Program Designed To Identify Reading Problems Early

By Tanjua Damon

Newtown Schools have a plan, an Early Reading Success Plan, to ensure students are able to read by the third grade. It is a community effort to support literacy for all children and families in town.

In May 1998, the Connecticut General Assembly passed legislation to support the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan over a three-year period intended to improve reading skills of students in kindergarten through third grade. The plan had to be in place by September 1999.

The plan is about reading readiness among elementary school-aged children, Newtown Assistant Superintendent Robert Kuklis said. The idea is to make sure students are reading by the third grade with the help of schools, community programs, and parents.

“I think it’s a good plan. It’s something that is really important to have,” he said. “It provides direction and harnesses all the resources we have.”

Some of the requirements of the plan include: the specific instructional methods, strategies, and activities that will be used to teach reading; a process for assessing and assisting students who are at risk of failing to learn to read by the end of first grade; periodic evaluations of reading level of students; additional time for remedial instruction for students who fail to make progress in their literacy development or are performing below grade level; in-service training programs on teaching of reading for teachers; a process of involving parents as partners in the literacy development of their children; referrals to family literacy programs; ongoing data collection and monitoring of program effectiveness; and the establishment of school and public library partnerships.

“I think the common goal is that if a child doesn’t read before grade three, we have some very serious problems,” Dr Kuklis said. “For this district, our target is more grade two.”

There are three goals to the plan, Reading Consultant Julie Birch said. The first is district staff development, second is the home/school partnership, and third is the community project. Everyone has been willing to help with the reading success plan.

“It has been extremely receptive. I think as a district, as a town, we have existing practices and resources,” Ms Birch said. “We really believe as a community working together we can provide resources and make parents aware of what is needed.”

The literacy plan is designed to identify children early who are having reading difficulties so that programs may be put in place to provide resources to help with possible literacy needs.

“We have all these intervention processes in place. We have children who come in having trouble reading,” she said. “It involves working with children, working with pre-kindergarten school children and parent programs.”

The steering committee will meet in October to continue working on the goals and actions of the plan, Ms Birch said. Every three years the plan will be evaluated and changed accordingly.

“It takes a lot of people working together to orchestrate this,” she said.