EDMOND — The Oklahoma House of Representatives voted April 14 to end social promotion in Oklahoma schools, ensuring that grade school students have mastered reading before they advance to more challenging courses.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi praised passage of Senate Bill 346, a key part of her agenda.

According to a Capitol release, the Oklahoma Department of Education’s current funding for Reading Sufficiency programs can sufficiently cover the cost of remediation required by the legislation through summer reading academies and other programs (such as the READ Initiative).

At this time Edmond schools are participating in the Reading Sufficiency program as well as the Response to Intervention (RtI) program to improve reading scores.

Lynne Rowley, Edmond’s associate superintendent of elementary education, voiced concerns about how SB 346 would be funded.

 “Reading Sufficiency has been funded until this school year,” Rowley said. “We provided tutoring this year with our carryover funds, but all monies had to be spent as of June 1 and after that date there are no Reading Sufficiency funds available.”

The Reading Sufficiency Act enacted by the Oklahoma Legislature in June 1997, and amended in 2005, mandates that all students read at or above grade level by the end of their third-grade year.

“Every student found not to be reading at the appropriate grade level in grades 1-3 is provided a reading plan that includes additional instruction such as tutoring and summer programs,” Rowley said.

In the past parents could opt out of their child being held back at third grade if not on the appropriate reading level. With the passage of Senate Bill 346, all third-graders not on the appropriate reading level would be held back.

“On occasion a school team may determine on a case-by-case basis that a student could benefit from repeating a grade,” Rowley said. “It is an action that is not taken lightly or frequently.

“The overwhelming body of research on retention has found that the practice has a limited positive effect on student achievement and that immediate gains tend to be minimal and transient.

“At the same time, social promotion that passes children through the grades while ignoring their learning deficits is not the answer. What does work is early identification of children who are at risk and the development of a plan that provides targeted interventions,” Rowley said.

This year Edmond is using $44,981.13 in Reading Sufficiency carry-over funds. Rowley said as of June 1 with no funding the district will not be able to have tutoring, Saturday classes or summer programs, all part of the Reading Sufficiency program.

In addition to Reading Sufficiency, Response to Intervention assesses student reading levels throughout the year.

“Response to Intervention is being introduced at elementary schools in Edmond,” Rowley said. “All students are assessed three times during the year. Those students who are having difficulty are identified and research-based interventions are provided.”

At this time federally funded programs like Reading First and Striving Readers are being reformatted, Barresi said.

“They are taking federal reading funds and putting them under a different umbrella,” she said.

“At this time we are looking at public and private partnerships as well as groups as we look at all different types of programs and putting together different types of budgets.”



Reasons for reform

Barresi said a major part of this reform is early intervention, so reading problems can be identified and educators can be helped as they adopt individualized learning strategies with children in pre-K and kindergarten.

“Children make an important shift in learning after the third grade. If they aren’t prepared they fall significantly behind and grow increasingly frustrated.”

When a child is promoted to the fourth grade without having mastered reading, that child is set up for failure, said state Rep. Sally Kern, an Oklahoma City Republican and former school teacher.

“For Oklahoma’s children to succeed throughout life, it is crucial that we ensure they have mastered reading skills,” she said.

This legislation is carefully designed to lay a foundation for lifetime achievement and to put Oklahoma schools and students on a path for greater success, Kern said.

Barresi said House passage of SB 346 was underscored by the release of a new study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that found that students who don’t read proficiently by the third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma compared to proficient readers.

“This reform is not about ‘hitting the panic button’ in the third grade or punishing children,” Barresi said. “It’s about helping children succeed. We cannot abandon generations of children to a cycle of poverty brought on by high dropout rates. This reform draws a line in the sand to help children succeed in their most critical learning years, and it is an important first step.”



Implementation of bill

Senate Bill 346, by state Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, and Kern would require students entering first grade in the 2011-12 school year to master grade-appropriate reading skills by the end of third grade in order to be promoted to the fourth grade.

Under the legislation, a score at the limited knowledge level must be attained by the end of third grade or the student must be retained. Provisions to ensure early intervention occurs before students face the threat of retention are included.

• First, school districts would be required to establish a Reading Enhancement and Acceleration Development Initiative to prevent the retention of third-grade students.

• Secondly, intensive accelerated reading instruction would be offered to third-grade students who fail to meet standards for promotion and to each kindergarten through third-grade student who is assessed as having a reading deficiency.

• Districts must also notify parents when their child has a reading deficiency and inform them of services provided and that the student will be retained if the deficiency isn’t remedied.

The bill contains exemptions for students who have had less than two years of instruction in an English-language-learner program or those with disabilities.

Students not promoted would receive intensive reading instruction including tutoring or mentoring, an extended school day or week or year, summer reading camps or reduced teacher-student ratios.

Barresi pointed out that once SB 346 becomes law, Oklahoma will begin a three-year process before it completely takes effect, providing educators across the state time to implement it.

Senate Bill 346 passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 59-34 vote. The bill will return to the state Senate for consideration of House amendments.

 

What parents can do

Senate Bill 346 will give teachers additional tools to utilize various strategies for teaching children with auditory, visual and tactical learning abilities.

“Children learn differently,” Barresi said. “Some children have a processing disorder. Training will increase a teacher’s capacity to use additional quick assessments as to why a child is struggling in learning to read. It will give an opportunity for the teacher to be more in control and make informed, educated decisions.”

Barresi said more public engagement needs to be addressed.

“Parents need to speak to children while they are infants to increase their vocabulary,” she said. “Children struggling to read have fewer words in their vocabulary. There is a direct correlation between the amount of time an adult spends talking to a child and that child’s ability to read.”

Barresi suggested parents look at their children in the face and talk with them, as they interact socially with the child, saying it is important for parents to talk to their baby or child while they are going about their everyday tasks.

“Constant conversation is important for a child’s social development and vocabulary,” Barresi said.

She said to look at milestones for speech and language skills.

“Children should be able to say 2-3 word phrases past their second birthday.”

She emphasized the importance of nursery rhymes in the development of fluency in rhythm, movement, singing and rhyming.

Children showing language delays are indicators they will have trouble reading, Barresi said. “The earlier we identify them (children not on reading level) the easier it will be to see they are on target.

“Studies show if a child, with all of this effort, is still not reading proficiently by end of third grade, they will be a dropout. Students that were held back and given the assistance they need have a much, much higher graduation rate.”



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THE DETAILS

what you need to know



Reading strategies in Edmond schools

• 4,556 students in grades 1-3 were assessed at the beginning of the 2010-11 school year using either the Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS Next) or the BEAR Initial-Skills Analysis (both are instruments designated by the State Department of Education for use with Reading Sufficiency)

• Of that number, 780 students (17 percent) in grades 1-3 were identified “at risk” and have been placed on a Program of Reading Instruction (PRI)

• Some of the reading strategies that may be used as part of the PRI include: additional in-school instruction, computer assisted instruction, tutoring, Response to Intervention, Saturday School and Summer School

• In addition, parents of students on a PRI are asked to participate in their children’s reading instruction by: reading aloud to the student, taking turns reading aloud, listening to the student read, independent reading, practicing word lists and practicing skills

• The $44,460 in carry-over funds is being used to provide approximately 2,853 hours of tutoring and to purchase materials for tutoring

• 56 percent of the students in grades 1-3 who were on Reading Sufficiency PRI plans last year (SY09-10) demonstrated proficiency on the spring 2010 assessment.

Information provided by Lynne Rowley, Edmond Public Schools Associate superintendent of elementary education