Teacher Debbie Maas and her volunteers are doing much more than just opening a page into children's imagination. Through the HOSTS program at César Chávez Elementary School, they are giving children the gift of reading and a shot at academic proficiency.

HOSTS stands for Helping One Student To Succeed. It's a 4-day-a-week, one-on-one, 30-minute reading tutorial program in which volunteers team up to read with students in grades one through four.

"This is why the children do well — they come in here to spend time with a friend reading," Maas said during a recent visit to her class, in which about 12 adult volunteers worked with students.

According to Maas, the now-defunct educational consultant HOSTS Corporation started the national program years ago. Santa Fe Public Schools once had four schools playing host to HOSTS, but now it's just at César Chávez. Maas, who has been a teacher at that school since it opened in 1996, initiated the HOSTS program there 13 years ago.

She relies on educational aide, Ramona Lucero, and a volunteer base of more than 110 people who show up for at least one (and sometimes more) of the 30-minute reading sessions each week. One volunteer, Cynthia Fisher, even brings her dog Fritz to class. Fritz is certified through the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society's Pet Outreach to visit schools. He fell asleep during last Tuesday morning's 9 a.m. session, even though Fisher and her charge were reading really well.

Robert Vigil is a volunteer for the program. "We have to do more work in the schools to close the achievement gap," he said, noting that many of César Chávez's students are English Language Learners. "For things to get better, the community has to acknowledge there are problems and then step in and do something about it." He's been doing just that with HOSTS for 13 years.

Each Friday, Maas spends the day working out a personalized lesson plan for each of the 90-some students in the program. She can rely on any reading material she wants. She measures the students' progress (or lack of) and modifies the plan to meet their needs. She said she's only lost a couple of children from the program in
13 years; the vast majority end up progressing by at least an average of two reading levels.

Teachers and parents can recommend children to the program. The kids are not pulled out of any of the important standard courses like math, science and history, but rather find 30 minutes from study hall, creative writing, home room, or a non-essential lesson. Maas talks to other instructors to see whether she can incorporate other curriculum lessons into her reading sessions.

The children discover authors including Roald Dahl and Beverly Cleary, the Nancy Drew series, and individual stories including The Night the Moon Fell, Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea, and the rather intriguingly titled The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.

"We have to look beyond testing to measure student success," Maas said. "This works."

I asked a smiling second-grade boy why he liked the program.

"Because I get to read," he said.

She said the program can always use more volunteers and donations of books, paper, pencils, and cash to keep it healthy. If you're interested in finding out more, call Maas at 995-3390. Though this coming Thursday marks the last day of the program this semester, she'll be starting it up again next semester, and volunteer orientation isn't too difficult to navigate, she said.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com