How local schools are doing, 2010-11:
|
|---|
COLUMBUS — So many third-grade students are reading below grade level that Gov. John Kasich is proposing requiring school districts to provide summer school or hold back struggling students. But some lawmakers and educators had one question: Where’s the money to pay for the changes?
In every public school district in the Dayton region, more than 90 percent of third-graders advanced to the fourth grade. However, in some of those districts less than 70 percent are reading at grade level. At some charter schools, fewer than half of third-graders are reading at grade level.
When the Senate Education Committee asked Kasich’s education adviser Dick Ross how districts should pay for the mandate if it passes, Ross said the plan is so important that school district leaders should shift funding from elsewhere in their budgets.
Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, who chairs the education committee, supports a stronger third-grade reading law but had doubts about the lack of funding in the proposal.
Lehner said that passing the bill without addressing the financial impact would be irresponsible.
“There’s a common belief what should occur is kids should be taught to read,” Lehner said. “The question is, ‘If they’re not being taught, how is the money being spent?’ That’s the wrong question.”
Currently, third-graders who score in the “limited” range — the lowest of five ranges and two levels below “proficient” — on the state standardized reading test are required to remain in third grade or are promoted to fourth grade with remediation requirements.
Statewide, 92.7 percent of third-graders scored above the limited range on the reading portion of the Ohio Achievement Assessments last year and 99.4 percent were promoted to fourth grade.
Kasich’s proposal raises the trigger for promotion from limited to proficient — a bar that 20 percent of third-grade students failed to reach in the 2010-11 school year. The plan also prohibits promoting students who have been on reading improvement plans for two or more years.
The bill mandates diagnostic reading tests for students in kindergarten through third grade and increased assistance during the school year and summers. Parents would be notified if their child is not on the path to passing third grade.
In the Dayton region, most public districts had more than 80 percent of third-grade students scored as proficient or advanced.
The districts where fewer than 80 percent reached that mark include Xenia, Dayton, Jefferson Twp., Mad River, Northridge and Trotwood-Madison.
One in five third-grade students in Dayton Public Schools scored in the lowest range on the spring 2011 test, but only 26 students were not promoted to fourth grade, according to state data.
About 55 percent of Dayton third-graders scored proficient in reading in 2011 — not a top-performing number, but one that shows improvement from past years. In the 2009-10 school year, Dayton had 52.6 percent reading at the proficient level.
Superintendent Lori Ward said Dayton schools shifted focus toward reading interventions in early grades. She doubts that mandated summer programming for second-graders would work.
Ward didn’t know where she could “shift” money to cover more intensive interventions.
Parent Cassandra Woods said the staff at Dayton’s Ruskin Elementary has been focused on reading skills in her son’s first-grade class. She said reading is the foundation for all other learning and should be made the top priority, no matter the cost.
“If they need more money to do this, try to pass a levy, and if that doesn’t work, then cut somewhere else,” Woods said. “What’s the point of having foreign languages or basketball, band and cheerleading if the kids can’t read?”
The state made more than $2.9 billion in cuts to education funding last year, and many districts turned to their communities to lessen the blow by passing levies.
Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, said districts have shaved more than 10 percent off their budgets in recent years and would likely cut programs such as art or music or put a levy on the ballot.
Luckie, a former Dayton School board member, said lawmakers should scrap the bill and gather educators around the state to find and share how schools are succeeding in teaching students to read.
“Every kid is not going to learn at the same pace; not every kid comes from the same experience,” Luckie said.
Ohio’s “third-grade reading guarantee” is nothing new, but gained steam with the success of other states and a report stressing the importance of knowing how to read by the end of third grade. A 2011 report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that students who score less than proficient on third-grade tests are four times as likely not to graduate from high school as peers who score higher.
The third-grade guarantee is modeled after a 2002 Florida law that retains students who fail to score above the lowest range on the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test unless they meet one of six exemptions.
Florida’s third-grade retention rate increased from 3 percent to 13 percent with the first class under the law. But, almost two-thirds of those retained improved their test scores, according to a Florida Legislature report.
Retaining students adds an extra year of funding, but early interventions save money from being spent later, said Terry Ryan, vice president for Ohio programs and policy at the Dayton-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Ryan said Florida did not add funding when it implemented the changes and Ohio school districts could direct existing funds. “Any new money you put into education has to do things differently,” Ryan said. “We don’t need more money to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Kettering Superintendent Jim Schoenlein said retention is a last resort. He agreed schools should focus efforts in early grades but said Columbus policymakers shouldn’t be making that decision.
“We’re very capable of making our own decisions for what’s right and proper for this local district and how we’re going to spend our money here,” Schoenlein said. “And a third-grade guarantee is not the first place I’d go if I had any money.”
Lehner said the Senate Education Committee will discuss funding and sort through all proposals. She hopes the committee will send legislation to the House of Representatives in early May.
Staff writer Jeremy Kelley contributed to this report.
About the Author