Kansas Reading Roadmap Program

Doug Conwell Superintendent USD 417

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It has been several weeks since last I posted a message.  Since my last post, there have been items that will impact our students, their education and nutrition, that I want to share with you. The first piece of news involves USD 417 being selected to participate in the Kansas Reading Roadmap program.  This is a reading intervention program specific to students in grades Kindergarten through 3^rd grade.  The purpose of this program is to help our Kindergarten through 3^rd grade students reading on grade level by the end of 3^rd grade.  I’ve talked about this issue before but it bears repeating. 

The research is clear as to just how important it is to a child’s future education for s/he to be reading at grade level by the end of third grade.  Student’s who do not hit this milestone tend to struggle in all subject areas throughout the rest of their academic lives.  There are also other issues that reaching this milestone potentially mitigates.  These include dropping out of school and/or developing a low self-esteem, which can lead to a host of other problems as a child ages.  Reading at grade level by 3^rd grade gives our children their best opportunity to being successful in school.  The opportunity to tap into the KRR grant program, to help get them reading at proficiency, is a big deal for our students.

The primary criteria for USD 417 being selected to participate in the KRR program is that we have over 50% of our elementary school students qualifying for free or reduced meals.  A secondary reason is that our district is highly involved with the state’s Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS).  This program uses student data to identify which students need help with both reading and math interventions in an effort to move to proficiency.  While we have made great strides helping children through our involvement with MTSS, some students need more time and perhaps a different instructional approach to become proficient in reading by 3^rd grade.  The KRR program will provide both the time and a different instructional approach to help identified students.

There are three primary programs that are under the KRR umbrella of intervention work.  USD 417 will begin offering an after school reading intervention program beginning in April.   Letters and other forms of contact will be sent out to students who qualify for this opportunity.  During this after school program, students will have two reading sessions and one physical activity session.  Students will also receive an after school snack as part of the program.  Students who are part of this program will have transportation services that will deliver students directly to their home once the after school program is completed for the day.  The after school program will run for 50 days, 4-days a week each semester and will run throughout the school year.

There is a summer school component that lasts for 6-weeks, 5 hours per day Monday through Friday.  The day will be broken up to cover reading skills but also will include student project oriented work in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) field and general math work for parts of the day.   Students will be served lunch, have some physical play time, and have transportation to and from home.  We have not yet set the dates for this summer school program but I anticipate it will begin in very early June. 

There is also a family component to this program.  It will involve parents and their children attending a monthly family night.  While we are still learning about all of the activities that will be part of this program, the focus will be on literacy.  I anticipate that one aspect of this evening event will be to help parents to become engaged in literacy practices with their child.  As I have stated before, when parents model reading, and other literacy practices, with their children it has a significant impact on the success of their child in school.

The adults who will work in this program will undergo significant training as they prepare for a different instructional process than what we presently use during our regular school work.  Our district actually uses several research-based intervention programs as we search for ways to help our students learn critical reading skills.  The work we do during the school year and the work done as part of the KRR program will coordinate for the benefit of our students.  All costs are paid for through this grant.  And, even if our free and reduced meal numbers drop below 50%, our district will remain in this program. 

Because our timeline for implementation is very short, our initial work will involve students at the Council Grove Elementary School.  At the very latest, students who attend Prairie Heights Elementary School will have this program available to them this fall.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our students that we could not pass up.  I want to highly encourage parents that if your child qualifies for this program, please enroll them to participate.