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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

More Maryland Seniors Head Back to School for Reading Lessons

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Monday, May 19, 2014   

BALTIMORE - Nearly 8,000 kindergarten-through-third-grade students in Baltimore City Schools have special literacy coaches - and the connection is boosting test scores.

The program, which places volunteers in classrooms, has been so successful that it is being expanded to pre-kindergarten classrooms thanks to a grant from the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, said Bill Romani, AARP Experience Corps branch director.

Many volunteers are former teachers or come from law enforcement, and Romani said he finds they have a strong commitment to service.

"Take the wisdom and knowledge and experience of our seniors," he said, "and use that to help work on some of society's most intractable and difficult problems."

Experience Corps volunteers work with students one-on-one and in small groups, targeting children who are struggling with literacy. Not only are reading scores improved, but chronic absences are reduced.

Romani said they will soon be adding to the list of 350 senior volunteers, and are recruiting people interested in helping to ensure a child's success.

"One of the most important things for a child is for them to be able to read at grade level by third grade," he said. "It really sets them up to graduate from high school, and to get a job and be able to make a significant contribution to their community, and to society."

The Experience Corps program sends those in the 50-plus set into classrooms around the country, and the Baltimore branch is the largest in the nation.

Romani can field calls from seniors interested in volunteering at 443-278-9400.


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