Reading rehab

If administrators in the Centennial School District are right, all it takes is a few minutes a day to get many of their struggling readers on track.

The district's five elementary schools are finishing the first year of the Centennial Early Reading Foundations program (CERF), a K-3 literacy initiative created to reduce the number of special education referrals, to lift more students to grade level, and to improve children's social development, through increased small-group instruction and assessment, tailored to each child's needs. Much of the extra work occurs right in the classroom.

"We recognize that literacy is a cornerstone to the success of our children," said Dan Bittman, the district's director of elementary and secondary schools. "Literacy affects achievement in all areas and prepares them for the global world."

At its most basic, the program seeks to improve students' fluency, phonics and word understanding by augmenting opportunities to read aloud; comprehension will follow as students become more comfortable with the written language, said district reading coach Marilyn Erickson.

Last spring, the Legislature relaxed requirements for Alternative Delivery of Specialized Instructional Services funding, making funds available outside special education. School District 12 received $408,988 to hire six reading teachers, including Erickson, and five paraprofessionals.

A small group had the program ready to launch in October.

Students who score in the 25th percentile or below on an assessment test are targeted for extra reading help, which ranges from biweekly monitoring to small group or one-to-one instruction. Students who already qualify for special education or ESL instruction continue to receive that help. A series of three benchmark tests, plus regular assessments for CERF students, determine how staff is allocated and which services students receive.

Starting with the basics

At a back table in Michelle Thompson's first-grade class at Centennial Elementary School, reading teacher Sue Navratil worked with three children, reading with them, "Jon-is-quick. Jon-can-tag-Zack." Her expressive whisper counterpointed their tentative voices.

As their classmates worked quietly on a worksheet, Navratil's trio passed around a stack of easy readers, reading each one aloud twice.

"I-can-nop," read Deven Burgess. He hesitated, then went back. "I-can-nap. Yes,-I-can."

Navratil took notes on each child's progress, praising them for their hard work.

Other students have progressed so much that they have left the program, she said.

After only about 15 minutes, Navratil moved on to Sara Neibergall's kindergarten class, where she quizzed three boys on A- and B-words as they colored letter cards to take home for summer practice.

"It's a fabulous thing to get students an extra boost in literacy at such a young grade," Neibergall said. "I've seen such huge gains in my students."

Early signs of success

Students in the district recently completed their third and final benchmark assessment. The results probably will be available in a few weeks, but Bittman noted that across the district, the number of students needing CERF services had decreased by as much as 5 percent by the end of the winter term.

The district intends to continue the program next year. There may be an opportunity to expand it through fifth grade. Administrators also may expand a model, piloted this year by Golden Lake Elementary School in Circle Pines, that splits children into ability groups for half of their reading time.

With the infusion of staff, the five Golden Lake first-grade classes, for example, can be split into eight porous groups. Struggling readers, accelerated readers and the students in between get the more individualized instruction they need and can move from group to group.

It seems like a simple answer to a difficult challenge.

"There is only one way to be a better reader," Ross explained. "That is to practice reading."