Operation ABC fact sheet

Operation ABC™
Every child a reader by grade three

• Operation ABC is a United Way for Southeastern Michigan early education initiative that brings together school districts, local unions, nonprofits, corporations and volunteers to improve the reading levels of first and second graders in metro Detroit. This community-based initiative will recruit and train 2,000 volunteers and mobilize them in classrooms across the region as reading tutors. Each volunteer will be required to commit between one and five hours of time a week beginning in 2008.
  
  
• In southeast Michigan, recent standardized test scores reveal that nearly 7,000 third graders throughout Wayne Oakland and Macomb counties are not reading at grade level.
  
  
• Though 2006 MEAP Reading Test results showed improvements over those of 2005, 33,000 tri-county 3rd through 6th graders, attending public and charter schools tested as not reading at grade level.
  
  
• The 2005 MEAP trend of increasing shares (and numbers) of students “not meeting standards” with increasing grade level continued in 2006. The tri-county averages for 2006 were: 3rd Grade – 12.8%; 4th Grade– 15.4%; 5th Grade – 16.1%; and, 6th Grade– 17.9%.
  
  
• Studies show that of the children who don’t read at grade level by third grade, 10 to 15 percent will drop out of high school, and only two percent will complete a college degree.
  
  
• A total of fifty-five schools in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties will be involved in Operation ABC. The following twenty schools will participate in Phase One, Winter 2008.

Wayne County
City of Detroit

• Blackwell Institute
• Carstens Elementary School
• Roberto Clemente Academy
• Mark Twain Elementary School
• Maybury Elementary School

Outer-Wayne
Hamtramck School District

• Hamtramck Academy

Highland Park School District

• Cortland Elementary School

Taylor School District

• Myers Elementary School

Wyandotte School District

• Taft Elementary School

Oakland County
Pontiac School District

• Whitman Elementary School
• Crofoot Elementary School
• Franklin Elementary School

Macomb County
Fitzgerald School District

• Mound Park School
• Westview School

Van Dyke School District

• John F. Kennedy
• Washington Elementary School
• Marjorie Carlson School
• McKinley School

Warren Woods School District

• Westwood

To date, United Way has recruited 1,300 Volunteers to place in 20 partners schools for Phase One of Operation ABC. The current list of volunteers are from the following companies, non profits and organizations:

• AFL-CIO (Community Services)
• City Year Detroit
• Credit Union One
• Fifth Third Bank
• Ford Motor Company
• Golden Key International Honor Society
• Holiday Automotive Group
• IBM
• Leadership Detroit
• Macomb County Community College
• Michigan Department of Human Services
• Schoolcraft College
• UBS Financial
• University of Michigan Dearborn, Golden Key

United Way Operation ABC Community Partners include:

• AFL-CIO (Community Services)
• City Year Detroit
• Cities of Promise – Michigan
• Communities in Schools
• Detroit Parent Network
• Lighthouse PATH
• Literacy Project Directors of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties
• Macomb Community College
• Michigan Department of Human Services
• Oakland County Michigan Health Division – Department of Health and Human Services
• Pontiac School District
• UAW

United Way’s goal for Operation ABC is to improve MEAP reading scores in targeted schools over a three-year period (2008-2011), and to raise the level of community involvement in children’s reading.

Individuals who are interested in becoming an Operation ABC Volunteer should contact 2-1-1. Organizations may get involved by adopting a school (committing at least 10 people to serve as volunteer tutors). Contact Angela Walker at 313-226-9450 for more information.