Five years ago, the Jefferson City School District did not have any literacy resources, and teachers had to create their own curriculum. In the past four years, the district has taken steps to improve literacy with the goal of every student reading at or above grade level.
Chief of Learning Brian Shindorf said literacy is the district's primary goal because if a student has trouble reading and writing, they are going to struggle with every subject.
"Your ability to read and write are critically important to being successful in life," Shindorf said.
To determine each student's literacy level, JC Schools primarily uses i-Ready, an online assessment given three times a year. It assesses students on everything they should know by the time they finish the grade they are in, based on the Missouri Learning Standards, a frame of reference for student performance.
The Missouri Learning Standards, approved in 2016, is the latest iteration of the Show-Me Standards, which was approved in 1996 and revised regularly based on teacher feedback and new research. Grade-level expectations are assessed each year.
In between the i-Ready assessments, the elementary schools use the Running Record Assessment where students read a passage out loud and the teacher records the reading behaviors.
When students take the first i-Ready assessment of the year, they likely have not yet learned what they are being tested on, so the scores are low. But the goal is to have students score well on the last test at the end of the year.
The i-Ready assessment gives reports on each student's strengths and knowledge gaps, groups the students based on these strengths and knowledge gaps and offers instructional recommendations. This allows teachers to monitor each student's progress and adjust instruction based on individual needs and trends across student groups.
Before switching to i-Ready in 2016, the district used Scholastic Reading Inventory testing, which just gave each student an overall score of "below basic," "basic," "proficient" or "advanced."
The district no longer has access to past Scholastic Reading Inventory scores.
Literacy curriculum, resources
In 2016, the district also updated all English Language Arts curriculum and provided literacy resources to all teachers.
Before then, teachers had to create their own curriculum and resources. There wasn't any funding for resources, and the curriculum department only consisted of one person. The English Language Arts curriculum hadn't been updated since before 2008.
Three years ago, JC Schools hired a chief of learning, assistant superintendents, curriculum coordinators and literacy trainers who created curriculum that states what concepts and skills to teach and the order in which to teach them. The assistant superintendents also became involved in the curriculum process.
Each year, this curriculum department revises the new curriculum based on teacher feedback. A complete revision will be done every six years or if the Missouri Learning Standards change.
In August, the district received resources for literacy education, including books for students and teachers, teacher manuals and software that are the same per grade level at every school. The district paid for these resources using funds through the operating levy tax, which increased in 2017 when Proposition C passed.
Students reading at or above grade level
From 2016-19, i-Ready scores show the number of students reading at or above grade level increased overall by 3.41 percent.
By fourth grade, children should be done learning to read, and basic reading skills become vital to learn other subjects. Children who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade are four times less likely to graduate high school on time, according to a study from the American Educational Research Association.
Nationally, only 35 percent of fourth-graders were proficient in reading in 2019, down from 37 percent in 2017, National Assessment of Education Progress test results show.
At JC Schools, 53 percent of fourth-graders were proficient in reading and writing in 2019, up from 43 percent in 2017, according to i-Ready results.
I-Ready does not offer assessments for grades 10-12. Literacy levels for these grades is measured by unit and department tests, end-of-course assessments and the ACT.
Overall, in JC Schools and nationally, the i-Ready scores decrease as the grade levels increase. This is likely because classroom structures and students' priorities change, Shindorf said. He said the i-Ready scores are inaccurate for sixth through ninth grade, because these students typically don't try as hard as elementary school students on the assessments, he said. The i-Ready assessments are not graded, so secondary level students often don't take it seriously.
Kindergarten i-Ready scores are much higher than any other grade. In 2019 at JC Schools, the number of kindergarten students reading at or above grade level was about 26 percent higher than first grade and about 50 percent higher than ninth grade.
Kindergartners typically make progress quicker than other grade levels because it's often their first time in an educational setting, and the expectations for how much a student should learn in kindergarten is much lower than other grades, Shindorf said.
Seventh and eighth grade are the only grades that have had a drop in i-Ready scores. The number of seventh-graders reading at or above grade level decreased by about 5 percent from the 2016-17 to 2018-19 school year, and the number of eighth-graders reading at or above grade level decreased about 5 percent from the 2017-18 to 2018-19 school year.
Nationally, the average eighth-grade reading score declined in more than half of the states from 2017-19 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test administered by the National Center for Education Statistics. Thirty-four percent of eighth-graders were proficient in reading in 2019, down from 36 percent in 2017. At JC Schools, 40 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in reading and writing, up from 38 percent in 2017.
Other efforts
At the beginning of this school year, the district split English Language Arts into separate reading and writing classes at the middle schools. Shindorf said he believes this is one of the most critical things the district has done to improve literacy, and he thinks it will be the most effective.
When reading and writing was one class, the teachers said they did not have enough time to complete all reading and writing objectives. Now, there is more time, and the reading and writing teachers collaborate so the material for each class still ties together.
The district only split it at the middle schools because the middle school i-Ready scores are the lowest, and the elementary and high school class structures are different, Shindorf said. Elementary school teachers often incorporate reading and writing into other subjects throughout the school day, and high school has more English class options.
Two years ago, JC Schools hired literacy trainers who train teachers six times a year on effective literacy instruction based on the curriculum and resources the teachers use. The literacy trainers train the teachers in groups of which grade they teach, and the principal and an instructional coach also attend.
Last year, first-grade teachers had literacy training. This year, teachers for kindergarten, second grade and middle school do. Next year, fifth grade will have literacy training, and third and fourth will after. They are providing literacy training to fifth grade first because, in the past, the focus has been on kindergarten through second grade when the students are learning to read, Shindorf said.
This year, the district hired a secondary literacy trainer who trains all middle school teachers. She will focus on the middle schools for a few years, but it is possible she will train high school teachers in the future, Shindorf said.
Two years ago, the district developed "model classrooms" where teachers who have exceptionally strong literacy instruction practices are used as a model for other teachers across the district.
Upon request, teachers and an instructional coach can visit a model classroom in the same grade they teach to view a model classroom teacher's literacy instruction and ask the teacher questions afterward.
Model classroom teachers have agreed teachers can come to their classroom at any time during the school day. Viewing a model classroom is not required, but it is common, especially at the beginning of the school year, Shindorf said.
After viewing a model classroom, the instructional coach and teacher or group of teachers meets with their school's principal to discuss how to apply the practices they saw and what resources they will need.
Currently, kindergarten, first, second and fifth grade have model classrooms. Third grade did have one, but the teacher took a different position. Shindorf said he hopes to find teachers for model classrooms in third and fourth grade.
The district is discussing the need for model classrooms at the middle schools, because middle school teachers have expressed the need for it.
At the beginning of each school year, teachers attend professional development training that includes literacy training. The PDC committee, which focuses on professional development, is having discussions about offering optional summer professional development for teachers.
Shindorf, who is retiring in June, said he hopes to see continual steady growth in i-Ready scores as of August when the teachers received resources. But major growth will likely take time, he said, because the teachers need to get used to the curriculum and resources and administration needs to revise them based on teacher feedback.
Shindorf said the district now needs two more things to improve student literacy: continued professional development and time.
"Those two things are going to be critical to our success," he said.