BERGLAND - Jan Massie provided the ISD board members with an early update on the new Elementary School Literacy Program. Jan is leading a coaching program to the local schools as part of the reading improvement effort. Each school district is being provided these services through the GOISD Budget.

The goal of the program is to improve the reading skill levels of the young students in the K-3 grades.  Although the program just began in most districts this fall, Watersmeet Schools have been using this program for several years with much success. The other school districts are already show success in varying degrees.

The goal of the program is to all children read at what is called the Benchmark Level, however, above 80% would be acceptable.

Did you ever want to know what a DIBEL was?  I sure did. Way, way back when I was in Kindergarten, we didn’t have DIBELs, just kids who dribbled.

DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.
Those being:
Letter Naming, Phoneme Segmentation,  Letter-Sound Fluency, Reading and Comprehension.

The student’s skills are categorized on three levels:
Benchmark  - At Grade Level (Low Concern)
Strategic – Below Grade Level (Some Concern)
Intensive – Significantly Below Grade Level (High Concern)

The program aims at evaluating progress from Fall to Winter to Spring. The students should show fewer Strategic and Intensive levels and significantly higher Benchmark levels.
The data shows that the program has been succeeding in all but one school district. This could be the result of several factors, including class size or teacher acceptance of the program. Watersmeet which has been using this program for several years is of course showing fantastic scores.

The concerns of the reading coach’s are:
There is not complete staff buy in
Lack of Recognition of the importance of effective literacy instruction as a priority
Focus is not on student achievement at all costs.

The reading coaches believe in the program and that the goals are doable! (that's doable not dibabel)