DCPS in first place in national reading challenge

Bobbie Hayse, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
·2 min read

Jun. 18—Daviess County Public Schools has risen to first place in the national reading challenge, Read to the Races.

Select school districts were invited to participate in the national initiative to help encourage students to read throughout the summer. The Read to the Races event is themed around the Kentucky Derby and will allow a vast digital library to be available to all DCPS elementary schools.

Throughout the summer, students are encouraged to log reading hours, which will then be compared to reading times of other districts that have been invited to participate. Schools with the highest number of reading hours will be recognized.

Since mid-May, DCPS students have logged more than 8,000 minutes reading 1,300 books, according to DCPS literacy coach, Angela Gunter.

"I am shocked," she said. "I knew this would be something that kids would like, and if parents knew about it, they would, too."

A lot of summer programming has taken place throughout the school district so far, which Gunter said may be contributing to the high number of readers. Even after summer schools are over, the hope is that kids will continue to take advantage of the resource.

The National Center for Transformational Leadership Strategies has partnered with Renaissance Learning and the Kentucky Derby to promote this reaching enrichment opportunity for students in the commonwealth.

Read to the Races will provide free access to the MyON digital library, which will offer a wide variety of books and articles to match students' interests and reading abilities. It includes audio, an embedded dictionary and other reading tools to assist students, and content can be accessed in English, Spanish and other languages.

DCPS' log-in link for the summer reading challenge is https://www.myon.com/school/daviesscountyreads.

Students can log in and enter their school name and the program will log their reading times. Their elementary school's initials are their usernames. So Audubon is AES, Burns is BES, Country Heights is CHES, Deer Park is DPES, East View is EVES, Highland is HES, Meadow Lands if MLES, Sorgho is SES, Southern Oaks is SOES, Tamarack is TES, Valley School is VES, West Louisville is WLES, and Whitesville is WES.

The password for log-in is: books.

For more information about this program visit the Read to the Races website at https://www.renaissance.com/kyReadToTheRaces/.

Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315

Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315