Utilization of Workforce Mentors to Increase Literacy and Decrease At-Risk Behaviors in Early Adolescents
Description:
This project is designed to address two pressing, interconnected problems in Polk County: low literacy rates and high at-risk behaviors by young adolescents 10-14 years of age. Only 60 percent of Polk County students graduate from high school; teen birth rates for 15-17-year-olds are almost double the Florida average; and juvenile arrests average approximately 16 percent of the juvenile population. Meanwhile, more than one of every two students in the county are eligible to receive the free/reduced lunch program. The aims of this study are to significantly increase literacy scores and significantly decrease risky behaviors in the treatment group (youth ages 12-14 in eighth grade at Crystal Lake Middle School). Twenty-five students will be in the treatment group and 25 will be in the control group. They will be chosen based upon one or more of the following criteria: low FCAT and low reading scores, have been retained or are at-risk of being retained, one or more in-school suspensions in the past 12 months, or have been adjudicated as a juvenile delinquent in the past 12 months. Mentors from prominent businesses in Polk County are being trained to be matched with youth to complete small projects in the workforce and also help increase their literacy skills. There will be a pretest-posttest control group to evaluate the effects of the mentoring and demographic data will be used to compare the treatment and control groups.
Contact Person: Lisa Rapp-Paglicci
Funding for Academic Year: 2004-05