National Vision Supports Local Atlanta School
When the 2017-2018 school year started, students at Fickett Elementary School, in Atlanta, Georgia, were presented with a one-of-a-kind challenge. If they improved their reading and attendance scores, they would have the opportunity to attend a Monster Jam show!
National Vision’s Marketing Department gladly donated 300 tickets to the local elementary school in support of this reading and attendance incentive program.
How It All Got Started
Two years ago, Principal Benita Grant made a special request on her personal Facebook page – she was looking for someone willing to donate some tickets to a Monster Jam show in support of an incentive program she was developing. At the time, Principal Grant was the Assistant Principal of Humphries Elementary School, another Atlanta-area school.
An Associate from our Accounting Department saw the post and put Principal Grant in touch with our Marketing Department.
Grant’s program was simple – if students in grades 3 through 5 could read 500,000 words or more, they would receive a ticket to go see a Monster Jam show. A similar idea applied to students in grades 1 through 2 – if they could read 100,000 words or more, they would also get to go to a Monster Jam show.
For the 2016 – 2017 school year, National Vision donated 300 tickets.
This Year’s Program
The reading incentive program went so well that Principal Grant decided to implement a similar program at Fickett Elementary where she is currently the Principal. When she arrived at Fickett Elementary, 48% of the students had chronic attendance issues. Thus, this year’s incentive program was aimed at improving two of her school’s Big Three – attendance, reading fluency and math fluency.
National Vision’s Marketing Department once again donated 300 tickets.
Results of the Incentive Program
In the weeks leading up to the February 25th Monster Jam show, students in grades 2 through 5 showed improvement in both reading comprehension and their lexile levels – a popular method used by schools to measure a student’s reading ability as it can measure how difficult a text is or a student’s reading ability level.
Fickett’s book circulation also increased by over 2,000 books since the previous school year!
Similarly, for the 2017 – 2018 school year, attendance was at 95.3% – putting Fickett at the top 3 in their cluster for positive daily attendance rate.
National Vision was happy to hear that Principal Grant’s program was a success. We hope all the students at Fickett Elementary have a safe and fun summer! Don’t forget to read!
Jessica Altamirano
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