Kootenai readers beat state average

Kootenai County children fared better than the state average on a spring reading fluency test, but years of unchanged scores across the state have education officials calling for changes to reading curriculum.

“There’s some reasons to be celebrating with these numbers,” said Tom Luna, state superintendent of public instruction. “I think it’s good that two-thirds of our third-graders are at grade level, but we have to be concerned about the fact that a third of our third-graders are not.”

The Idaho Reading Indicator is a short reading fluency test given to students in grades kindergarten through third grade in September, January and April. Scores generally drop as the students get older, which happened at the state level and in the Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland districts this year.

More than 90 percent of kindergartners in the three districts were reading at grade level, compared with 80 percent around the state. In third grade, slightly more than 70 percent of children in the three districts read at grade level, compared with 66 percent statewide.

A new version of the test will be given in September. The updated version incorporates more recent research on reading curriculum and learning, Luna said.

“It reflects more of the current research that we have on reading,” he said. “This assessment we have (currently) is six or seven years old.”

The Idaho Reading Indicator began in 2001 as part of the state Department of Education’s reading initiative, and students made steady gains on the state test during the first few years, Luna said. But since about 2004, state averages have remained relatively unchanged.

That trend shows up in the Coeur d’Alene district scores, said Jim Facciano, district curriculum director. The district’s average proficiency rate over all four grades has hovered at about 76 percent since 2004, he said.

He likened raising the proficiency percentage beyond that point to trying to lose 30 pounds.

“It’s easier to lose the first 25 pounds than the last five pounds,” he said. “Now we’re down to the more difficult readers … so it takes more intervention and more focus and resources to get that last 20 percent to grade level.” This coming school year the district plans to plug more resources, like a reading specialist and more training, into two or three elementary schools with low reading scores, he said.

“If it’s successful, (we’ll) replicate that,” he said.

Luna said the new assessment is a good first step toward modernizing the state reading initiative that created the Idaho Reading Indicator.

“Now it’s an opportunity to work with educators and talk about how we’re going to break this barrier that we seem to be bumping up against,” Luna said. “We’ll never have the luxury in this business of saying ‘Mission accomplished.’ There’s always work to do.”

The Lakeland district looks forward to the new IRI test, said Ron Schmidt, assistant superintendent.

“I think we’re going to get more reliable data,” he said.

But whatever the test, the district will examine the results, he said.

“Our teachers are able to see where the kiddos are and prescribe what individual students need to reach the proficiency targets for the next assessment,” he said. “… Our students are being held accountable for these tests, and we owe it to them to prepare them. That’s what our curriculum work is all about.”