Students in kindergarten through third grade are improving their reading scores, thanks to a new focus on phonics-based literacy instruction.
Those students improved their reading proficiency by more than two percentage points.
In fact, last year’s kindergarten class improved their reading scores by more than 20 points as first graders.
“This is very exciting to see that we have more students entering into first, second and third grade who are prepared for that grade level in literacy,” says Dr. Jenna Chiasson, deputy superintendent at the Louisiana Department of Education.
Dr. Chiasson says several factors are contributing to the rise in reading proficiency among those children.
“I absolutely think it is this statewide focus on reading and improving reading that we’ve had over the last few years. It’s a focus on a method to teaching that’s called the Science of Reading,” says Chiasson. “We’ve also been able to implement high-dosage tutoring across the state. That helps students rreceive exactly the instruction that they need on an individualized level.”
Chiasson says better reading scores at the early levels will set those kids up for success later in their education and, in effect, later in life.
“We’re just so hopeful about what’s to come for our state, seeing this improvement,” Chiasson says. “And the fact that we see it at each grade level and not just in one I think really points to the fact that these improvement strategies in our classrooms that are underway are indeed working.”
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