Two years after some parents got a May surprise from the state’s third-grade reading law, local school systems are seeing benefits from the focus on reading.
The Third Grade Reading Law requires third-grade students who score below proficiency levels on English Language Arts be held back or complete additional classwork. Jackson County Director of Schools Jason Hardy said the system has seen improvement.
“I think the first few years, you know, we really saw quite a few students that had to have that extra tutoring, that extra summer learning, now it’s not as many,” Hardy said. “You know, we are very fortunate here in Jackson County, we try to put tutors in place for all of our students, whether they are on that target list or not.”
Overton County Schools Testing Coordinator Kim Dillon said Overton County has not seen a decrease in the number of students needing extra help, but is seeing more students progress and become proficient readers. Dillon said those improved results are due to the number of paths the school system has for students.
“I feel like because there are so many different paths that they can take, there’s not as much as large of a number of students that have to be tutored, especially moving on to fourth grade because they can take the various paths,” Dillon said. “So it doesn’t seem to be as large as we anticipated.”
Hardy and Dillon both said that when the reading law was first implemented, it was hard for school systems to explain the law to parents. Dillon said school districts now understand how the law works, and parents are now more in tune with the law.
“Parents, they are understanding it more because we are communicating better, the state is communicating better, and we are able to let them know ahead of time, make predictions ahead of time of where their child may fall,” Dillon said.
Hardy said not only was the law a big change for parents, but for school districts as well. Hardy said Jackson County Schools is starting to settle in with the law.
“I think it has pushed us as administrators and teachers to really push the buttons to make sure that all of our kids are getting what they need to move forward, whether it’s third grade or any grade,” Hardy said. “You know, I do think as it has evolved, the comfortableness has really helped.”
Hardy said the system works with students one-on-one or at a three-to-one ratio. Hardy said that Jackson County Schools has had a collective effort to bring in those improved results.
“I think it went from the start of it we were really focused on third-grade teachers, and that’s not fair at all, to now we know that everybody has to pitch in from third-grade teachers, to second grade, fourth grade, RTI, administrators, families know more to do and again our extra things that we do through tutoring and some of those enhancement and enrichment opportunities has really made a huge difference for our kids,” Hardy said.
Dillon said having tutoring opportunities outside of the classroom is one way the school system is providing as much help as possible. Hardy said he doesn’t believe school systems are doing more to help students, but the reading law made school systems reassess how to help students.
