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Virginia’s
Standard of Learning test results were issued on
August 23 amidst the usual sturm und drang
over the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
and its definition of Adequate Yearly Progress.
New
to the “debate” this year were cries about the
fairness of making non-English Proficient students
take the SOLs.
For
the moment, let’s agree to this: An “Adequate
Yearly Progress” accountability tool that rates
a school missing one of 29 benchmarks equally with
a school missing 20 out of 29 benchmarks is
faulty. And the debate over non-English speaking
students can range back and forth: from the
fairness of testing those kids, to the issue of
whether, without tests, those kids will fall
through the cracks, as they did for years
throughout the country (although, in truth, the
feds allow alternative testing, and Virginia’s
Department of Education simply dropped the ball).
Instead,
let’s focus on the tests we’ve been giving for
more than 12 years.
In
fact, let’s just focus on reading – without
which students are largely destined to fail in the
later years of their education.
In
March, I completed a paper, "Literacy
in Virginia: Observations on Reading First,"
that scrutinized the federal Reading First program
in Virginia. A part of NCLB, the program offers
more than $1 billion for at-risk schools willing
to revise their reading materials to use
research-based reading methods, increase staff
training, and regularly assess students to
identify reading challenges.
More
than 60 Virginia schools received Reading First
funds from the beginning, and the results
demonstrated that Reading First schools increased
improvement significantly on the third grade SOL
reading exam. On average, the annual increase in
the percentage of students passing the exam
tripled in the two years after receiving funds.
Looking
at those same high-poverty schools this year
shows, after three years of soaring scores, some
leveling off has taken place. More schools
dropped a percentage point or two than gained,
although a number of schools had dramatic gains or
losses.
But
the overall message is remarkable. These are among
the state’s highest poverty schools, with an
average of nearly 70 percent of their students
living in poverty. In 2004, the average third
grade reading passing rate was about 59 percent.
Of
these 61 high-poverty, previously low- performing
Reading First schools, 44 of them met the minimum
state benchmark for accreditation. In fact, 32 of
them exceeded the state average, with many beating
out higher-income schools in wealthier school
divisions.
Reading
First has had a particularly strong impact where
local school divisions made a strong commitment to
using it correctly. In Wythe County, four of the
five elementary schools were eligible for Reading
First funds and took them, using the funds to
purchase textbooks and supplements that
incorporate phonemic awareness, phonics,
vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The school
division hired reading coaches to provide training
for teachers who were using consistent materials
for the first time, and students found themselves
taking state-developed reading assessments three
times a year that helped identify individual
student strengths and weaknesses.
The
result was skyrocketing student scores and a clear
increased ability to read. Passing rates in those
schools rose by as much as 60 percentile points in
three years, and only one of the four schools saw
a small (four percentile point) decline this year.
Ask
the administrators of Wythe County what they fear
the most, and they’ll say it is losing the
resources that provided opportunities for
impressive student improvement.
But
that’s exactly what may happen if Rep. David
Obey (D-WI) gets his way. He’s slashed Reading
First funds by 61 percent, despite its success
record, because of ethical issues in the
administration of the program (previously reported
here).
Obey’s charge is that administrators
“steered” school divisions to select reading
programs. What is missing from his charge is the
fact that those programs appeared to have worked
across the board.
Indeed,
Maryland Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick
has said “the results are stunning.” National
Public Radio reported that educators “love”
Reading First because it actually works. And the
record in Virginia clearly demonstrates that high
poverty kids can learn to read with the help that
Reading First provides.
If
there are ethical issues surrounding the program
-- and there are questions about how much of the
issue is ethics and how much is politics -- they
should be cleaned up. But Rep. Obey should not be
allowed to get away with destroying a program that
works.
--
Sept. 4, 2007
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