North Union Superintendent Richard Baird and Elementary School Principal Darlene Allison recently informed the district board of efforts to improve early literacy, following the release of state report cards.
The Ohio Department of Education rated school districts on a one to five-star system. Five stars indicate exceeding state expectations and one star indicates falling short of those expectations.
The ODE measures achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation and early literacy among elementary, middle and high schools as well as district wide.
Early literacy was North Union’s only three-star rating. Three stars means the district is meeting state standards in early literacy, but it is not exceeding the standards.
“We were at almost four stars,” Allison said.
Early literacy is “a measure of reading improvement and proficiency for students in kindergarten through third grade,” according to the state report card.
“Early literacy is the most complicated and the most difficult area of achievement,” Baird said.
Allison explained that the score for early literacy is based on proficiency in third grade reading, promotion to fourth grade and improvement in K-3 literacy.
“We were able to get every student promoted to fourth grade, so that’s a plus,” Allison said.
At the time the report cards were released, North Union had 68 students moved to “on track” for reading improvement and proficiency. The district had 142 students start “off track.”
Students who need intervention will be put on a Reading Improvement Monitoring Plan (RIMP), Allison said.
Students can be given a RIMP because they are considered off track, which means when they took the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) they scored less 262 points, Allison explained.
North Union has also created what Allison calls a “gray area” for students who have efficient KRA scores between 263 and 269. The Ohio Department of Education states that students who earn KRA scores between 258 and 269 are “approaching readiness.” Those students will also be assigned RIMPs.
She added that a kindergarten student can also be assigned a RIMP if the student scores lower than 129 on the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Test.
“So, if you’re a 130 to 136, we give you a RIMP right away as well because you’re in the gray area,” Allison said. “We’re still going to watch you. We’re still not really convinced yet that you’re going to be proficient, so we want to help you along.”
Allison explained that the RIMPs are given to parents at teacher conferences.
“One thing you have to understand is once you’re on a RIMP, you never move off of the RIMP,” the principal said. “You do move from off track to on track, so that RIMP stays with you, which is not a bad thing. So, it just shows progress, which is how they got the scores of moving off to on track.”
Teachers collect data about each student’s progress and report back to parents and legal guardians.
In addition, North Union offers a multi-tiered system of support for early literacy. High school students volunteer at the elementary school to help measure students’ success, such as reviewing vocabulary words with them. Furthermore, instructional aides, Title I teachers and after-school tutors help students progress in the curriculum.
Board member Shelly Ehret expressed concern about the readiness of North Union’s first and second grade students in comparison to other districts in Union and Marion County, specifically Fairbanks. Although students are making progress in early literacy, she is worried about how much they seem to be catching up rather than demonstrating proficiency in early childhood.
Baird added that the comparison between North Union and Fairbanks students “goes a lot deeper than the conversation about what questions they got right on a test.”
“There was only one school in two counties that had a four (in early literacy), and that was Fairbanks,” Allison noted. “All the rest had three or less.”
As the district works on improving early literacy testing scores, Allison said her goal is to earn five stars on the state report card for that component.
In addition, the district received four stars in achievement, which “represents whether student performance on state tests met established thresholds and how well students performed on tests overall,” according to the state report card.
The district also received four stars in progress, which “looks closely at the growth all students are making based on their past performances.”
“Traditionally, we have done very well in that area, and we did once again,” Baird said.
The district received five-star ratings in gap closing, which “is a measure of the reduction in educational gaps for student subgroups,” and graduation, which “is a measure of the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate and the five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.”
Baird said gap closing is evaluated by dividing students into subgroups “and whether or not the subgroups met a mark,” which is different for each subgroup.
“What we do with gap closing is we make sure that those individual groups are getting the support that they need to make sure that they succeed,” the superintendent said.
The college, career, workforce and military readiness component rating has not been announced yet.
“But this is the area where we’ve been working so hard on our pathways,” Baird said. “We are giving our students opportunities, whether it’s at our career center, whether it’s here at our school, wherever it is we’re giving kids the skills they need to enter the workforce, go to a four-year university, join the military – whatever it is they decide to do, we’re going to make sure that they’re ready.”
He also said the district added IT courses at the high school and enhanced the middle school IT program this past year.