Reading Scores Improve In Wolf Point
By Bill Vander Weele
Great news from Wolf Point Schools is that reading results for several elementary students have made significant improvement. Elementary students, who were regarded as “bubble” students in that they were close to reaching grade level, have been taking part in the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy intervention program for Reading. Sarah Chambers, Wolf Point’s director of curriculum and instructional leadership, explained that it was Tier 2 or out of the classroom invention which provides additional support to the intervention that is taking place inside the classroom with the teacher.
At Southside School, 39 students in grades 1-3 took part in the intervention. A remarkable 59 percent of them exited intervention and are now working on their grade level material.
“That is amazing,” Southside principal Patrick Drapeau said during the school board meeting on Monday, Jan. 10. “We’re doing great things with these kids.”
Chambers explained that research shows intervention typically exits about 20 percent of students at the end of the school year. “This is an unprecedented amount of growth,” Chambers said. The biggest improvement came in second grade where there was a success rate of 77 percent. At Northside School, for fourth and fifth grades, the success rate was 14 percent.
“ It is harder to make big gains as students get older. We’re hoping to be close to 20 percent at the end of the year,” Chambers said.
She noted that school administrators are excited about the progress.
“A key factor is that since we were able to exit so many students, we can work with more students,” Chambers said. “Hopefully, at the end of the year, we can see an additional 50 percent of students reaching on-level status.”
In addition, Chambers said interactive programs have also been successful because of parental involvement at home. If parents need assistance using their computer programs, which are available on phones or tablets, they should contact their children’s teacher or Chambers.
“We are mediating learning loss and making gains to close the gaps,” Chambers said.
