EBR Retools Schools for Focus on Reading

By CHARLES LUSSIER

EBR retools schools for focus on reading

Starting in the fall, East Baton Rouge Parish elementary schools educators will have to rework their tight schedules so students spend at least 90 minutes every morning not afternoon learning how to read.

Elementary school scheduling is just one of many ways the school systems Central Office will be expanding its role in literacy education.

Many details are still being worked out, but here are some features of the new initiative:

These 90-minute reading blocks will occur only in the morning, when children are most attentive. Though many students have ample reading instruction, elementary schools vary widely in how much time they devote to reading and what time of day they offer it.

Reading coaches will be hired for every elementary school. Depending on funding, these will either be new positions or current faculty members who receive a stipend for their added duties.

In 2007, middle schools will offer at least 90 minutes a day of reading instruction for struggling readers. High schools will put struggling readers into at least one 60-minute-long reading class each semester.

Students in kindergarten through third grade will be tested three times a year.

Starting in fall 2007, struggling readers throughout the school system will receive an added 30 minutes a day of reading help.

Starting in 2007, readers still behind will be pulled out of normal reading instruction and receive 90-120 minutes of help a day in basic reading skills. The classes will have no more than 16 students each, though they could be much smaller, and will be taught by a specially trained interventionist.

Fueling the change

The goal is to expand and reshape reading instruction in every grade by the 2008-09 school year, when Louisiana is scheduled to adopt new reading textbooks.

The effort is being fueled by several factors: the school systems ongoing partnership with the nonprofit Stupski Foundation, an 8- month-old strategic plan that calls for third graders to read on grade level by 2008, widespread student mobility, and a 6-year-old, $1 billion Bush administration effort called Reading First, which aims to modernize reading instruction throughout the country.

Were peddling as fast as we can, and the standards are coming up fast behind us, Chief Academic Officer Bob Stockwell said as he laid out the broad outline of the literacy initiative at a Feb. 7 principals meeting.

Not everyone, however, is impressed.

I have lost count of the reading programs that have been introduced and put by the wayside and later replaced by something else, said Carole White, president of the East Baton Rouge Parish Association of Educators, a teachers union.

Carnell Washington, president of the school systems other big teacher union, the East Baton Rouge Parish Federation of Teachers, questioned how schools will fit these 90-minute blocks into their schedules.

Nevertheless, Superintendent Charlotte Placide made it clear to the FOCUS principals that shes passionate on the subject.

She pointed to a chart showing how far black children lag behind white children in literacy. In fourth-grade, 49 percent of black children are on or above grade level, compared to 79 percent of white children. By eighth-grade, only 34 percent of black children are reading on or above grade level, compared to 68 percent of white children.

While not casting blame, she made it clear this cant continue. Its educational malpractice, she said.

Phonemics and phonics

School officials hope to attract almost every K-3 reading teacher in the school system to training sessions scheduled May 30-June 2 and June 12-15.

Educators who attend will be schooled on what the federal government has designated as the five components of quality reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Phonemic awareness is a linguistic term that refers to the ability to manipulate the smallest units of sound, phonemes, which are used to form syllables and words. There are about 40 phonemes for the 26 letters in the English alphabet. Many children from poor backgrounds have trouble recognizing these sounds.

Phonics, on the other hand, refers to an approach to reading instruction that stresses learning how letters correspond to sounds and how to use this knowledge in reading and spelling.

Educators who attend the summer training will also learn about the three-tiered approach to reading pioneered by researchers from the University of Texas.

Under this approach, most readers, ideally 60 to 70 percent, will receive only the daily 90-minute Tier I reading block. Another 20 to 30 percent will receive 30 minutes more of help, or Tier II. The remaining 5 percent to 10 percent will need Tier III help.

Pushing Reading First

The three tiers are a common feature of many reading programs funded by Reading First. In Louisiana, 32 school systems qualified for Reading First grants; East Baton Rouge Parish was not one of them its students at the time were reading too well to meet the Reading First criteria. Stockwell has said he would like to position the school system to receive Reading First money in the future if and when it becomes available.

Reading First has had its share of critics, who say it is biased toward phonics-based instruction over other approaches that include more story reading and learning through literature.

Supporters view the Reading First effort as a long-overdue corrective to years of what they consider poorly researched reading programs.

With the help of Stupskis in-house literacy expert, Leslie McPeak, Stockwell has hired a Reading First-versed consultant, Terry Leppien, who has served as reading coordinator for school districts in California and, most recently, for the state of Washington. The foundation is paying for Leppiens services, Stockwell said.

The foundation also is paying the salary of an in-house reading director. After several months of searching, Stockwell said, he has yet to find the right person. Instead, hes named former elementary school principal Joanne Lamotte interim director until he can make a permanent appointment.

Funding for the literacy retraining and resources is Stockwells biggest problem. In addition to seeking outside grants, he said, he may have to make painful cuts in other instructional programs. He declined to identify those programs.