St. Gregory Among Top Schools in World in Reading Competition

TYLER — St. Gregory Elementary School students rank number four in the world for minutes read in the Scholastic Summer Challenge. The free program encourages children to read books and log their minutes during the summer to help avoid the “Summer Slide,” the loss of skills while out of school. Students at the Tyler school read and logged a total of 1,553,670 minutes and helped set a new world record of 64,213,141 minutes read – breaking last year’s record of 52,710,368. This year, 4,176 schools representing 22 countries participated.

Students from the Top 20 schools read and logged the most minutes and earned a listing in the 2012 Scholastic Book of World Records, which will be available through Scholastic Book Fairs, Scholastic Book Clubs and in bookstores nationwide this fall. In addition to logging their minutes on the Scholastic Summer Challenge site, children answered book trivia questions, earned virtual rewards and contributed to their school’s reading minutes.

“Scholastic congratulates all the students who participated in the Scholastic Summer Challenge and helped set a new world record for summer reading,” said Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic. “These students will begin the school year better prepared for the more challenging work they face in the next grade level.”