Time to get serious about Kentucky’s reading instruction problem – 2

It’s not a new problem. It’s something we’ve written about numerous times before.

Very simply, a lot of Kentucky’s teachers just don’t know how to teach reading properly.

In the first blog in this series, we presented some of the stark evidence that reading instruction in Kentucky is not serving many kids. With three decades of KERA behind us, when only 35% of the state’s overall Grade 4 population is reading proficiently and a far more dismal 14% of the state’s Black students can meet similar performance, obviously there are major problems.

But, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Our new report about reading performance, “Reading proficiency rates rising in some Appalachian schools,” shows that – even in very high poverty schools – when Kentucky teachers get good training about how to teach reading properly, results can be dramatic.

For example, after implementation of an aggressive reading instruction improvement program in Clay County’s Goose Rock Elementary School, third grade KPREP reading proficiency rose dramatically from just 23.1% around the start of the program to an amazing 89.7% proficiency rate in 2019.

What’s more, Goose Rock achieved its memorable performance in 2019 despite having a really high, 85% eligibility for the federal school lunch program, which is often used as a proxy for poverty.

Goose Rock’s not alone, either.

Most of Clay County’s elementary schools didn’t perform nearly as well in 2012 as they did in 2019, the last year of KPREP testing before the COVID-19 chaos. Between 2012 and 2019, reading proficiency increased at all but one of the county’s elementary schools.

For example, Hacker Elementary School increased its reading proficiency rates from 72.2% to 87.5% during that same time period even though its student poverty rate rose notably from 58% to 71%. Normally, reading proficiency rates would be expected to decline with that amount of poverty increase.

So, reading improvement programs built around what science shows works best for teaching reading can have real impact – even in Kentucky.

This Kentucky evidence adds to evidence we’ve discussed before from Mississippi where a statewide effort to ensure every elementary school teacher knows what science says works best for reading instruction is also creating notable improvements.

Collectively, these examples show that our kids’ failure to learn to read is not their fault. It is largely due to inadequate preparation of teachers to teach reading. But, the problem is correctable if we just have the courage to make it happen.

So, here are some combined messages from the NAEP results and the amazing things that happened in places like Mississippi and Goose Rock Elementary School once teachers learned how to teach reading more effectively:

• Kentucky cannot go on teaching such low percentages of its students to read proficiently. It’s inexcusable to permit this to continue.

• This is not the students’ faults. They can learn if given effective instruction. Clay County and Mississippi examples prove that.

• Let’s stop making excuses due to poverty. Goose Rock shows such excuses are not valid. Quit blaming students for what is actually a defect in teacher preparation.

• This won’t happen on its own. Many Kentucky educators have been staring at lousy reading results for decades without taking any effective action. There has to be a newfound will to improve plus an introduction of the right tools before change is going to happen for kids.

One last note: There is an attempt to make change coming to the Kentucky Legislature in the form of Senate Bill 9. This bill aims to do a lot of things, including some that worked well in Mississippi. In the interests of our kids, SB-9 deserves very careful attention and action from both houses of the legislature because right now a lot of Kentucky’s teachers really don’t know the best ways to teach reading, but experience in Mississippi and in places like Clay County’s schools show they could learn to do better.

SB-9, by the way, will be heard in the Senate Education Committee at 10am this morning and will be webcast live on KET’s Legislature 2 channel.

And, make no mistake. Aside from Mississippi, other states like Colorado are already jumping on the reading improvement bandwagon.

If Kentucky doesn’t get its act together soon, the long-term impacts on not just students, but our overall state economy and well-being, are frightening to consider.

https://bipps.org/blog/time-to-get-serious-about-kentuckys-reading-instruction-problem-2

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