{"id":85504,"date":"2026-01-13T12:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85504\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:59:09","slug":"help-allentown-student-improve-their-reading-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85504\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Allentown student improve their reading skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allentown children need you to help them learn to read. Reading skills are essential for all our children to have a fair chance to succeed.<\/p>\n

The problem of poor reading skills persists today. Test results show a tale of two school systems across the Lehigh Valley, Elizabeth DeOrnellas of The Morning Call recently reported<\/a>, appropriately paraphrasing Charles Dickens. Some suburban districts, where affluence reigns, rank in the top 10% statewide, while Allentown, mired in a 25% poverty rate, fell to 484th of 499 districts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not about the dedicated, hard-working teachers in Allentown Schools, nor about economically-challenged parents, often juggling two or three jobs to make ends meet. It\u2019s about the learning injustice of a separate but not equal system of education, ample funding to some children, subpar funding to others.<\/p>\n

You can be part of the solution by helping children to read. The Allentown School District Foundation strives to enrich the lives of Allentown children.<\/p>\n

How important is this call for reading help?<\/p>\n

The studies are clear: a child not reading proficiently by the third grade faces a bumpy academic road<\/a>, with poor educational performance, disciplinary issues, and is four times more likely to drop out of high school, according to a Annie E. Casey Foundation\u2019s report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the ramifications of this reading failure do not stop there. High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested and 63% more likely to become incarcerated. Even before adulthood, the impact is profound: 85% of children in the juvenile court system are \u201cfunctionally low-literate.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The economic impact on society is astounding. Stanford University reports that learning loss over the past decade cost the nation \u201cover $90 trillion in future growth.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where you come in. Cynthia Phillips, volunteer coordinator with the Allentown School District Foundation, needs volunteers to provide one reading assistant in every classroom, pre-K to third grade. You would provide essential help to our kids, with close guidance of classroom teachers. No experience necessary. Even one hour a week would be appreciated.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some inspiration for you. Rick Daugherty, director of Lehigh Valley Active Life in Allentown, generously allowed Cynthia and me to give a presentation on this reading need at his center. Rick sent an email blast for volunteers to all members on his mailing list.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the day of our presentation was sleeting and blustery, a nasty day. We thought we\u2019d be lucky to get even a handful of attendees. Instead, 30 hardy souls braved the elements and all signed up to help. It was so inspiring to look upon their eager faces. We need you to follow their example.<\/p>\n

Please contact Cynthia Phillips to help our children: phillipsc@allentownsd.org You won\u2019t regret it. And you might just change the course of a child\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Frederick Douglass once said \u201cit is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.\u201d That\u2019s at the heart of any quality education system and what you will help foster if you volunteer.<\/p>\n

Fred Rogers, unparalleled champion for our kids, told them that when they are in need to always \u201clook for the helpers.\u201d They are looking to you right now. Please help them.<\/p>\n

This is a contributed opinion column. Cynthia Phillips is a resident of Allentown and a literacy volunteer coordinator for Allentown School District Foundation. Ettore J. Angelo is a criminal defense attorney in the Lehigh Valley. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com\/opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allentown children need you to help them learn to read. Reading skills are essential for all our children…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1559],"class_list":{"0":"post-85504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}