Schools

Heisman Trust (and Trophy) Return to Manchester for Another Round of Summer Reading Grants

This year, the Heisman Trust will award two Manchester elementary schools $36,000 to encourage summer reading.

In the history of college sports, only one player has ever won multiple Hesiman trophies as the most outstanding player in college football. But a pair of Manchester elementary schools have successfully managed to convince the Heisman Trust that to purchase books for all students to take home for the summer to prevent the "summer reading slide" was successful enough to continue for another season. 

In fact, students at Washington and Nathan Hale elementary schools showed such significant improvement on reading aptitude tests this year after the grant allowed each student to take home and keep 10 books last summer that the Heisman Trust decided to increase the award this year to $36,000. 

The latest grant was presented Tuesday at an assembly at Washington Middle School attended by the entire school, as well as members and coaches from the University of Connecticut football team and William J. Dockery, president of the Heisman Trust. 

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"We looked at the results of students tests this year after the program," said Dockery. "There was a significant improvement in results. If we find a program that's working, we tend to stick with it." 

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Washington Principal Karen Gray said improvement in students' reading scores clearly showed the results of the program in a series of tests that students took in the fall to gauge their reading skills. 

"It diminished the summer slide in terms of reading, which is why the Hesiman Trust granted us the money again," Gray said. "It was significant enough for the Heisman Trust to award us even more money this year." 

The award will equal twice as much in actual books, as Scholastic Books have agreed to supply the books to students at 50 percent off, according to Dockery. Last year, to take home with them to read over the summer in an effort to stop the “summer reading slide,” which studies have shown can cost students as much as two grades in reading level if they do not read over the summer. 

Patricia Stewart, a grandmother of two students who attend Washington Elementary School, was so touched by the impact that the award had on her grandchildren last year that she approached Dockery in the hall after the awards ceremony to personally thank him. 

"It's so wonderful," Stewart told Dockery of the grant. "These kids are critical to what's going to happen 30 years down the road, so we need to support them now." 


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