Coachella Program Helps English Learners Advance

Coachella Valley Unified School District was honored last week with a Golden Bell Award for its AmeriCorps Promote Program

Golden Bell Awards are given to those with the “best practices in education” by the California School Boards Association.

AmeriCorps volunteers work with predominately English learners from grades K-8 to assist in reading comprehension, fluency and writing. The district has a high number, about 52 percent, of English learners.

The goal of the program for the past two years was for students to move up a grade level in reading by the end of the year. According to Yadira Arce, program manager for AmeriCorps in CVUSD, 100 percent of student were able to reach that goal.

CVUSD received a generous $676,000 matching grant from AmeriCorps to fund the program.

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