The Guatemala Literacy Program that Linda Henke developed two years ago is going strong. Our first year results demonstrate solid success. We pre and post tested all students using EGRA, an international literacy test, and were delighted that at the end of seven months, our first grade readers demonstrated third grade reading skills. The results pleased the Guatemala Minister of Education so much that she asked us to develop a professional development program that would train many more Guatemala teachers.

Unfortunately, political unrest in the country resulted in the Minister leaving office, so we are putting that training program on hold for the time being, but expect to add 10 new schools when we visit for training in January. Two bilingual classrooms in Santa Fe where young native speakers learn reading and writing in Spanish are piloting the program this year. Many of these youngsters are from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico