Parents, students struggle with Read to Achieve

by Julie Ball, Asheville Citizen-Times, July 10, 2014.

Yashika Smith’s daughter broke down and cried when she didn’t pass her end-of-grade reading test on the first try.

“That was the only time I saw her break down,” Smith said. “She said ‘I did the best I could. I really, really did.’ That broke my heart.”

Nine-year-old Teriyiah Smith, a student at Vance Elementary, had been reading passages and answering questions for months. She’d gone through multiple tests designed to assess her reading skills — all tied to Read to Achieve, a state law passed in 2012 and designed to have all third-graders reading at grade level by the end of the school year.

The idea was students wouldn’t move to fourth grade if they couldn’t show they were proficient at reading at their grade level.

Third grade was already an important year. It’s the first time students get letter grades and the first year for end-of-grade testing. But Read to Achieve raised the stakes.

And the law has sparked some fierce criticism — in part because of the number of assessments and the reading portfolios that consumed hours inside classrooms across the state. The portfolios consisted of a series of 36 reading passages and mini-tests based on various standards students are required to master.

“Some of them (the students) really, really started to dislike and hate the passages,” said Kurt Campbell, Teriyiah’s teacher at Vance. “Every time I would say we have to do another one, moans and groans throughout the classroom. I would have kids in tears. I would have parents calling me and saying, ‘My kid wants to know if you are doing a passage tomorrow because they really don’t want to do one.’”

Since its implementation, petitions and Facebook pages have popped up in opposition to Read to Achieve. One Raleigh mom described to state lawmakers how her daughter had gone from loving school to suffering anxiety when faced with the testing.

Smith said it was challenging to watch her daughter “just doubt herself.”

“She’s always struggled a bit with reading. Getting out of the second grade and feeling like she had mastered reading and then to go to third grade, and there’s a whole different ballgame,” Smith said. “It was quite stressful for her.”

Smith worked at home with her daughter, reading and using sample tests from the state website to prepare. She didn’t want her daughter to have to rely on the portfolio passages.

Smith said Campbell also worked “around the clock.”

“He literally did everything in his power. I couldn’t ask for a better teacher,” she said.

When Teriyiah passed her end-of-grade reading test on the second try, Campbell called Smith on a Friday evening to tell her. The family celebrated all weekend.

Read to Achieve

State lawmakers have made some changes to Read to Achieve requirements, and more could be coming.

In the meantime, many of those students who didn’t meet the requirements — and a few who did — are busy with intense reading instruction in summer reading camps across the state.

Some students may find themselves in hybrid, third-fourth grade classrooms next year, still classified as “retained” and continuing to get extra reading help but working toward promotion to fourth grade.

Read to Achieve is modeled on a Florida law. Republican lawmakers in the state Senate pushed the Read to Achieve legislation two years ago.

The language was inserted into the state budget that year, according to Leanne Winner, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina School Boards Association.

The law contained a number of provisions on how to implement the program, including directing the state Department of Public Instruction to adopt a “formative diagnostic assessment system for all K-3 teachers” to use in assessing children.

“This was going to be a way of looking at the child throughout the year … looking at their foundational skills to see where they had strengths and weaknesses so that teachers could build their instruction based on where the child was,” said Carolyn Guthrie, director of K-3 literacy for the state Department of Public Instruction.

Another major component was developing the portfolio, which was designed to give students another way to show they were proficient at reading even if they didn’t pass their end-of-grade tests.

“The way the law reads, the portfolio should contain three examples of mastery on each of the standards that are measured on the EOG. That’s where the 36 (passages) came from,” Guthrie said. “So, it was never intended to be tests. It was never intended to be standardized. It was intended for a teacher to be able to use at her discretion.”

Guthrie said the portfolio was meant for students “on the bubble or struggling” who were likely to need summer reading camp “or go into the fall and work on their portfolio then.”

Teachers couldn’t begin using the portfolio passages until January. At the time, the law said anyone who didn’t pass end-of-grade tests in reading would have to attend summer reading camp. Many districts didn’t want to let that be decided with a single test.

“Many districts were saying every child will go through the portfolio process,” Winner said.

The Department of Public Instruction then began sending out guidance, letting school districts know that if a student performed well on beginning of grade tests, they would be considered proficient. School districts could also use alternate assessments to show proficiency. Read to Achieve also included exemptions for special need students as well as some students with limited English proficiency.

As the ways students could show reading proficiency expanded, the number of students needing to complete the portfolio began to shrink.

Isaac Dickson Elementary teacher Steven Davis said when other assessments were allowed, he reached a point where just a few students were doing the portfolio assessments.

At first, teachers didn’t want to “push this on them too much,” Davis said. But the prospect of mandatory summer reading camp was hanging over the students.

Students could do no more than three of the portfolio passages per week.

“And who would want to give these kids more than three a week, because third grade is already the most tested grade,” Davis said. “And so with that you are putting these kids in a position of already hating these things and feeling so bad about school because all they’re doing is taking tests.”

Davis said some parents were also frustrated because they thought their students were missing out on instructional time.

The irony is those students who needed the most instruction were spending more time on passages and tests. A student who completes the passages and answers questions successfully on the first try still needs 18 hours to get through all of them, Winner said.

“Some districts, I think many, required students who had not made it through one of those other hoops to go ahead and do the portfolio,” Winner said. “You ended up in some districts with some children who you knew were not reading at grade level, still taking portfolio passages, not being able to demonstrate that they were proficient, not doing well on those and getting very frustrated.”

Assistant Principal Derek Edwards said Vance tried to be “very targeted” regarding which children would do the passages and also tried to use the portfolio passages to better target where a child needed help.

School officials didn’t want the reading passages to be “lost time.”

And throughout the year, Campbell tried to remind his students to remember the things they loved to read.

He stressed, “this isn’t reading. This is just to let us know what kind of a reader you are.”

“I said people are asking us to jump through hoops. We just need to try and jump through as many of them as we can and do the best we can,” Campbell said.

Reading camp

Teachers say the rules around Read to Achieve changed repeatedly — changing right up until the end of the school year.

Students who didn’t pass EOGs were initially told they would have to attend summer reading camps that are taking place across the state. Eventually, state lawmakers made attendance voluntary. The state also allowed school districts to shorten the length of the camps.

Teriyiah Smith is moving to fourth grade, but her mom decided to send her to the summer reading camp at Vance anyway.

Smith says her daughter loves it.

“She doesn’t see it as ‘Oh I’m going to summer school because I need the extra help’,” Smith said. Instead, she sees it as a way to keep improving.

Ninety students from elementary schools across the Asheville City system are taking part in the six-week summer reading camp at Vance.

About 230 Buncombe County school students are attending summer reading camps out of 343 who were eligible, according to Danna Knight, instructional coach and district coordinator for Buncombe County Schools’ reading camp sites.

The summer camp is providing students “an extra opportunity to build their skills,” Knight said. County schools have six sites and students will attend for four weeks.

Some students who didn’t pass the end-of-grade reading test can work on their portfolios during the summer reading camp. They’ll also have a chance with another test at the end of the session.

At the Vance summer reading camp, instruction is designed to meet each individual student’s needs, Edwards said.

Inside one classroom, Davis is working with students on reading fluency. And a fellow teacher works on comprehension.

Davis says he’s had more time to teach without worrying about the “regulations of Read to Achieve.”

For those students who still aren’t proficient, Guthrie said principals and teachers will have to determine “does this child really need to go to third grade again or would they benefit from going through a three-four transition or accelerated class.”

Students in the transitional classes will get 90 minutes a day of uninterrupted reading instruction. At the same time, they’ll also be working on fourth-grade standards and will have the chance to be promoted to fourth grade during the year if they meet the reading standards.

Local school officials say they can’t say how many students may be required to repeat the third grade or how many may end up in transitional classes until the summer reading camps are completed.

Holding a student back creates concern because retention is associated with higher drop-out rates.

Educators say students don’t all start in the same place, and some are being ask to grow more than just one grade level in a year.

Guthrie said that’s why it’s important for teachers in kindergarten, first and second grades to target their instruction to reach lagging students.

“We’ve talked about this law being so concentrated on third grade, but this law isn’t about third grade. This law is about K, 1 and 2,” Guthrie said.

“It’s going to take the teachers in K, 1 and 2 understanding the data ... and being able to change their instruction to meet the needs of those children,” she said.