Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 13, 2003
Contact:  Kirsten Kendrick, Governor’s Communications Office, 360-902-4136
Alt Contact:  Kim Schmanke, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 360-725-6015

Gov. Gary Locke, Superintendent of Public Instruction Honor Vancouver School as March ‘Reading School of the Month’

Gov. Gary Locke and Terry Bergeson, state superintendent of public instruction, today presented Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Vancouver with the “Reading School of the Month” award for March 2003.

“No matter what you want to do when you grow up, you have to start by being a good reader,” Locke told students. “Reading is the key to all academic success. I am so proud of all the progress Martin Luther King students have made in reading.”

The percentage of the school’s fourth-grade students meeting or exceeding standard on the reading portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) jumped from 56 percent in 1998 to nearly 79 percent in 2002.

Bergeson also congratulated the students, parents, staff and community for the overall improvements in student academic achievement.

“You should be very proud of the hard work that has led to more students learning how to read,” she said. “Schools selected for this honor do more than just increase their reading test scores. They demonstrate a commitment to providing a high-quality education to all of their students, regardless of the challenges of poverty or high-mobility. Martin Luther King Elementary has been making these great strides.”

Locke and Bergeson read “The Best Place to Read” by Debbie Bertram and Susan Bloom to an all-school assembly. They also presented an autographed copy of the book to the school.

The governor and the superintendent started the “Reading School of the Month” program in January 2002 to raise awareness about the importance of reading and learn how struggling schools made drastic changes to become exemplary reading schools.

Miss Washington 2002, Amanda Beers, also read to students and shared her success story. Beers, a 20-year-old Tri-Cities native, has a 50 percent hearing loss in both ears and has still become an accomplished, award-winning pianist. She was a finalist in the Miss America Pageant last fall.

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Related Links:
- School of the Month Web site
- K-12 Web site
- Governor's Web site
- Miss Washington's Web site

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