Lakeview reading program praised

COLUMBUS - Challenges lie ahead, but Janet Bohaty is "very pleased" with the progress made by students at Sunrise Elementary School in the first year of a new reading program.

"I think it has been very successful," said Bohaty, who is the reading coach at Sunrise. "It all has to do with the kids. We can show the growth by their test scores. They have been amazing. I'm happy with the whole team."

The 2004-05 school year was the first year of the program, but the second year in which money was received as part of a three-year grant through the No Child Left Behind Act.

Sunrise was one of 12 Nebraska schools to receive a grant, which at the end of the three years will total between $245,000 and $250,000, said Sunrise Principal John Mlinar.

The program is for students in kindergarten through third grade.

In a presentation to members of the Lakeview Community Schools Board of Education earlier this week, Bohaty talked about the program and the progress made by students.

"The kids are growing in their ability to read," Bohaty said. "It has been wonderful for Sunrise."

Bohaty is just one member of the reading first team, which also includes four regular education teachers, two special education teachers, one full-time English Language Learners teacher.

Before beginning the program, Bohaty said, many teachers were frustrated after many years of hard work to improve students' reading abilities with little result.

As part of the grant funding, the teachers have been able to take advantage of training opportunities in effective reading instruction and in scientifically based reading research.

The school also was able to purchase a new core reading series that focuses on five areas - phonemic awareness, phonic, word knowledge, comprehension skills and strategies, and writing and language arts skills and strategies.

As part of the implementation of the program, all students in kindergarten to third grade were given the Dynamics Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, or DIBELS, test. The program tests things such as phoneme segmentation fluency, which is the ability to hear certain sounds of a word and put them together, letter name fluency, non word fluency (decoding), oral reading fluency, word use fluency and retell fluency

"It is really a good test for beginning readers," she said. "It lets us know who's on and off track."

After the tests were administered, Bohaty said students were put into one of three categories - at risk, some risk and low risk.

Bohaty said teachers in each grade spent 90 minutes a day on the Reading First Program. Students who fell into the at risk and some risk categories, would get extra help through intervention programs, which included small group or individual sessions with paraprofessionals and the Title One reading program teacher.

The DIBELS test was also given half-way through the school year and at the end of the school year to measure the progress.

The following items were among the data Bohaty presented to the board on Monday:

n In kindergarten, 69 percent of the students reached the goals of the phoneme segmentation fluency. The end of the year also saw 31 percent of the students still falling into the at risk category when it comes to non-word fluency and 54 percent in the low risk category. The remaining students were in the some risk category. Bohaty said all of the kindergartners entered Sunrise not meeting the skills set for initial sound fluency and letter name fluency.

n In first grade, all of the the students met the goals set for non-word fluency and the end of the year. Twelve percent of them ended the year in the at risk category and 35 percent were in the low risk category in oral reading fluency.

n In second grade, 50 percent of the students ended the year at risk in oral reading fluency and 50 percent are at low risk.

n In the third grade, 20 percent of students were still at risk in the area of oral reading fluency and 40 percent were at low risk.

In looking at the data, Bohaty said the Sunrise staff has to overcome the fact that students enter school with very few literacy skills; that student gains in phonemic awareness and letter knowledge are significant, but have yet to be transferred to actual decoding; and that students consistently score low in vocabulary.

Bohaty said some of the reasons reading skills are low for Sunrise students are that there is a language barrier and a high mobility rate.

"Thirty-five percent of the students have moved or left the district this year," Bohaty said.

Bohaty said the demographics for kindergarten to third grade show that 62 percent of the students are in the English Language Learners program and 81 percent are Hispanic. Those numbers are well above the state average in each category.

Parents are supportive when it comes to parent-teacher conference, but Mlinar said the language barrier makes it hard for students to gain the reading skills they need. Students are sent home with books to read with their parents each night, but he said oftentimes the language barrier makes it hard for them to do that activity and get the extra help they need.

Bohaty said teachers do spend some time reading books individually with students. She said notes to parents are also sent home in both English and Spanish.

She said she's also noticed a change in the attitudes of students.

"There was one boy who came into first grade and you just had the feeling that he knew he was behind, and his test scores showed that, so we put him into some programs, like sound partners," she said. "When he came down his face would light up and he would smile. He knew he was learning and finally getting it. One day he stood up, turned around and pointed to the materials and said 'I like that.'"

Bohaty said the school's staff is hoping to start a pre-school next year in order to teach younger children skills they need for kindergarten.

While it will focus on all areas of learning, Bohaty said there will be an emphasis on reading.

She said much of the next school year will also be spent fine-tuning the program.

"We have made huge changes in the reading program," she said. "Our challenge now is going to be fine-tuning those little quirks."

Staff members also will get additional training at various conferences this summer.

Board member Larry Mohrman commended the work of the Sunrise staff.

"It looks like you made a lot of progress in one year," he said. "You are to be commended."