Sumter County schools launch new literacy program to help young students read with confidence. By Deric Rush deric.rush@wistv.com

‍The ONCE Program focuses on helping kindergarten and first-grade students connect the sounds they hear with the letters they see on the pageReading is the foundation for learning — and in Sumter County, a new early literacy program is helping the district’s youngest students build stronger reading and writing skills. The ONCE Program, now underway at several elementary schools, focuses on helping kindergarten and first-grade students connect the sounds they hear with the letters they see on the page — an essential building block for early literacy. At Manchester Elementary, Learning Specialist Queatiyah Rogers works one-on-one with students to help them improve their pronunciation, reading comprehension, and confidence.

“The ONCE Program basically helps our young people understand and articulate different sounds,” Rogers explained. The English Language Arts curriculum uses virtual programs to help students match letters with the sounds they make — giving teachers new tools to reinforce phonics and reading comprehension in the classroom.

“By using that specialized orthography, it helps students have that hand-to-eye connection — to match the symbol with the sound,” said Tara Sullivan, Coaching Director for the ONCE Program.

The initiative was made possible through a $400,000 grant from the Sumter County Council, which funded teacher training, new software, and literacy resources for kindergarten and first-grade classrooms across the district. Sumter School Board Vice Chairman Brian Alston says the investment is already paying off.“Looking at the data, we could see where students were behind in reading — even K through 12,” Alston said. “We wanted to address it early.

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune once said, when she learned to read, her whole life changed. Giving a student that same ability can change the entire trajectory of their life.”District leaders say they plan to continue working with county officials to expand the ONCE Program beyond kindergarten and first grade in the coming years.