Jeyron’s Story

When he started first grade in the Fall, Jeyron was behind both developmentally and academically. After missing more than 100 days of virtual kindergarten last year, his teacher, Dina Yarmus, estimated that he began first grade developmentally at a Pre-K level. When he joined the Achieve Now program in October, his literacy instructor, Azizah Grant, recalls that he barely looked at the camera and struggled to verbalize and to respond to questions.

In addition, Jeyron did not know any of his letters or numbers. Yarmus estimates that he could distinguish only about ten percent of individual phonemes in words, a skill critical to spelling and reading. His writing was barely legible—his fine motor skills needed development—and he could not spell his own name.

The good news was Jeyron has the right mindset. He comes to school regularly and is usually positive; he always tries hard and doesn’t shut down when faced with challenges; and he asks for help and is appreciative of any adult (and any peer) who helps him. As Yarmus notes, “Mindset and attitude is such a foundational element of believing in yourself and being able to work toward a goal.”

Over the course of the year, Jeyron received many-layered support from a wide array of villagers. In addition to his participation in Achieve Now, and District-mandated Saxon phonics and shared reading curricula, he received thrice-weekly tutoring with an AARP volunteer, including work on literacy skills. Two or three times a week, he participated in small group instruction with his classmates. He also worked every day with a foster grandparent volunteer who was embedded in the classroom, and practiced on Lexia, a literacy development program on the class computer.

Grant, Jeyron’s Achieve Now literacy instructor, recognized that, before he could grow academically, Jeyron needed to build his socio-emotional toolbox. Rather than focusing primarily on the week’s lesson, she worked to give him the basic interactive tools to operate on his own. Just before winter break, she noticed Jeyron starting to come out of his shell, speaking up and self-advocating. “To me,” she reports, “that’s even more of a success story than the letters that he knew.”

Although Jeyron showed some academic growth in the school year’s first half, correctly identifying five letters and letter sounds on his Achieve Now interim assessment, he struggled to digest all the information in the Rising Readers lessons. In response, Grant began to prepare special, more focused lessons featuring flash cards and limited to three letters. With more digestible lessons, Jeyron’s relationship with his Achieve Now coach blossomed, and his academic growth began to accelerate.

His coach, Judith Peters, works as a program coordinator for the School District of Philadelphia. Her background in education provided a significant assist to his development. One breakthrough she had was to emphasize the importance of practice. Yarmus’ strategy for Jeyron was high-level repetition of letters and letter sounds; he was going to get “a lot of exposure; a lot of repetition.” When Peters, his Achieve Now coach, pointed out that professional athletes must practice constantly to get good at their craft and to read their complex contracts, she explains, “That’s when the light bulb went on.”

By year’s end, Jeyron was a much more confident, comfortable student. He can now write his name independently; his handwriting has improved tremendously; he can hear roughly 80% of the sounds in words and can spell words as a result. On his final Achieve Now assessment, Jeyron was reading letters automatically and correctly identified 60 letters and letter sounds.

When she conducted the assessment, Grant was “blown away”; she had proudly noted Jeyron’s socio-emotional development but didn’t expect so much academic growth over the last half of the school year. Jeyron’s progress was a group effort. For Yarmus, Achieve Now integrated well with the classroom support he received. “Props to the village,” Grant says, “when we put the work in, when we give them those opportunities...it really shows.”

“Mindset and attitude is such a foundational element of believing in yourself and being able to work toward a goal.”  

—DIna Yarmus, Jeyron’s teacher