Project’s reading program.
The Newport Beach-based organization promoted reading as a way to help these students from Santa Ana and Anaheim elementary schools increase their scores on standardized assessments.
The Daily Pilot chronicled the Angel legends’ involvement with the students and the project.
“We are so proud of all of you young people taking part in this program,” Grich told the Daily Pilot. “Reading is powerful and will give you more opportunities in life.”
The program provides in-classroom, six-week reading instruction at no cost to schools and qualified second-graders. The project has helped more than 6,500 struggling readers throughout Orange and Los Angeles counties, the Daily Pilot reported.
Here are some other news stories from throughout the region for the week ending April 20.
- San Clemente and the Watershed Task Force will be co-hosting the 16th annual Earth Day Festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 21 at Parque Del Mar in the Pier Bowl. The festival will feature the 2018 Blue Water Awards, presented to Marblehead Elementary School in recognition of students’ exemplary efforts to support the environment.
- OCDE’s Freeway League focuses on participation, teamwork, camaraderie and other skills students can incorporate into the classroom and their overall daily lives. The competitive part of the sports league plays a secondary role.
- Students at EL Rancho Charter School in Anaheim spent much of the week baking and decorating cakes. They finished work for guests and a panel of judges. Cake decoration themes ran the gamut — from Earth Day to princesses.
- Jared Hoyer has launched a one-man kindness campaign chronicled through his Instagram account, where he’s posted daily photos and brief descriptions of his good deeds, each punctuated by the #kindness1billion hashtag that’s tied to OCDE’s One Billion Acts of Kindness initiative.
- Laguna Beach Unified School District will survey students, parents and staff about potential changes in the school calendar after hearing from dozens of impassioned parents who voiced opposition to an earlier school start at a special school board April 12.
- Nearly two-thirds — 64 percent — of likely voters in a new survey called education “very important,” an increase from 58 percent four years ago when the same question was asked. A full 90 percent said candidates’ positions on education are important to them.
- Students let off some STEAM last week on opening day of Imaginology — a three-day festival at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa celebrating and promoting interest in science, technology, engineering, art and math.
- Thousands of children will get access to subsidized child care as a result of a massive increase in child care funding approved by Congress last month.
- The California State Board of Education submitted a plan to the US Department of Education outlining California’s implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act.
- The Public Policy Institute of California’s Californians & Education surveyed voters across the state to determine the impact that K-12 education will play in the race for governor.
- The California State University system announced Friday that it will not raise tuition in 2018. System leaders have determined that, instead of greater tuition, it is in California’s best interest for the state to provide sufficient funding to support student access, achievement and degree completion.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates or following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.