ISSUE: Understanding Changes In Reading Tests

Students in our schools are just as smart today as they were before the State Board of Education reported on Thursday the results of state reading tests. There is no difference in any child’s ability to read.

What changed was the way the state measures success on the state End-of-Grade reading test. The new standards approved in October by the State Board of Education require that students perform significantly better to be considered proficient in reading. Proficient means achieving a Level III or IV on the EOG reading test.

Raising Standards
The State Board of Education action made no change in the NC Standard Course of Study in Language Arts, the objectives students should learn at each grade level.

However, emphases have shifted and the new test has been constructed somewhat differently from the previous test.  The new test was designed by the state so that it would be much harder to pass than the old test.  On the old reading test, about 87% of students statewide earned at least a Level III score. In order to push students and schools to do better, the state decided to set the statewide passing rate on this new test so that about 50-60% of students would pass.

Superintendent Del Burns supports the higher standards for both reading and math. The math standards were raised in 2005-06. “Because we want every student to graduate on time, prepared for the future, we not only support greater expectations, we embrace them,” Dr. Burns said. 

Impact of higher standards
WCPSS had 66 percent of students in grades three through eight earn proficiency on the 2007-08 state reading test. That’s 25 percentage points less than the 91 percent of WCPSS students who achieved proficiency in 2006-07.

There were more than a half dozen WCPSS schools that saw students achieving proficiency on the reading test decrease by more than 40 percentage points. That’s a dramatic change that will impact students, their families and their teachers.

Aware the state was raising standards, the WCPSS literacy team worked with schools throughout 2007-08 to strengthen reading instruction. Teachers have been provided new instructional tools that focus on balanced literacy instruction and essential literacy objectives, as well as formative assessments for higher order thinking.

Information and assistance
A letter will be sent to parents explaining the state action, the impact on students and the assistance teachers can provide. Families will receive a report on their student’s performance on the reading test.

“You have to remember that the test is one moment in time under a certain standard,” said Dr. Donna Hargens, WCPSS Chief Academic Officer. “As a parent, you have a lot of information from the teacher on how your student is doing, and you are also reading with your student so you know how well your student can read.”

As schools receive this new reading test data, they will identify students who need assistance in meeting the state's new standards. Schools will provide these students up to 80 additional hours of reading instruction over the course of the school year. They will help students through electives and small group instruction at school and in afterschool and intersession instruction.

At Cary Elementary, Principal Rod Stanton said teachers are meeting to plan intervention strategies to align to the area of need for each student. The school's Team Time continues to be an area where students switch classes for a period to get remediation, enrichment, or maintenance instruction based on their recent assessments. Students are typically assessed every 2-3 weeks and the groups then change accordingly. Teachers will need to continue to rely on one another as they share best practices and strategize to form the most efficient and effective ways to deliver the curriculum to each student. Stanton says the school has a wonderfully supportive group of parents, but that home school connection will be even more important as the school communicates the strengths and needs of each individual student. 

WCPSS higher than state average
WCPSS students continued to outperform the rest of the state. The 66 percent of WCPSS students reaching proficiency on the 2007-08 reading test was nine percentage points higher than the state average of 57.

WCPSS students continued to outperform other urban districts. The 63.8 percent of WCPSS students achieving proficiency on the third grade reading End-of-Grade test compared with 56.8 percent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg students, 54.2 percent of Guilford County students, 52.9 percent of Forsyth County students and 41.6 percent of Durham County students.