Reading scores highlight barriers to learning

Maru Genemo’s kids are readers.

They love chapter books and picture books, the Hardy Boys and Nate the Great. The 40-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia reads with them because he wants the best for their future.

“I want to see them have a better life,” Genemo said.

It all starts with reading. Kids who are proficient readers by third grade have a better chance of graduating from high school, better odds of going on to college and a successful career.

That’s why Sioux Falls School Board members viewed stagnating results on the district’s reading assessments last month as a red flag for the school system and the city’s future workforce.

Almost two out of five third-graders are reading at a level below where the district wants them to be. The problem has gotten slightly worse since the district started a program two years ago to close the gap.

School board members want an explanation. The board asked for a follow-up report sometime this winter on possible causes and solutions to the slippage. Some wonder whether to blame program cuts made in 2011, after the state slashed K-12 funding, but they also see complex problems that extend beyond the classroom.

Access a problem

Genemo spent more than $100 on six workbooks this summer. It was a costly sum, given what he pays for rent, food and clothes for his four kids.

He worries about missing out on opportunities to help them.

Genemo found an after-school program through a school district employee, who also helped him register the children at Cleveland Elementary when he first moved to the city.

The Lutheran Social Services program at Hilltop United Methodist Church keeps his kids busy during the summer.

But they still don’t have enough books, Genemo said.

Without a teacher to ask for help, he struggles to find reading material that will challenge 10-year-old Yerosan and 8-year-old Hawinet.

“Number one, I don’t know what kind of books they read,” Genemo said. “And what kind of books that help them.”

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Enrollment in the district’s English Language Learners classes is five times what it was in 1996. The need skyrocketed for educators able to reach across any language barriers and help families such as Genemo’s.

Low-income families have some access to preschool through Head Start, but the federally funded program typically has a wait list of 1,500.

Forty states offer some kind of public support for pre-kindergarten services, but not South Dakota.

Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of all 3- and 4-year-olds in this state are not in preschool, according to a report released earlier this month by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Educators say reading should begin at birth and continue through early childhood, but any number of factors could be preventing Sioux Falls youths from getting the literary skills they need to succeed in school.

It could be instability at home, the strength of a local parent-teacher association or a family’s attitude toward education.

“You can definitely tell the children between an environment where parents had the luxury and the time to read to children,” said Kathy Cruse, executive director of the South Dakota Head Start Association.

In lieu of state-level coordination, early childhood education depends on grassroots efforts, Cruse said.

Officials with the Sioux Falls School District denied an Argus Leader request to see reading assessment results by school, but school-level data on fifth-grade reading is available from the national SAT 10 assessment. The numbers show low-income schools do worse.

Students at Hawthorne, Terry Redlin and Garfield elementary schools fall short of district reading averages on the SAT 10. More than 80 percent of students enrolled at all three schools qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

But reading isn’t about a test score, said Amy James, a kindergarten teacher at Lowell Elementary. It’s not about the data, she said. Not about levels.

“You take the enjoyment out of it,” James said.

Her building has one of the highest free and reduced-price lunch percentages in the district. Students there struggle on state math and science exams, even though both subjects have long received a strong focus in classrooms.

Lowell reading scores also are behind.

But James visits her parents and kids when school isn’t in session. She is part of the community. She works hard, and so do other teachers.

Lowell educators lobbied Siouxland Libraries to get a Bookmobile stop added for an apartment building where some non-native-English-speaking students live.

“I really hate when kids and schools and teachers are judged on what our reading scores are,” James said.

Searching for answers

When Sioux Falls School District officials were faced with state budget cuts in 2011, the school board agreed to cut its reading program for troubled readers.

Reading Recovery targeted first-graders in the bottom 20 percent of their class, with the goal of catching them up with their peers. A school board report from 2008 shows the program had yearly success rates of higher than 80 percent.

In their search for answers to Sioux Falls’ reading problem, some board members wonder whether the program needs to be brought back.

“Is the program that we put in place since we’ve had to drop Reading Recovery, is that doing the best that we can do for our struggling readers?” said Kent Alberty, president of the board.

Frustrated by the district’s June report on reading scores, the school board voted unanimously to reassess some of the programming that has replaced Reading Recovery.

Alberty said he wants to see more specifics this winter, when administrators are scheduled to bring the report forward.

Scores need be broken down by demographic before board members can decide what to do with them, he said.

“Is the score the result of the increased number of students in the district who live at or below the poverty line?” Alberty said. “And if it is specific to those schools, then what can we do?”

In addition to troublesome year-over-year trends, the report shows students are falling behind grade level as they progress from kindergarten to third grade.

In kindergarten, 86 percent of students were reading at grade level by the end of the school year, compared with 62 percent of third-graders.

“I think there’s a lot of things that go into it,” said Doug Morrison, a Sioux Falls School Board member. “It’s not necessarily something we can throw money at.”

Sioux Falls has a number of resources for families in need of free books or learning help.

Lutheran Social Services offers a mentorship program for any student in need of additional adult guidance, but the program is short on volunteers.

Students come to the program with behavioral problems or facing difficulties in school, said Michelle Madsen, director of mentoring services. Mentoring works, but Madsen is 300 to 500 volunteers short of what she needs.

“The school district keeps getting larger and larger, and we probably haven’t grown proportionately with the school district,” Madsen said.

Siouxland Libraries offer programs and services such as the Bookmobile to get children of all ages and backgrounds reading.

There’s also Reading Bridge, a free summer tutoring program at local libraries and schools.

Sioux Empire United Way brings free books to more than 10,000 area children each month through its Imagination Library program. Parents who sign up for the service receive a book in the mail each month, selected by literacy experts for their child’s age and reading ability.

Morrison wants more businesses and community groups involved. And there’s a really good reason why local companies might help fund preschool education.

Economists, including researchers for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, say money invested in early childhood learning has a high rate of return.

If South Dakota leaders are interested in promoting workforce development, this is one way to help, Morrison said.

“This is your future workforce,” Morrison said.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

The Argus Leader is dedicating a week of coverage to childhood literacy and reading in Sioux Falls and South Dakota.

Find daily updates on resources, tips, data and interviews with experts every day at www.argusleader.com, and the Learning Curve blog.

Education reporter Patrick Anderson (@ArgusPAnderson) will Tweet coverage using the hashtag #SFreads.

To join the conversation, send an email to panderson@argusleader.com or call 605-977-3936