District targets struggling 6th-grade readers

North Charleston schools enroll the highest percentage of students who can't read well, and in a year when literacy is the Charleston County School District's top priority, that presented a challenge for school Superintendent Nancy McGinley.

She's come up with a number of reading-based initiatives for schools across the district, but she knew North Charleston needed something more dramatic.

Her solution: the Sixth Grade Academy.

The city's weakest sixth-grade readers were handpicked to attend the new program that opened this school year.

She wants to show that with the right supports and teachers, these sixth-graders can achieve more than they would have in a typical middle school setting.

"This is hopefully something that will prove to be a great intervention," she said. "I do think this is an example of something we would want to replicate if we see the results we are expecting."

How it started

McGinley promised the community when she closed five failing schools this year that she would provide better options in their place. North Charleston saw two of its schools shuttered.

The city's illiteracy problem is pronounced. The highest percentage of the county's high school freshmen who read at a fourth-grade level or worse live there. Its elementary and middle school students' scores on the state's English/language arts standardized exam were just as dismal, with more than 40 percent scoring below grade level compared with the district average of fewer than 25 percent.

And the city's middle school principals have told McGinley that one of their biggest problems is that they enroll far too many students who don't read as well as they should.

School leaders targeted 240 of this year's sixth-graders with the lowest reading scores for the Sixth Grade Academy. They asked for teacher and principal recommendations and requested those students to participate in the pilot program.

The program had 180 seats available, but only 134 students are enrolled this year. The program wasn't mandatory, and some students who could have benefited from it chose not to come, said Gail Glears, principal of the Sixth Grade Academy. Their reasons for going elsewhere varied: Some needed to be available to baby-sit younger siblings in the afternoons, others wanted to attend magnet schools and others simply didn't want to go.

Students' reading levels range from that of a kindergartner to those who are a year behind their peers. The program's goal is to improve students' reading by at least two grade levels in one year.

If jumping two grade levels in one year doesn't sound like much, Associate Superintendent Tricia Yandle said to take into account that these students aren't learning at a typical rate. Because they're learning at a slower pace, absorbing what they should in one year will be difficult, she said, and picking up two years of instruction will be even tougher.

The school district committed $2.2 million to the program. Some of the money came from the $5.3 million savings the district reaped by closing five schools, and part of it came from the savings that other North Charleston middle schools saw as a result of lower enrollment and fewer teachers.

What it offers

Sixth-graders begin the day with Breakfast of Champions, a time when the entire school reads while eating breakfast, and they stay on campus 45 minutes longer than students at any other district middle school. Students spend the extra time in a mandatory tutoring period twice each week, and on the three other days, students either participate in clubs or listen to motivational talks on issues such as respect or peer pressure.

Students take basic math, science, social studies and English courses, but they also are enrolled in a reading class, reading intervention class and math intervention class. The school's focus on extra reading and math instruction means students have time for only one elective class such as music or art.

The reading intervention class teaches students the pre-reading skills that they likely missed in elementary school. Teachers use a program that identifies gaps in students' reading ability and works to address those. Those who read the worst are pulled out during this time and given even more intensive help.

Class sizes are much smaller, with a maximum of 15 students in any class compared with 30 students in a typical middle school. The combination of the lower student-to-teacher ratio and extra time dedicated to reading means teachers more easily can identify struggling readers and more quickly provide the help they need.

The school has a support staff that's more robust than any other district school. Besides classroom teachers, students will have access to a language arts interventionist, math interventionist, school psychologist, mental health counselor, student support specialist, parent advocate, math instructional coordinator and reading instructional coordinator.

Preliminary outcomes

It's too soon to know whether students in the program are making more progress than their peers elsewhere, but school officials say they already see it having a ripple effect on other North Charleston middle schools.

Alice Birney Middle School Principal Carol Beckmann-Bartlett said she's not having to provide as much extra help for her school's sixth-graders as she is for their classmates in the seventh and eighth grades. Her 236 sixth-graders still have intense needs, but Beckmann-Bartlett described the sixth-grade class as a lighter load for teachers. The Sixth Grade Academy enrolls 48 sixth-graders who would've gone to Alice Birney Middle this year.

Beckmann-Bartlett hopes district leaders don't make a decision on whether the program should continue after only one year of results. Teaching children to read isn't a one-year project, she said, and it's going to take time to help students who have struggled to read for the past decade.

The initial assessment of the program from its teachers and students has been positive. When teacher Culdry LeCointe heard last school year about the effort to open the Sixth Grade Academy, he immediately wanted to know how to get an interview. LeCointe, a former Morningside Middle School teacher, taught sixth-graders and saw many who couldn't read well. He felt frustrated with the challenge of teaching his English classes while finding ways for weak readers to understand and retain the information.

He believes in the mission of the Sixth Grade Academy and says it will be successful. There's been nothing that he's needed so far that he couldn't get, he said.

Some students said they liked the school but had no idea about its purpose. Eleven-year-old Sefarian Lee said his mom thought it was a good idea that he attend the Sixth Grade Academy. When he asked why, he said she told him it was complicated. He said he was "good with reading" but thought he needed to read a little faster.

Sefarian likes the school because he doesn't have to deal with students in other grades and because the teachers help him understand lessons.

"They know how to get stuff into your mind," he said. "They constantly teach you stuff until they are sure you're good with it."

Students appeared to be engaged in their lessons during a recent visit to the school. In one English class, they eagerly presented book reports while describing the plot, conflict, resolution and why they liked the book.

Kathy Lewis, a school climate specialist working with the Sixth Grade Academy, predicted that students' greatest challenge will be returning to their neighborhood middle schools next year. The Sixth Grade Academy will host student ambassadors from Alice Birney, Morningside and Jerry Zucker middle schools to meet with its students and try to make them more comfortable with the change.

"People will not want to leave here," she said.

Reach Diette Courrégé at dcourrege@postandcourier.com or 937-5546.