• two highly trained volunteer teachers
• a 5:1 student-teacher ratio
• a thoroughly tested, proven effective curriculum
• a free anthology of their class’s writing at the end of the course, professionally designed and perfect-bound.

Deep provides these highly successful workshops free of charge to the students and school administrators across Chatham County by maintaining an efficient, streamlined budget. We have broken down the cost—which is covered by grants and private donors—to $10 per hour of instruction.

$10 = $0.60 towards a free copy of a Deep anthology of the students’ work (6%)

$0.80 towards curriculum development (8%)

$0.70 towards volunteer teacher recruitment (7%)

$0.30 for materials (3%)

$0.10 towards program evaluation (1%)

$1.70 towards office space, bookkeeping, fundraising, grant reporting, board development, and all other administrative costs (17%)

$5.80 for volunteer teacher training, classroom observations, and support. Our rigorous teacher training program is so effective that last semester alone, Deep inspired four volunteers to completely change careers and pursue full-time work in education. (58%)

Now that you’ve read our spiel, here’s the real deal: Savannah-Chatham Public Schools have recently implemented a new reading initiative, based on nationally normed Lexile measures. Which means, according to the Savannah Morning News article:

“Last year, 89 percent of second graders met or exceeded the reading standard on the CRCT. But if the Lexile scoring system were applied, only 63 percent of those same students would have reading skills that meet the grade-level standard.”

Where does that put Deep and it’s $10 an hour instruction? It puts us right where we need to be. By providing these workshops at no cost, we can help prepare students for the newly implemented Lexile rating system by spending more time discussing and reading aloud difficult texts in a stress-free, friendly environment.