In the business world, workers expect to be recognized for hard work. One manufacturer based in the Philadelphia suburb of Paoli has extended that idea to thousands of students by rewarding them for developing a love of reading.
For the last decade AMETEK, which makes advanced electronics, has partnered with the nearby American Reading Company, which designs reading materials and curricula for schools. Their relationship started when AMETEK’s foundation paid for the American Reading Company’s 100 Book Challenge program to be implemented at schools in Binghamton, N.Y., where AMETEK has a plant.
As part of the 100 Book Challenge, kids are expected to read for an hour each day at school and home. They pick the books, and teachers can use an online tool to track each student’s progress. AMETEK employees come to the schools once a week to work with the kids.
Over the last 10 years AMETEK paid for the program’s expansion at schools in New York, Illinois and North Carolina, along with the Carbon County town of Nesquehoning. During the last school year about 3,400 students in AMETEK-funded reading programs read for 475,000 hours. Children received medals for reaching their goals and top readers got chances to win bicycles.
“It’s such a good model for a public-private partnership,” Hileman says. “Picture a school community in which every child has a little book bag with ‘AMETEK’ on it, and one, two, five, 10 books that they’ve chosen.”
Source: Jane Hileman, American Reading Company
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
