At-Risk Kids Get the Key to Early Learning Success PREP Program Turns Poor Language and Social Skills Around

Rosemary Zibart, Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor

During its first summer three years ago, a free tutoring program for minority children from Nashville's poorest housing projects made a key mistake. It picked a location across the hall from regular public school summer classes.

Public school students were constantly creeping over and trying to join the classes, says Sandra Smithson, a Roman Catholic nun who created the program and is guiding its rapid growth.

"From then on we had to have a separate location just so we wouldn't have to lock out the other kids," Ms. Smithson says. Smithson's nonprofit endeavor, called Project Reflect Educational Programs (PREP), started when she realized children in the projects …

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Publication information: Article title: At-Risk Kids Get the Key to Early Learning Success PREP Program Turns Poor Language and Social Skills Around. Contributors: Rosemary Zibart, Monitor - Author. Newspaper title: The Christian Science Monitor. Publication date: June 3, 1997. Page number: 12. © 2009 The Christian Science Publishing Society. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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