District 81 Pilot Program Spells Success New Spelling Program To Be Expanded In Local Schools

A new spelling program being tried in 10 Spokane schools this year will expand next fall because it works.

The Spokane School Board approved Wednesday the Daily Oral Language Plus program for all thirdgrade classrooms. Fourth-graders also will use the new program, pending the board’s approval later.

The program stresses phonics, spelling rules and weekly word lists. Spelling words are more difficult than those found in the district’s current spelling textbook, Heath’s Working With Words.

The district compared the new and old programs by testing students’ spelling in the 10 schools in the pilot project and in five schools using the old program.

Students in the pilot schools scored significantly higher than in the comparison schools.

“It’s not as though they’re missing a spelling gene in District 81,” joked Curriculum Director Nancy Stowell.

The 10 schools using the new program this year are Finch, Hamblen, Jefferson, Lidgerwood, Linwood, Ridgeview, Roosevelt, Sheridan, Westview and Wilson.

In informal feedback, parents said the new program raised expectations and challenged their children, said language arts coordinator Fran Mester.

The district tried the new program because of continuing abysmal spelling scores on statewide achievement tests.

Earlier in the meeting, the board reviewed sixth-graders’ scores on a standardized test they took in February.

Sixth-graders scored above the national average in all subjects except for spelling.

Across all subjects, the sixth-grade scores declined slightly compared to last year’s.

But there was good news: The scores were drastically higher than scores from the same group of students when they were fourth-graders two years ago.

In math, for example, fourthgraders in 1992-93 scored in the 39th percentile. This year, as sixthgraders, the same group scored in the 61st percentile in math.

That means the average Spokane sixth-grader scored better than 61 percent of the national norm group.

There were extreme highs and lows across the district. The highest scoring sixth-graders in math (Hutton Elementary, 91st percentile) were 63 percentile points ahead of the lowest scoring sixth-graders (Holmes Elementary, 28th percentile).

The lowest scoring schools are in high poverty areas.