A legacy of reading achievement
John Heim - Emporia Superintendent of schools
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
THE END of a school year is a natural time to reflect on the successes and challenges of the past 10 months and set goals for the new year ahead. On May 19, the district honored 25 teachers and school support staff members who have collectively devoted 602 years to the education of Emporia ‘s children. It is humbling to think about the number of lives these men and women have touched.
Two of these individuals – Susan Hernandez and Carolyn Koch — are central office administrators who have played a vital role in our focus on reading and literacy the past seven years. Our journey to ensure that all children can read on grade level has required a significant investment of time, personnel and money. The scores of Emporia children taking Kansas Reading Assessments clearly show the investment has paid off handsomely.
Schools must test children every year in both reading and math in grades 3 – 8 and once in high school. Although final data for 2008 will not be available until August, the preliminary results show a continued upward trend in reading scores across the district for all students and all student “subgroups.”
When No Child Left Behind became law in 2002, just over half of our students scored at proficient of above on the Kansas Reading Assessment. Six years later, the overall reading achievement of Emporia students has increased 31 percent – 80 percent of our students scored at proficient of above on the assessment. These are difficult tests and everyone in the Emporia Public Schools should take pride in these results
When one considers the demographic changes in Emporia the past seven years, the results are even more impressive. In 2003, less than one-third of our English Language Learners (ELL) scored at proficient or above on the Reading Assessment. Five years later, 72 percent of ELL students are proficient or above on the test. That is a 60 percent gain by a group of children whose first language is not English. Similar results have occurred with Hispanic children and students from low-income homes. Hispanic student scores have doubled from 36 percent proficient in 2002 to 72 percent in 2008. Low-income student scores have jumped from 42 percent to 75 percent in the same time, a 44 percent increase.
These three subgroups represent some of our most struggling students. The results are a testament to our program and the commitment of teachers to think differently about how they teach children to read.
This achievement was a slow process started in 2001 when Susan Hernandez was hired through a grant as our first Literacy Projects Director. The National Reading Panel had just released its findings about teaching children to read after two years of research. Under Susan’s leadership, the district began to transform they way we teach children to read. In 2004, Carolyn Koch continued the job and implemented balanced literacy in the K-6 schools. Today, we have reading specialists in all our schools who work with teachers to customize their instruction based on student data.
We know so much more today about how students learn to read than when I started teaching 27 years ago. Reading instruction has become more scientific. Teachers use diagnostic assessments to determine how well children are reading. For those who struggle, additional measures are used to diagnose the problem. Instruction and interventions are then adjusted to meet the child’s specific needs.
The resources we have put into reading have been significant and worth the investment. When children become good readers in the early grades, they are more likely to become better learners throughout their school years and beyond.
We want to maintain the success we’ve experienced in reading while we put a similar emphasis on math. Based on our track record with reading, I have no doubt that math achievement will follow suit.
No individual can be credited for all of the improvement our students have shown in reading performance. The teacher in the classroom is still the most important factor in student achievement. But Carolyn and Susan can retire with the knowledge that more Emporia children can read proficiently today than when they began our reading initiative seven years ago.