Emma Andrade wanted her son Aaron to enjoy reading. But he would often get distracted or even slap the book out of her hands when she sat down to read with him.
When Aaron was 3, Andrade said, he was placed on an individualized education plan because he had a speech impediment and a limited vocabulary. Later, he repeated kindergarten.
Now 8, Aaron works with speech therapists. But Andrade says he continues to struggle with reading comprehension and needs more personalized attention than what he receives at Pembroke Elementary School in Robeson County.
That’s why Andrade jumped at the chance to sign him up this summer for a five-week Summer Literacy Initiative at First United Methodist Church in Pembroke. Funded by The Duke Endowment, the program partners with rural churches across the state in hopes of improving literacy outcomes for students in first through third grade.
“I could just tell that Aaron wasn’t excited about school, and he’s never really been excited about reading,” Andrade said. “I thought that putting him into the summer literacy program would help him be more excited about reading, because reading is also a way to learn.”
Since he attended the camp, his mother said, Aaron’s reading scores have improved. He can recite and follow along with the books she reads to him, and he can string together more complex sentences on his own. But the biggest change is his newfound enthusiasm for learning.
The Summer Literacy Initiative began in 2013 and has served more than 2,500 students across 26 sites in North Carolina. The program at First United Methodist Church in Pembroke started in 2019. Two new sites opened in Robeson County this summer, at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church in Rowland and Branch Street United Methodist Church in St. Pauls.
Ensuring that young children can read helps set them up for success later on, said the Rev. Mattheue Locklear, who oversees the program at First United Methodist where he is the pastor.
“They may go through their whole lives always lagging behind in their reading skills. You can imagine, that’s a whole aspect of their life that they have to carry around, that internal shame of not being a good reader,” Locklear said. “Whereas when we’re getting them in kindergarten, their little brains are firing off and they are ready to absorb whatever we can give, more so than I even imagined.”
Enrichment programs are crucial in Robeson County, where public schools lag behind in test scores. Last school year, 37.5 percent of students in Public Schools of Robeson County were proficient on standardized tests, compared to 55 percent statewide.
Robeson is one of the poorest counties in the state, with 38 percent of children living below the federal poverty line, according to the most recent County Health Rankings. That’s more than double the statewide rate.
The Summer Literacy Initiative tracks students’ success by administering two rounds of Measure of Academic Progress assessments. Students enrolled in the Pembroke program showed improvements in language and writing skills between 2022 and 2024, although vocabulary and foundational skills declined, according to data from the American Institutes for Research.
Students’ scores on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills reading assessments during the 2023 school year also showed improvements in reading and writing, Locklear said.
To enroll in the literacy camps, students must have an individualized learning plan based on test scores. Families can apply for the camps halfway into the school year. Churches reach out to local schools to identify students who could benefit the most.
The program at First United Methodist gets most of its applications from Pembroke Elementary, a Title I school where about 78% of students are economically disadvantaged. Thirteen students enrolled in the program the first year; this year 60 students applied and organizers had to create a waitlist.
The program hires local teachers and gets help from volunteers. Throughout the program, which can last four to six weeks, children can get between 80 and 90 hours of reading instruction.
Janet Locklear, site director at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church, said she hopes to cater to as many local schools as possible. Her program accepted 30 students over the summer, but some dropped out or stopped showing up.
“We’re really trying to serve all children who are affected by things like economic distress or instability in their families or poor health outcomes and poor educational outcomes,” said Kristen Richardson-Frick, associate director of rural churches at The Duke Endowment. “And if a child can’t read on grade level by the end of third grade, their likelihood of a number of poor outcomes in adulthood is higher, and so we’re trying to really change the trajectory of children’s lives when they are really struggling to read at that age.”
During camps, parents are expected to participate in family engagement events where they can listen to their children read passages and show off their learning.
The idea is to make reading fun. Students at First United Methodist pitched tents in the classroom, used flashlights to read in the dark, and made S’mores at a bonfire during a camp-themed week. For an ocean life theme, they made volcanos with baking powder and papier-mache. At the end of the program, each student got an Amazon Kindle.
Andrade, who works 12-hour shifts as a chef at UNC Pembroke, said she helps both her children with homework. But there’s only so much she can do. She hopes Aaron will attend the literacy camp again next year.
“If I could just allow Aaron to grow up a little bit, and we give him some more resources during the summer, we could continue to help him understand that learning is fun and that when you learn, you know things,” she said. “And yes, it gets hard, but you can learn it.”