Doug Jones To Visit Birmingham School For Read Across America Day

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Senator Doug Jones, fresh off his recent Alabama tour, will return to Birmingham Friday as part of Read Across America Day. Jones will visit Henry J. Oliver Elementary School in Birmingham to read to second grade students who participate in the Start the Adventure in Reading (STAIR) of Birmingham program.

On February 8, Jones was invited to visit the program through a social media video shared online by STAIR of Birmingham, featuring several of its students. Jones responded later that evening with a promise to visit STAIR’s students at the earliest opportunity.

“I have been looking forward to meeting with these talented students for some weeks and I was so grateful to receive their very thoughtful invitation," Jones said. "For nearly twenty years, STAIR has been a model program in the Birmingham community and has provided thousands of underserved second-graders with the tools they need to improve their reading skills.”

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This school year, STAIR of Birmingham is providing 200 students from 13 different Birmingham City Schools with two hours of one-on-one tutoring in reading each week. These second-grade students work with the same two trained volunteers who provide one-on-one support in literacy for the entire school year. Historically, STAIR students have improved their reading scores by an average of 90 percent upon completing the program.

Photo by Michael Seale