For some parents, building the foundation for kindergarten comes naturally, as they read books and introduce words with their children every day. But for families in East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park, many of whom are not native English speakers and have not attained high levels of education, this intuitive literacy development is much less familiar. That’s where a local nonprofit called 10 Books A Home (10BH) comes in.
Training families at home to support their children’s education
10BH, which is based on the belief that, “the achievement gap can be closed from the living room,” recruits volunteer “role models” who teach parents in East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park how to support their children to be ready for kindergarten and long term academic success.
10BH role model works with a child at home. Photo by San Jose Mercury News
10BH Founder: “I’m on a vision to make a difference”
10BH founder and CEO Paul Thiebaut III grew up in a family with alcoholism, dropped out of high school and did not read a book until he was 23. But that first book – the Autobiography of Malcolm X– changed the course of his life. “I decided to get lost in school instead of lost in the streets, where my life was not headed in a good direction,” Paul remembers.
While attending San Jose State, Paul worked as an academic tutor where he observed the impact of parental involvement on children’s learning. “I saw how the cultural expectation for academic success comes from the home,” he said.
Inspired to help students in East Palo Alto avoid the path of academic failure he experienced as a child, Paul started 10BH as a pilot in 2011 and fully codified the program in 2012.
10BH founder and CEO Paul Thiebaut III
Weekly visits for the most vulnerable families
10BH currently works with 90 families in the Ravenswood City School District attendance area and has a goal of eventually serving a critical mass of the 500 incoming kindergarteners who enroll in the district each year. The program is free for families but they need to make a two- year commitment and promise to do “homework” and family reading with their children every week.
Photo by 10BH
10BH targets families whose income is in the bottom 20% because the children at this level are most at risk of repeating the cycle of poverty.
10BH role models live up to their name
10BH’s volunteer role models visit families for an hour once a week to teach parents how to build key pre-kindergarten skills in literacy, numeracy and more. During these weekly lessons, parents are required to observe and practice the activities with their children, in either English or their native language.
10BH families receive weekly education support and a bookcase with 50 books
In addition to these home lessons, 10BH families also receive a bookcase filled with 50 books that is theirs to keep.
10BH adds 600 hours of learning before kindergarten
All this intervention adds up. When the two-year commitment to 10BH is complete, the organization estimates that children in the program have experienced almost 600 hours of learning activities, an average of about 5.5 hours per week.
Is 10BH working?
A look at the first set of available data shows some very promising results. Of the 10BH children who started school in 2013, 100 percent were deemed ready for kindergarten, compared 19 percent across the district as a whole. If these results can be sustained throughout a child’s education journey, 10BH has the potential to make an enormous difference in the lives of the children it serves.
data from 10BH website
Another indicator of 10BH’s success is that people stick with the program: 10BH has a 92 percent retention rate for families and a 90 percent retention rate for volunteers.
As one parent said in an assessment interview for 10BH, “My child learned and started to share with his brothers and sisters, and [10BH]…motivated me to help my children with reading and addition and subtraction…I thank God for the program and everything it has provided for my family.”
A cheerful, welcoming space for families in East Palo Alto including a huge library
In January 2015, Paul moved 10BH out of his apartment and into a five- bedroom house central East Palo Alto. Although the house was a wreck when he signed the lease, working with volunteers Paul transformed it into a hub for early childhood education, including a library with 5,000 pre-K books, a training facility for 10BH role models and a welcoming place where neighborhood families can come for story time and check out books.
10BH preschool library in East Palo Alto has 5,000 books available to check out for families
“We looked at office space all over, but we chose to put 10BH in a residential neighborhood so we could be in the community, for the community,” Paul explains.
Local foundations and donors allow 10BH to thrive and grow
As California and other states contemplate funding pre-kindergarten programs for all children, there is growing recognition that efforts like 10BH are crucial for closing the achievement gap. Donors such as The Peery Foundation are supporting 10BH to expand and reach more families who need this help.
“10BH costs about $945 per family, per year,” said Paul, “But that is less than half of what most home visit programs for early childhood intervention cost.”
“Building a culture of learning throughout the community…”
Considering the impact of 10BH on kindergarten readiness for kids in 10BH compared to their Ravenswood peers, the investment seems well worth it. “Our goal is that three years from now, 30 percent of all Ravenswood kindergarten students will be 10BH graduates,” Paul said. “With so many families participating in 10BH, we can build a culture of learning within the home that will spread throughout the community.”
To learn more about 10BH, volunteer as a role model or donate, visit the organization’s website at www.10booksahome.org.
