For immediate release December 3, 2010

Media contact: Jacquie Lucy 443-840-4668 / 410-340-2148 (cell)

Verizon Foundation grant funds new CCBC ‘Reading for Success’ initiative
Pilot program to begin in spring 2011

Baltimore County, Md. – Why Johnny can’t read continues to be an issue in American education. The Community College of Baltimore County through a grant from the Verizon Foundation is looking at this age old problem to develop solutions for students who wish to improve their futures.

The Verizon Foundation is providing grant funding in support of a new pilot program, Reading for Success, at the Community College of Baltimore County. The Reading for Success program is geared to assist students who have an earned high school diploma, but who enter CCBC still needing reading instruction at a basic level. This grant will provide funds for faculty and staff development to work with these students to improve their reading skills and employment prospects. The Verizon Foundations has funded this grant for $ 11,350.

Reading for Success is designed to provide a safety net for students with very basic reading skills in reading and comprehension. Learning will be customized to students’ individual weaknesses, whether in decoding, vocabulary, literal comprehension, or inferences, etc., using a wide array of reading material that reflects the types of reading demands they might encounter in their daily lives and in the world of work.

“Programs designed to help develop the academic skills of many of our students, so that they can succeed in higher level courses, are at the core of CCBC’s student success strategy. We thank the Verizon Foundation for supporting this new initiative, and we are hoping to assist many students to reach the next level in their academic pursuits,” said Ken Westary, vice president for Institutional Advancement at CCBC.

The Reading for Success pilot program will begin in March 2011 with 36 students in three classes – 12 students each on CCBC’s three campuses.

For additional information about this program, contact Rachele Lawton, chair of the Reading and Language Department in the School of Liberal Arts at CCBC, at 443-840-1954.

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About CCBC (www.ccbcmd.edu)
CCBC offers hundreds of programs and thousands of courses helping people of all ages, backgrounds and interests earn degrees, transfer, launch or advance careers, and prepare for in-demand jobs. Providing accessible, affordable and high quality education since 1957, CCBC educates more than 70,000 students each year, including half of all Baltimore County residents attending college in Maryland as undergraduates. Committed to student success and the development of lifelong learners who strengthen our regional workforce and enrich our community, CCBC has also been selected to participate in Achieving the Dream, a national student success initiative.

CCBC is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 3624 Market Street, 2nd Floor West, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (267-284-5000). The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

CCBC. The incredible value of education.