Hanover Hills Elementary School (HHES), located in Howard County, Maryland received a $1,500 CACEASF Emergency Reading Response Grant to support their Diverse Library Project. The CACEASF is proud to support this project which establishes a school culture that fosters inclusion and eliminates barriers to literacy that are deepening during the pandemic.
HHES serves a very diverse population of students, Pre-K-Grade 5. Twenty-six languages are spoken within the families of the 726 students enrolled. The school includes an early childhood center, has an academic life skills program for students who are non-diploma bound, and a regional emotional disabilities program. 21% receive Special Education services and 20% of the student body is reading below grade level.
The diverse libraries project offers students the opportunity to see, hear, and read stories about diverse characters that reflect a spectrum of social, emotional and physical capacities, ethnicities, socioeconomic levels, family composition, skills, and goals.
This initiative has power “beyond words” to increase the social-emotional health for minority students and students with disabilities, expand pathways for all students, foster cultural engagement and understanding, and improve literacy.
During unprecedented times of student learning regression in America, every barrier to learning must be considered and every opportunity taken to break those barriers down. Let’s go back to school better than ever in 2021!
Learn more about diverse libraries at Scholastic’s On Our Mind Blog here: https://oomscholasticblog.com/post/14-readers-tell-us-why-diverse-books-are-so-important