Student Success in the New Salem Educational Initiative: Candace Anderson

Candace Anderson is a member of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, where I have been a member for 19 years.  She had occasionally attended the New Salem Tuesday Night Tutoring program, a program of multiple students and tutors that I also oversee, but her attendance was erratic, and her academic performance suffered accordingly. 

So during academic year 2011-2012, Candace's’s mother, Brenda, sought my focused attention for improving Candace's’s math and reading skills in the small-group setting.  When Candace entered the Initiative, she was functioning one full level below that of school enrollment in both of those major skill areas.  But I quickly assessed Candace as having no impediments to rapid skill acquisition, so I launched her on a very aggressive program in both math and reading. 

By spring 2012, Candace was functioning at grade level in both math and reading.  I picked her up at school each Tuesday afternoon;  since her school Jenny Lind (a K-5 school in Minneapolis) operates on a schedule of late arrival and late dismissal, Candace would be hungry when she entered my vehicle after 4:00 PM.  I therefore would provide a sandwich and orange juice at the beginning of each session, and I would also give Candace a granola bar accompanied by another small bottle of juice at the end of each small-group session.  At about 5:45 PM each week, Candace would take a short break and then stay for the Tuesday night program that runs from 6:00 until 7:30 PM.  In this manner, I drew upon the availability of both tutoring programs for which I serve as director to maximize Candace’s progress in the New Salem Educational Initiative.

Thus, Candace thrived in her first year of enrollment.  She proved to be an avid reader when given challenging assignments taken from various books, including the Core Knowledge series edited by E. D. Hirsch. She also delighted in her math progress, proving especially responsive to assignments involving place value for both whole numbers and decimals. She beamed brightly on the day that she first correctly read the number 564,245,231, 852,627,983.987 from its beginnings in the hundred quadrillions to its ending in the thousandths position.

Candace thus anticipates the 2012-2013 academic year with joy and pride.  With the academic weight and ballast that comes with at least one full year of participation in the New Salem Educational Initiative, she is on course to begin the school year functioning fully at grade level in both math and reading, poised to enter the fast track toward a college preparatory program.  Candace’s continued academic ascent will be a joy to witness for Brenda and those at New Salem who have marveled at the remarkable success that she manifested in academic year 2011-2012.