The Read 180 program is working at Selbyville Middle School, and Sen. Tom Carper wanted to see it in action. So the state’s former governor and junior U.S. senator paid a visit to the school Monday, Nov. 21, to talk to teachers and students about the impact the program has had for them.
Read 180 is a unique approach to improving reading skills, featuring three varied stations:
1) Teacher-directed study in small groups, where students might write a letter-to-the-editor or discuss a book;
2) Computerized stations featuring the Read 180 software, which tracks student progress and presents individualized paths for reading comprehension; and
3) Independent reading, which in the case of SMS takes place on some rather comfy couches donated by local furniture retailers Creative Concepts and owner Craig Ledanum.
The program targets the students having the most trouble reading, as determined by standardized testing scores, in-class tests and individual assessments.
SMS Principal Mike Klein said the program had originally been somewhat controversial, simply because it means the 78 Read 180 students are pulled out of their regular English class and a social studies or science class to make up for the 90-minute concentrated reading instruction in the Read 180 labs.
But the opposition of some parents to that idea has lessened considerably, Klein said, with the indications of its success and the realization of the impact improved reading has on all subjects.
Now in its third year and with a second lab added last year, the school’s eighth-grade special education test scores have soared — from just 24 percent of students meeting state standards in 2003 to 55 percent meeting them in 2004. Compared from one year to the next, the same students increased their passing rate 30 percent in eighth grade, 12 percent for seventh-graders and 6 percent in sixth-graders.
The program has allowed the school to also focus on math improvement for those who need extra help in that realm. Its success was strong enough for readers that what was originally a concept proposed by teachers who attended a professional conference has now obtained district-wide backing and been put into place in Sussex Middle School, Indian River High School an Sussex Senior High School this year.
The reasons why and how the program works are pretty obvious.
Patty Kuklinski, the local representative for Scholastic, which developed the Read 180 program, said it features high-interest text with low reading requirements to encourage them to not only learn to read better but to enjoy what they’re reading.
Subjects range from UFO’s to boxer Muhammad Ali, from King Arthur to contemporary-set fiction, and selections are geared to individual reading levels for each student.
Beyond the reading material, students in the program praised their teachers.
Austin Smith, a 13-year-old seventh-grader, said, “I get stuff done in Mrs. (Diane) Irvine’s class.” She’s there when he needs help, he said. “She breaks stuff down in steps. She taught me how to be organized and helps me keep my grades up.”
Smith said his test scores had gone up from 500 to 900 since he started the program.
Indian River School District Superintendent Lois Hobbs added to the praise for the teachers, telling Carper, “Great staff — that’s what makes the difference — and great students.”
PTA President Debbie Legano said the program, and the teachers, are making a big difference for her 13-year-old son Anthony, a seventh-grader at SMS. “He’s really started to turn around,” she said.
Klein said the schools Hispanic population (8 percent of its students) is also benefiting from the program. While some of the children come into the school with no English, as soon as they’re able to, they’re transitioned to Read 180, where they can not only practice reading books and writing but listen to the English words pronounced as part of the computer program.
Kuklinski noted that the newest version of the program has the ability to incorporate five different languages, with a strong second-language component. She said it therefore lends itself to improving English comprehension as a second language.
The principal said he hoped to continue to integrate the school’s English program for those students with the Read 180 program.
Klein said the biggest challenge ahead of them overall was to see how the program was being received some three or four years down the road, once the students and system had gotten used to it.
Regina Izzo, the literacy director for the school, told Carper she had been looking for “something that would make the kids love reading.” The labs have been amazingly successful in doing that, she added. Still, the program is at capacity, with the two labs and teachers, and Izzo said she had students who were ready to move into the program as soon as others moved out.
During his visit Monday, Carper took the time to examine the computer program with several of the students, and talked to several of the readers ensconced on those cozy couches about their choice of reading material. It was a play for one, a short novel for the other. At another station, a student was writing a letter voicing his opinions on an issue, Carper noted.
Closing a roundtable discussion of the program, Carper said a key in educational success was finding things that work. “It looks like you’ve identified something here that works,” he said. “You are clearly on the right track.”