Coaching Literacy - Donations

Would You Like to Have a Say in How Your Arizona Tax Dollars Are Spent? Here Is an Opportunity To Have Your Tax Dollars Help Under-Prepared High School Students Struggling with Reading and Writing at NO COST to YOU!
Joint filers can donate up to $400 to Make a Difference Coaching Literacy and take a dollar-for-dollar credit on their Arizona taxes! If you don¹t owe any taxes, the money will be refunded to you by the State! Also, Make a Difference Coaching Literacy is an IRS certified 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporation, so you could also take a tax deduction on your federal taxes. See your tax preparer for more details.

This program gets results. At South Mountain High School last year, we worked with juniors and seniors who had failed the AIMS reading test three to five times. At the end of the program, 73% of these students passed the AIMS reading test in the spring of 2006. Last summer, Make a Difference Coaching Literacy conducted a reading and writing-tutoring program for about 300 entering freshmen at Cesar Chavez High School to boost their academic success. This program, which had 40 ASU football players tutoring along with 20 community college students and volunteers, had impressive results.

A computer analysis of pre and post writing tests showed an increase of 1.9 grade levels. On a survey, 89% of the students agreed that the instructional materials were helpful, and 94% agreed that the tutors were effective and knowledgeable. (For more information, see the following news stories: “Literacy Camp Boosts Students,” Arizona Republic, July 26, 2007, page C7 and, “ASU Athletes Read a Lot into Improving Literacy,” Tempe Republic, August 1, 2007, page 16.) The cost per student of this program was $49.

YOU CAN HELP FULFILL OUR VISION: A WORLD WHERE NO ONE IS LEFT OUT

What difference could a school-wide, proactive tutoring program make if all students received one-on-one tutoring at the beginning of their high school careers before they needed help and then had the opportunity to tutor other students? We all know that people who teach something learn it more thoroughly than if they had just studied it.

Tutoring, however, goes beyond boosting students’ reading and writing. Tutoring can empower students and transform them into leaders and givers. Imagine transforming schools into communities where people support each other. Our vision is to have school-wide, peer-tutoring programs in which sophomores are tutors and mentors for incoming freshmen, and everyone works together to create a world where no one is left out.

To make a donation, write your check to Make a Difference Coaching Literacy and use the enclosed envelope. To donate by credit card call Gene Fazio at 480-510-2335.