Students at Triad are reaping the benefits of expanded reading intervention services, while educators and administrators are hoping the grant-funded program can stay in place as long as possible.
Chief Academic Officer Morgan Fagnani shared with the Board of Education Thursday the district’s fall reading scores.
“There’s a huge change (in scores) this year over last year,” Fagnani said, attributing much of the growth to expanded intervention services.
Fagnani said iReady – the diagnostics program used for kindergarten through eighth grade math and English-Language Arts – scores indicate significant growth from the winter through winter.
Fall iReady ELA scores showed that 29% of K-8 students were “on grade level.”
According to winter scores, 48% of students are now at the level they should be.
Similarly, the percentage of K-8 students achieving at their grade level in math jumped from 24% to 50%.
“Overall, (I’m) really excited about our scores,” Fagnani said.
She said the expansion of intervention services at Triad are paying dividends.
Superintendent Vickie Hoffman said the group of Title I specialists, called the “FLOOD Team,” consists of nine members: two Title I intervention specialists, two elementary intervention specialists, one middle school intervention specialist and four positions added this academic year.
Hoffman said the four new positions are funded through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund provided by the state to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.
During the 2019-2020 academic year, 47 students, or 18% of the elementary school, were assisted by Title I services. That number grew to 78 students in the 2020-2021 school year, Fagnani explained.
This academic year, 133 students, or 47% of the students in the building, are served by the Title I team.
“That just blows my mind,” said Board member Mike Perry.
While a larger number of students are now receiving intervention services, Fagnani said they are actually in smaller groups.
She said some groups in past years had five students but they are now generally limited to three, with some high performing groups with four.
Fagnani said this is possible only because the district now has more manpower.
Aside from the increased number of students helped, Fagnani said they are in Title I services for a longer period each day.
In the two prior school years, Title I assistance lasted 30 minutes per day. Elementary School Principal Lee Claypool said this was not enough time for instructors to move through a full lesson.
Now, each Title I student receives 55 minutes of those services each day. Claypool said that length was determined based on the amount of time needed to complete a full lesson.
Fagnani said the ability to instruct a full day of programming, rather than breaking it up over multiple days, is especially helpful for teachers and students.
“It’s pretty telling when you look at the minutes,” she said. “That amount of intervention for our students, we’ve never seen.”
Board President Chris Millice asked if the services would be even more effective if the time was increased.
“Is more students better or less students with more time?” Millice asked.
Fagnani said the district is trying to find the right balance between enough intervention services and a minimal amount of time missed in general education classes.
“You balance what you miss in the classroom” while in Title I instruction, Hoffman added.
Board member Mike McConnell said he understands that general education teachers do not want students to miss too much of their regular classes. Still, he said students’ reading skills need to be solid before they can excel in any other area.
“If you can’t get the reading right, the rest’s going to be tough all around,” he said.
Ultimately, Fagnani said expanded Title I services appear to be benefitting all students.
When more students are pulled from general education classes for intervention services, Fagnani noted that regular class sizes become smaller too.
She said this allows teachers to provide individualized attention to their students, while intervention specialists do the same in their small groups.
“Our highest level learners are being pushed further,” Fagnani said.
Several board members agreed that they feel the FLOOD Team is effective.
Board member Kyle Huffman, who previously worked as an administrator and educator at Triad, said he is impressed by the program.
He said he has even noticed an improvement in his daughter’s, a first-grade student at Triad, reading skills. Huffman said she recently surprised him by using the words “lackadaisical” and “diligent” – each correctly.
McConnell said he wants to see the program stay in place as long as possible.
“It’s hard because we knew (when the FLOOD Team was formed)… we can’t afford four new positions forever,” Hoffman responded.
She said the district budgeted the ESSER funds to gradually decrease the FLOOD Team, losing one of the four positions each year.
Friday morning, Hoffman said the district is “looking at our options” to keep the full team together one more year.
Board member Randy Moore said he is hopeful the group is not broken up due to a lack of funding.
“It’d be a shame for it to come down to dollars,” Moore said.