America Scores Cleveland

Core writing programming for grades 3-5 poet-athletes (students from partnering cleveland metropolitan schools) meet with their writing coaches for creative writing workshops during afterschool hours two days per week for 22 weeks of the school year. In the fall, poet-athletes are engaged in the "power of poetry" curriculum. The fall season ends with a poetry slam. The spring writing curriculum, "writing for the community", focuses on service-learning, where poet- athletes select a community issue and then work as a team to implement a service project. The spring season ends with a presentation of team-led community projects. During fy24, 354 students in grades 3-5 participated in the program throughout the 22 weeks. 78% of participants maintained or showed improved on the 6+1 trait writing assessment from pre to post test. 97% of coaches surveyed, agreed that participants in the program showed improvement in their language arts skills; 87% of participants agreed that the scores program helped them become comfortable and confident when speaking in front of groups of people; 97% of caregivers/parents agreed that because of the scores program their child's academic performance improved since joining america scores.

Additional programming additional programming in fy24 included a junior program for grades 1-2 at 14 schools and a middle school program for grades 6-8, offered in both schools and in partnership with the city of cleveland recreation and resource centers. Practices ranged from 60 to 120 minutes and were held two to four days per week, with an equal focus on soccer and literacy programming. Approximately 246 students participated in jr. Scores for at least one day of programming, with 95% improving or maintaining their scores on dolch sight word pre- and post-assessments. Additionally, 94 middle school students participated in the spring session, with 95% reporting that the scores program boosted their confidence, and 89% of caregivers agreed that their child spent more time reading or writing after joining the program. Summer programming spanned five to ten weeks in collaboration with nonprofit organizations, cmsd summer schools, and the city of cleveland recreation centers. In total, scores served an additional 910 youth in grades 1-8 through its additional programs. Overall, america scores engaged 1,264 cleveland youth during fy24.