By Traci Newell

Joe HU/Town Crier YES Reading tutor Megan Pecson listens as her student sounds out some of the words on the page. Pecson is one of nearly 70 tutors at Castro Mariano Elementary School in Mountain View.

Most students at Mariano Castro Elementary School in the Mountain View-Whisman School District come from families that do not speak English as a primary language and consequently have difficulties in the language arts.

In an effort to address the need, Castro has opened its doors to YES Reading, a non-profit group that provides one-on-one tutoring for students reading below grade level. YES Reading partners with under-resourced public schools and uses community volunteers to work with classroom teachers to provide a curriculum-based, results-oriented intervention for low-performing readers.

“I’ve seen so many changes in the kids I work with,” said Peggy Franczyk, parent volunteer. “It’s really wonderful to see the students come along and see them get to a point where they get joy from reading.”

The program is quartered in a portable on the Castro campus. Volunteers are asked to commit to two 45-minute sessions a week with their student.

On average, after 30 hours of tutoring, students increase their reading ability by one grade level, said Yve Heit, the YES Reading site director at Castro.

“It’s been phenomenal to see the impact on students who go home to families who aren’t speaking English or houses with no books,” Heit said. “It becomes a really valuable time for them.”

The YES program offers take-home reading for participants. The students are given a slightly used book to take home to keep, as long as they fill out a response sheet regarding the book. Each holiday season the students are given a new book to take home.

YES Reading operates reading centers at Castro, Belle Haven School in Menlo Park, Selby Lane School in Redwood City, Horace Mann School in San Jose, Montague Elementary School in Santa Clara and College Park Elementary in Foster City. Heit said the goal is to work in 10 schools throughout Silicon Valley by 2010.

The non-profit has volunteers from all walks of life, Heit said, including parents, retired teachers, Foothill College students, local high school students, mothers and area business professionals from companies such as Google and Intuit.

Volunteers receive a two-hour orientation and observe a session before they schedule tutoring sessions with a student. YES Reading is currently accepting volunteers.

“The community involvement really makes a huge difference,” Franczyk said. “We live in an area that is so wealthy and yet we have these pockets of underserved schools. When a community comes in to help serve a population like this, it really makes a difference.”

Since the program’s inception at Castro almost two years ago, state test scores have jumped 37 points.

For more information, visit www.yesreading.org.