News

May Center Community Collaboration: Outward Facing Programming

May Center is proud to be part of The Reading Group, a collective action working group focused on improving third grade reading proficiency as part of Opportunity Santa Fe. The Reading Group, co-chaired by Amy Miller, Executive Director of May Center for Learning, and Perli Cunanan, Executive Director of Santa Fe School for Arts & Sciences, has published a report focused on 4 key investments to improve reading outcomes for students in Santa Fe:  strong supplementary programs, teacher training, early identification and intervention for learning differences, and parent education and support. We will continue our work this school year, focused on aligning public and private efforts in service of these four investments. We are grateful to Santa Fe Community Foundation for supporting our work as a collective working group.

In addition to our work as part of The Reading Group, our collaboration with Reading Quest has resulted in a new pilot program at Sweeney Elementary, funded by a generous grant from the City of Santa Fe’s Youth and Children’s Commission.  The pilot will give 25 second and third grade students 4 hours a week of intensive reading support with May Center and Reading Quest’s tutors, in addition to a summer Reading is Magic program at Sweeney.

We are also grateful to Santa Fe County for their continued support of our collaboration with Communities in Schools at Aspen Community School.  Through this work, May Center tutors work with small groups of 2nd and 7th and 8th grade students at Aspen several hours per week. Data from the standardized and normed Gray Oral Reading Test demonstrated a total average of 2.14 grade levels gained in reading fluency and an average of 2.42 grade levels gained in reading comprehension.  

In addition to the literacy outcomes, students in this program had the opportunity to develop significant relationships with their tutors. Tutors regularly brought nutritious snacks for their students. They advocated for their students’ needs with their classroom teachers, resulting in several students being referred for evaluation.  They attended their students’ band concerts, basketball games, and end of the school year programs. The tutors even hosted an end of the school year luncheon celebration for the students.

May Center also continues to support the greater educational community through community partnerships with other Santa Fe schools.  We continue to partner with Waldorf School of Santa Fe, where a May Center learning specialist is on site 10 hours per week, The Master’s Program, where May Center provides teacher training and support and two May Center interventionists work with students to provide instruction and educational evaluations, and New Mexico School for the Arts, where May Center provides educational evaluations and teacher training.  

May Center is also grateful to the Jewish Federation for their partnership and support.  Thanks to a generous supporter of both organizations, every dollar donated to Jewish Federation up to $5000 will be matched to May Center.  Donors can make their donations at www.jewishnewmexico.org.

We are proud of May Center’s community collaborations.  These programs move us closer to our vision of accessing and impacting every child with learning differences in Santa Fe County.

Rebecca Anderson