In order to make sure every Deroche Bear is reading at or above their grade level, our staff conduct school wide reading "Benchmarks" tests three times per year. Over the past two years, we have seen considerable improvement in all of children's reading levels due to the excellent instruction of our teachers and support staff and encouragement from parents. However, for those students who were not at grade level, we have seen an even more dramatic improvement due to our Intensive Reading Program. This program relies on a 3 or 4 volunteers reading with each of these children, one on one, for 15 or 20 minutes per day. Typically our "reading volunteers" are grandparents and retired professionals and we very much appreciate and benefit from their support. Our goal is put them out of business with reading and to duplicate our "intensive" focus in math.