As local schools analyze the most current round of FCAT results, one local high school program is celebrating a 100% success rate on the challenging test and a national award recognizing that achievement.

Thanks to a year-long reading program developed cooperatively by Eastside High School media specialist Carol Faas and Institute of Culinary Arts (ICA) director Chef Billie DeNunzio, every one of the seniors in the ICA this year passed the FCAT, which is required for graduation. That includes not just students taking Advanced Placement courses or enrolled in the International Baccalaureate Program, but also a number of struggling readers who failed to pass the FCAT reading test the first time around—or even the second, or the third.

“There were some at the beginning of the year that looked like they weren’t going to graduate,” said Faas. “Some of the kids who were not prepared for success have now earned scholarships and are going on to further their education.”

Throughout the year Faas and DeNunzio used a wide variety of strategies to boost the literacy skills of those ICA students who struggled with reading. The common thread was food. For example, Faas presented books, news articles and other materials on topics ranging from cultural cuisines to bizarre foods to the lives of famous chefs. Students visited the media center to research the latest trends in growing and preparing food. They created their own menus and developed new recipes. The teachers say culinary arts was a great way to get the struggling students hooked into doing more reading.

“Everyone in this program is interested in food,” said DeNunzio. “Once you get them caught up in reading about culinary subjects, they’ll go on to other things.”

“We were able to expand on their interests,” agree Faas. “You can take them from a recipe for a rice dish and use that as a doorway to a whole world of information about culture, travel, geography and economics.”

The Eastside program is one of just three literacy programs nationwide to win a TEAMS Award, which is sponsored annually by the Library Media Connection and Gale/Cengage Learning, an educational publishing company. The award, which includes a $2500 cash prize and thousands of dollars worth of educational materials, recognizes outstanding collaborations between media specialists and classroom teachers to promote student achievement. Faas will also travel to California later this month to present information about the program at the American Libraries Association conference.

Faas and DeNunzio are now looking forward to adding new strategies to the program next year, including earlier identification of struggling readers, book clubs and more collaboration with teachers in other subject areas.

“Our goal is that every student will graduate, and that more students will get scholarships so they can go on to college,” said Faas. “We want to ensure academic success for all our students.”