School program boosts student reading levels

Four years ago, a combination of low vocabularies and low reading skills at Harleyville-Ridgeville Elementary School made it the only school in the county to qualify for a federally funded Reading First program.

The program, authorized as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, is working at Harleyville-Ridgeville, according to school officials and Dorchester District 4 Superintendent Jerry Montjoy.

Every morning for two hours, about 350 of the school's approximately 500 students take part in small groups of interactive reading and discussion sessions designed to boost interest in the written word. The intended byproduct is enriched vocabularies and reading retention.

Montjoy said the best measure of the program's success is evident in students now in their third year of the program. The most recent test scores show 51 percent of students in their third year of Reading First are proficient or advanced in reading and language skills. Those figures are about double the percentages of proficient or above students in school four years ago, he said.

Pam Smith, reading and literacy coach at Harleyville-Ridgeville, said she has seen students leap an entire grade level in reading and language skills after participating in the program.

"We have made a lot of progress and can show that we have," Smith said.

Reading First "teaches teachers how to teach reading and keep the students engaged in the reading pro-cess," and aims to bring every child to at or above grade level by the third grade, Montjoy said.

Success has enabled Harleyville-Ridgeville to help other schools learn from the program's techniques.

For two days last week, teachers from several South Carolina schools observed while Harleyville-Ridgeville reading instructors exhibited what the program has taught them. The Harleyville-Ridgeville teachers read aloud to children grouped together and encouraged children to comment and ask questions.

The children seemed excited and engaged in the stories and conversations the teacher shared with them.

Smith said the enthusiasm of children responding to a Reading First session is evident. "You can tell by the children's laughter and their 'awwws' that they are comprehending what the reading is all about."

Smith said increasing reading skills pays off in many ways for students. "The children learn that reading is about meaning, and to be a reader is to be a thinker."

In 2004, the state received $11.5 million in federal funds for the reading program. Harleyville-Ridgeville was one of 50 schools in South Carolina to qualify for it. Qualified schools had to serve a significant number of students from impoverished communities who come to school with lower-than-average vocabularies and reading skills.

Last year, Harleyville-Ridgeville was awarded an additional $500,000 to continue the program this year and next. Smith said the school can't renew the grant beyond next year, but she hopes what has been learned from it can carry on.

The money pays for teachers' instructional materials and a full-time literacy coach based at the school and puts collections of children's books in classrooms. Teachers taking part in Reading First are trained in mandatory, after-school professional development sessions. Teachers learn how to gauge students' reading levels and to tailor instruction for struggling readers.

Smith said many children from low-income households enter school without the benefits of having been encouraged to learn and read at home.

"A lot of children get lap reading at home, but a lot of children don't, and so they are behind when they come to school," she said.

Montjoy said the district is pleased with the program. Results of tests from four years ago, compared with the most recent tests, last year, show Reading First works, he said.

In the 2003-04 school year, 52 percent of Harleyville-Ridgeville's fifth-graders were at or below basic skill levels on the English/language arts portion of the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test. Last year, the percentage of fifth-graders at or below minimal levels dropped to 33 percent, Montjoy said.

He said 40 percent of fourth-graders in 2003-04 were at or below minimal levels, and last year 20 percent were.

Of the third-graders tested last year, 14 percent were at or below the levels, compared with 22 percent in 2003-04, he said.