What does it take to cause all children to achieve grade level reading proficiency? “Whatever it takes” is the correct and only answer. The problem is that public education has not done a satisfactory job of causing all children to achieve grade level reading proficiency. The 2013-14 Wisconsin Information System for Education indicates that 63% of all students tested did NOT achieve grade level proficiency in reading.
Alarmingly, 64.8% of the elementary children tested were NOT proficient in reading. If the 2013-14 high school data are any indicator that children improve their reading over time, the answer is they do NOT. 57.2% of the high school students tested were NOT proficient in reading.
We need a new understanding of what “whatever it takes” means.
From the get go, we need to remember always that indicators of reading proficiency are moving targets, annually involving a more complex and rigorous application of reading comprehension skills. If reading assessment was a foot race, children in Kindergarten would be expected to run ten yards in a specified amount of time. The distance becomes fifteen yards in first grade and twenty yards in second grade. A child who struggles in this race in Kindergarten, with extra training in first grade, may run ten yards in the Kindergarten-specific amount of time at the end of first grade, but the new marker for first grade is fifteen yards. This student is well on the pathway of being below grade level.
The real alarm sounds at the end of third grade, because children who cannot succeed in the third grade footrace (achieve third grade reading proficiency before entering fourth grade), typically are not able to comprehend 50% or more of the print material they are presented in fourth grade. And, the percentage of incomprehensible information increases every year until they graduate from of high school, or don’t graduate.
http://www.aecf.org/resources/early-warning-confirmed/
A new understanding of “whatever it takes” to cause all children to attain and sustain grade level reading proficiency simply stated is “all children will begin their first year of schooling ‘school ready’.” That means every child will have a strong working vocabulary and level of background information as a foundation for grade level reading instruction. This is “new” because school readiness today is an amorphous term that is more associated with “feeling good about school” than “readiness to do good in school.”
These steps will create and reinforce a new understanding of “whatever it takes to achieve a readiness for reading proficiency.”
1. Make Four-year old Kindergarten the first year of school for all children.
319 of the 435 school districts in Wisconsin of have 4K programs – 116 districts do not. In the last century, 5K was the traditional first year of school for most children and 4K programs were few and far between and always optional. Today, 4K should be the first year of school for all children.
Opponents of 4K hold many reasons for delaying the start of school until a child is five-years old. Taken individually, their reasons can be valid. Taken as a generalization, they are not.
Reforms in K-12 education have fundamentally shifted academic expectations downward. What children were expected to master by the time they enrolled in middle school now is the curriculum of the upper elementary grades. The content and skills of fourth and fifth grade have become the content and skills of second and third grade. Kindergarten now teaches children what their parents learned in first and second grade. 4K is now Kindergarten.
Addressed from the educational accountability perspective, the academic assessment of children and conclusions regarding their academic achievement begin in third grade. These conclusions have deep repercussions for individual children and for their schools and teachers. Strong achievement yields acknowledgement of success while weak or failing achievement yields state-imposed penalties. It only makes sense for children to have the advantage of all the assessment readiness strategies available so that they can be successful in their academic achievement.
The incremental development of pre-reading readiness that can be achieved by a 4K and 5K combination gives more children a chance to obtain a third grade reading proficiency by the time they enroll in fourth grade.
http://ec.dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/fscp/pdf/ec4yk-09pp.pdf
2. Align pre-school and the school “farm systems” with school readiness.
Even though most pre-school operations are independent of their local school district, they still profess to be “pre”-school. Reinforce their independent governance and financial status, but insist that they align their curriculum with the district’s expectations for school readiness. Provide written explanations of what readiness for pre-reading means in terms of phonology, everyday word recognition, and experiential information. Be explicit or incoming pre-school graduates will continue to be unready for pre-reading.
As independent operators, pre-schools want their programming to be attractive to tuition-paying parents. Attractiveness too often looks like “fun time” activities and too seldom like pre-reading activities.
And, don’t be afraid to publicly appreciate the school readiness traditions of certain pre-schools or declare the inadequacies of others. The alignment of pre-school with school is in the child’s best interest to ensure that all children begin school ready for reading instruction.
3. Connect with Birth to Three, Head Start and local ethnic support centers.
The direct connection of cognitive delays, poverty and non-English speaking home language to below grade level achievement in primary school is clear in the Casey Foundations study. So, get at these three problems early. Don’t wait for these conditions to delay the pre-reading readiness of children, but provide each local organization with materials and activities they can distribute to their clients. Go further and volunteer school personnel who will meet with parents at these centers to demonstrate and reinforce how moms and dads can help their children develop young vocabularies.
The separation of birth-to-school programming from school is both traditional and wrong. Everyone involved with birth-to-school has a vested interest in every child’s school success.
4. Create a pre-school activity center.
Your school is a community center for parents of pre-school children as well as parents of children enrolled in school. Many of the 4K and 5K materials will be of interest to parents as they seek engaging activities for their pre-school aged children. Lend them or give them the materials they want and need – either way 4K and 5K teachers will reap the benefits of children who are ready to learn to read.
Invest in information rich materials for two-, three-, and four-year olds and make these available to parents of very young children. These are not usually available in your local library, so most parents need to purchase these for home use if they want them for their children. This expense is easy for a parent to forego because their child may spend little time before mastering these activities and moving on to what comes next. The cost looks greater than the benefit. So, create a lending library of materials and activities of birth-to- school children.
5. Act on Child Find and Kindergarten screening information
Whose is responsible for acting on the information that is learned from Child Find and Kindergarten screenings? Birth-to-Three programs have a responsibility to do follow-up for children with “found needs” in their age group. For children between age three and school enrollment the responsibility for follow-up rests with the parents and the school. If the Child Find information indicates a need for special education an IEP is developed and the school is responsible for its implementation. Many children, however, are identified with slight delays in cognitive or motor development that do not warrant special education. Too often the follow-up for children whose information says “I need help” but does not qualify for special education gets small attention. The traditional view has been that there is no funding for other pre-school children. Actually, there also is no help for those children.
Instead, create an inventory of information for each child who has been through the Child Find and Kindergarten screening processes. List strengths, weaknesses and recommendations. Then assign school personnel to facilitate the follow-up with parents for children who have identified weaknesses. Get at these small weaknesses before they become major weaknesses.
The greatest gaps among children in school performance appears on the first day of their school enrollment. Doing whatever it takes to close all achievement gapping means doing more than ever before to cause children to begin their first of school “school ready” for reading instruction.