Literacy – by Amanda Lucier

Amanda Lucier, MU alum, photographed for a story about the alarmingly low literacy rate in Portsmouth, Va.

I had about a day to work on this story about a reading intervention program in Portsmouth, and I can already tell that to do it real justice, I’ll need a few more trips back.

Caption for second from top: With no homework to do, Dae’Sha Brown, 10, spends her time after school in her neighborhood in Portsmouth. In a city with the second-highest high school dropout rate in Virginia, Brown is enrolled in a fourth-grade reading intervention class, designed to give struggling students a better chance in their academic careers by strengthening the fundamental skill of reading. One in five Portsmouth students will not graduate from high-school, and this program is designed to target students early, before they fall too far behind.

Check out other photos on Amanda’s blog.