I have been a “reading buddy” in District 150 schools for at least five of the last seven years. Nobody taught me how to do it; it wasn’t part of any coordinated effort. I talked to a teacher about her needs, signed up with the Principal, and sat down and started wherever the child indicated they needed to start.
While all of the AYP news is disappointing, I am most disappointed to see that Reading scores have gone down. I was hopeful that the Reading Buddy Program, which Grenita Lathan rolled out would make real impact. One would have expected the reading scores at the very least to stagnate – not go down.
Most astounding are the scores at Calvin Coolidge Middle School. Coolidge made AYP two years in a row prior to the 2011-12 school years. School officials have attributed the decline in Coolidge's reading scores, to an influx of students from Columbia Middle School (which closed in 2011 and re-opened in 2012 as Quest Charter Academy).
Most astounding are the scores at Calvin Coolidge Middle School. Coolidge made AYP two years in a row prior to the 2011-12 school years. School officials have attributed the decline in Coolidge's reading scores, to an influx of students from Columbia Middle School (which closed in 2011 and re-opened in 2012 as Quest Charter Academy).
Reading Buddies is a volunteer program; it has nothing to do with what is happening with the District’s budget. How could such a program, with such a huge group of trained, ready and willing community volunteers, NOT be successful? How will the Reading Buddy Program address the continuing drop in reading scores going forward? Hopefully, volunteers won't be discouraged by the scores. From the District's website:
Volunteer "Reading Buddies" Excited to Work With StudentsFollowing approximately one month of various training dates, more than 350 volunteers from throughout the Peoria community and local businesses completed a two-hour training session on the District's reading curriculum and working with students on phonics-based reading instruction.
Following the orientations at each school, each volunteer will work with three students assigned to that volunteer's group of five once a week, allowing each volunteer to make a commitment of only one day per month.
“As a supplemental instructional strategy, each volunteer group is meeting with three students over the course of one hour (20 minutes with each student) a week,” said Superintendent Dr. Grenita Lathan. “I believe this community investment will pay off significantly not only in increasing student achievement, but showing our students that our community supports education and each student's future.”
With the help of the CEO Roundtable, the District set out to find 500 adults to work with 300 students in the District. Students are chosen based on classroom and school assessments given throughout the school year.
30 comments:
Once again, your wit in the 2nd and 3rd paragraph, intended or not, made me bust out laughing!! How do you keep a straight face when you post this stuff? (Or maybe you didn't...)hahahaha!! LUV AT YA ALWAYS!!!
Just stating the facts ma'am.
I expected the scores to be way down. The new admin threw out all the good programs that showed improvment in the schools to make way for her poorly run programs. The principals are so scared they do not support their teachers and teachers are bound to a set of ridiculous time consuming tasks that they have no time to teach properly. The reading buddy program is welcomed and I love it. It however can not take the place of sound teaching. Under Dr. Lathan the scores will continue to decline, principals will continue to get demoted, teachers will continue to be made their scapegoat, and students will continue to be cheated. Some of the bloggers have alot of opinions about what is going on when they do not have a clue. I have been in these schools for a decade watching first hand what is going on and NO I am not a teacher.
I too have been in schools for several years as a volunteer/parent watching what is going on. While some may not have a clue on one thing - some may not have a clue on another. Collectively we all may have an idea of where to begin.
It doesn't help to be critical of community volunteers - we can't afford to be divided.
Such division only benefits the Administration - not the students, not the parents and certainly not the teachers.
@ Anonymous - Tuesday, August 28, 2012 9:43:00AM
Of course the Reading Buddy Program is not meant to take the place of sound teaching, it's a "supplemental instructional strategy," that has previously been very successful for some District schools - in it's less formal format
I am not being critical of our community volunteers. I enjoy reading all the input. I do get frustrated at Rev Burnet and his constant misperceptions because he walks through the schools. I was just trying not to say his name. If you don't get on board with him you must be a racist. I think the rest of the bloggers make great points.
LOL @ Anonymous Tuesday, August 28, 2012 10:09:00AM
I'm sorry, I'm not just saying that to you. I'm talking about all of us. I have to remind myself that all volunteer efforts START from a good place (now where they end up...).
Thanks for your comment.
The point was that the reading buddy program is great and welcomed. It is a ray of sunshine in the sea of dispair.
I think it is sad that people wouldn't listen to the teachers when they said the new programs, upheaval of staff and administrators, missing books, ridiculous required paperwork, etc. would impact student learning. The BOE didn't care about what the scores were before they grabbed up Lathan for another 3 years. Well, here they are--the scores are in. Guess what?!?? Surprisingly, the scores are down--some waaaay down.
When you ignore the teachers who are "in the trenches" daily and walk blindly into a room and vote to keep a superintendent who is damaging the district, these are the results you will get. I don't want to see a "told ya so" mentality because the true and only losers here are these children who still can't read!!!
When people with some sway actually start looking at and listening to the teachers as the professionals they are and start taking what they say seriously, maybe things can begin to improve.
NCLB is ridiculous and should be thrown out. NO school will be able to meet its requirements soon (other than Washington) because it will require 100% soon. However, as Emerge said, at the very least, 150 should have been able to maintain the scores from previous years. Where is summer school?!? That was our goal for many summers before Lathan got here. If nothing else, keep those students reading during the summer so that their scores don't drop and they are where they were when they left school in June. Summer school = yet more thing destroyed by Lathan which is damaging Peoria students.
I participated in the reading buddies program this year for the first time. Our experience was a completely unorganized program with little support from the teachers or secretaries.
There are so many issues at play here. First of all, remember that these reading scores reflect the reading problems of many children who need special services because of their reading problems. Putting them in regular classes has probably not helped the situation.
Also, believing in the tests and their results is probably a major consideration--the tests might not be all that trustworthy, especially considering that many students may not do their best under testing situations--probably many more than we might think.
Also, switching horses (reading programs) in the middle of the stream and under last year's adverse conditions didn't help.
Good readers learn to read at home with parental involvement in learning vocabulary words, etc. Reading without comprehension is a major problem with kids who have learning difficulties. Kids aren't going to read without much practice outside of school any more than a basketball player becomes a star without practice. Television has taken the place of reading in the home--kids don't learn to read watching TV.
I don't know how long it's going to take to start believing that NCLB test results aren't going to change--and with the high requirements (close to 100% as the goal now), most schools won't make AYP.
My hunch is that the lower scores are a reflection of the departure of families who left the district- fed up with all the controversy, the extreme mismanagement of the Transportation Department and elsewhere, and general lack of regard for the expressed wishes of District families.
I certainly agree about summer school. Who in their right mind believes that kids who already have problems and are behind will not lose ground during the summer months? Summer is the perfect time to play catch up.
Textbooks for several courses were purchased brand new two years ago, It has been said that Dr. Kennedy has told schools to throw (not resell, etc), but to throw them out as they found a new supplier. Something wrong with this picture and something wrong with this District?. Do we have that kind of money to waste? Some students still don't have books and some teachers are still copying complete books to give students. Wake up BOE, you are totally ruining this district. Have the decency to resign!
Emerge, Do YOU love the children as much as Dr. Lathan? Remember, NO ONE loves children as much as SHE does.
Oh lawd. Don't get Dr. Lathan started. Then we will have to sit through another,"You don't have to like me, you don't have to love me" speech
Certainly, I do not approve of all the new programs, the textbooks that arrived late, etc., that created so much upheaval last year. However, I would hesitate to lay the blame on Dr. Lathan for the poor reading scores--just as I hesitate to blame teachers for the poor reading scores.
As soon as we blame one group, the other group can reverse the blame. Blaming is not the way to solve the problem.
I think there has to be so much more honesty about the research that gives us clues as to why children have difficulty learning. If those obstacles remain, the efforts of all involved will not get the results everyone desires.
I am not trying to make excuses, but there are some realities that no one wants to face. Special education exists for a reason. I know special ed has often proven to be a place where kids get lost; however, the motivation for its origin is based on the fact that some children have learning disabilities that require some very special attention--and more and more of these children go to District 150 schools.
I am sure that all of us have been around children who learned to read with almost no effort--it just happened almost naturally as part of normal development. However, that doesn't happen with all children--unlocking the obstacles to their reading problems requires a one-on-one effort by someone trained to analyze and then to deal with these learning problems. For too long we have believed the optimistic assessment that "every child can learn" and, thus, blamed the schools when that turns out to be more of a challenge than the nice little saying would indicate.
That doesn't negate the fact that all involved have to give 100% effort--and that certainly includes classroom teachers.
did Lathan get a bonus for some type of improvement of test scores? When her contract was renewed she got a bonus.
Okay, let's go back to this time last year. No books, virtually no reading curriculum. Teachers were on their own to build a reading curriculum. New curriculum for other subjects, with very little PD, and the books came waltzing through the classroom doors much later in the year. We all predicted it would impact student achievement.
It has.
I don't know if Lathan got another bonus but she did get 5,000 when her contract was renewed. The BOE knew the test scores had dropped when they renewed her contract and still gave her a bonus. What did teachers get for all their hard work? A water bottle!
A WATER BOTTLE! BAHAHAHAGAAGAGAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA
The board needs to recend Dr Lathan's raise and ask for the bonus's back!
Well, as far as getting students to read, or interested in reading, whether with a parent, teacher, or mentor, sometimes finding a book that sparks their interest will help. My younger daughter is working toward a reading endorsement at ISU; so she was a reading buddy at Normal library. One of her buddies was a 5th grader that needed to improve, but was so not into reading...until the movie Hunger Games came out. Knowing it came from a book, this 5th grader could not wait to meet to read, check out the book with my daughter. Even though she was in 5th grade, this book was above her reading level.
Remember when the 1st "Harry Potter" book came out? Children (as well as adults) rediscovered the joy of reading again, using their imagination instead of TV. That's one approach to reaching students who need reading...find something that will spark their interest, desire to improve their reading level.
Just throwing that out for consideration. Thank you.
We have intervention specialists and teachers making up reading curriculum and they are not qualified to do so. it is ridiculous that first and 2nd graders do not have a reading book to take home at night. teachers are running around the school trying to find reading materials for their students! Hard to believe, but true!
Yes, it is true those two year old textbooks are being thrown out as they want to go with a new company, which is obviously a friend of theirs. Why not sell them to another school district and make money? And the new books aren't even here yet. So the students will be without books again.
"Most astounding are the scores at Calvin Coolidge Middle School. Coolidge made AYP two years in a row prior to the 2011-12 school years. School officials have attributed the decline in Coolidge's reading scores, to an influx of students from Columbia Middle School". What I do NOT get is why blame another school? Is this professional? What data is the School officials looking at? Columbia Middle School's overall composite was 74% in 2011 while Thomas Jefferson's was 70%. In fact in 2010 Columbia's was 71% to Thomas Jefferson's 69%. Why are the School Officials blaming Columbia for Calvin Coolidge's dropped scores??? Was the blame placed on the wrong school or was this just Latham diverting the topic away from a problem with Latham's decisions????
@Dennis in Peoria: your comment reminds me of the early '90s when there was an outcry over the series "Goosebumps". I was a teacher at the time and remember well people complaining, yet seeing kids who never had an interest in reading actually read an ENTIRE book at his/her LEISURE! (Gasp!) My son is on his third book in the series, and he actually WANTS to take his book with him when he goes somewhere and will read on his own at home. Back in the '90s I had my students do an end-of-semester presentation on a topic of THEIR interest (I taught Physics) and how the subject matter we studied had applied to it: all in the name of getting excited about research and uses of the library (at that time) for their topic of choice. I never graded on "presentation", but strictly on CONTENT, and it was part of their final exam grade for the semester. They were given the option to involve the class in demos, etc. One young lady had us all spinning ballet moves in the hallway to demo angular momentum, as ballet was her passion. Someone else took us outside to throw the discus, as that was her event in track, to demo all sorts of momentum and projectile motion. She handed me the disc and wanted me to give it a whirl, yet I didn't because I was SURE I would bust a window. My point is, I WISH those things could happen, yet unfortunately D150 teachers are not given the freedom because of "scores" and now, asinine (in my opinion)methods of evaluation. It's too bad because in my experience helping out the D150 teachers of my kids, every time we did a "hands-on" activity, the "bad kids" WAY OUTDID the "good kids". There are so many learning styles...Dennis, I don't know the answers, but you made an excellent point about using students' interests to spur reading..so I ask the teachers who read this blog: are you able to do these types of things, or are you tied down to someone else's agenda, in my opinion???
No, Calvin Coolidge did not blame Columbia. The administration added a hundred plus students to Calvin Coolidge and only added one extra teacher. If the board and the administration want to close schools then please provide the support to the students and staff to make the consolidation a success.
Same with Whittier and Tyng, Sterling and Columbia, Blaine and Trewyn, Irving and Lincoln....etc. etc. etc. etc.
Calvin Coolidge also receives the students from Franklin who would have attended Columbia.
Three words about reading scores dropping at Calvin Coolidge : Paxton and no librarian.
Kids at CCMS last year started spending 3 hours a week in front of computers learning about making smoothies and drywall hanging -- even the kids recognize when they are being fast-tracked to nowheresville and that's where the Kennedy's pet program put them.
There was no librarian at CCMS last year for almost the whole year. Helpful parents got the thing open but no librarian = no reading program. The school was not able to get the District to release funds for the AR contract until around Christmas.
Just saying.
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