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New reading curriculum expected to improve literacy of Cedar Rapids elementary kids
Cedar Rapids schools chief academic officer, executive director of curriculum talk about implementation of curriculum based on ‘science of reading’
Grace King
Apr. 28, 2024 6:00 am, Updated: Apr. 29, 2024 10:01 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — A new curriculum for elementary school students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District based on a literacy technique called the “science of reading” is expected to improve reading scores.
Reading scores of elementary students in the district are below the state average of 65 percent of students testing at or above benchmark, based on a state literacy assessment test.
This past winter, 57 percent of students in Cedar Rapids schools who took the Formative Assessment System for Teachers (FAST) — a literacy screening assessment required for K-3 grade in Iowa — were at or above benchmark. Lower still are scores in the district of students in historically marginalized groups.
Third-grade students who are from low-income households and eligible for free and reduced-price lunch tested at 48 percent at or above benchmark in the winter FAST assessment, compared with their peers who are not low-income, who tested at 74 percent at or above benchmark.
Third-grade students of color including Black, Hispanic and Latino and Asian students tested at 48 percent at or above benchmark, compared with white peers who tested at 65 percent.
A purchasing agreement for the reading curriculum for about $3.4 million was approved earlier this year by the Cedar Rapids school board. An additional $121,000 is being spent on an agreement with curriculum company Amplify to provide professional development to a select number of instructional coaches in the district to ensure smooth implementation of the curriculum this fall.
Amplify’s Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum replaces the curriculum Super Kids for K-2 and Wonders for 3-5, both of which the district has been using for about a decade.
In the 2024 legislative session that ended earlier this month, lawmakers did not adopt Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal that Iowa colleges and universities be required to instruct potential elementary teachers in the science of reading literacy program.
However, under House File 2618 sent to Reynolds for her to consider signing into law, Iowa college students learning to become elementary teachers would be required to take — but not have to pass — the nationally recognized Foundations of Reading assessment, used to determine whether they are equipped to teach young students how to read. Also under the bill, kindergarten through sixth-grade students who are struggling to read would be provided with a personalized reading plan, and their parents would be notified and given the option to have their student repeat the grade.
The Gazette interviewed Cedar Rapids schools chief academic officer Karinne Tharaldson and executive director of curriculum Nicole Brown about the implementation of the CKLA curriculum in the district.
Q: Why CKLA?
Tharaldson: Cedar Rapids kids deserve the very best research-based materials. We spent almost the last two years researching what is best. Our kids spend the majority of their time in their reading curriculum. It’s the largest chunk of their day.
When we look at our scores, we know we can do better. We know our kids deserve better, and we know our teachers work very hard, and we have to have the best support and best materials in their hands, so we can do better for our kids.
Brown: It’s best practice you are looking at and reviewing your curriculum every five to seven years, and they had those curriculum for quite awhile. We need to do something to help our students achieve at a higher level.
CKLA was chosen after multiple months of reviewing curriculum resources that have a strong science of reading foundation recommended by the Iowa Department of Education. There was a committee of teachers, instructional coaches and administrators that listened to presentations from vendors (and) visited other schools that were implementing the curriculum.
Q: How is the curriculum expected to help improve reading scores?
Brown: Looking at some of the demographics, you can see there’s a pretty wide gap. One of pieces this curriculum addresses is the knowledge piece. (The curriculum is) extremely rich with non-fiction text and vocabulary across all genres. Research will say we need to expose lower minority students with richer vocabulary.
One of the biggest impacts of CKLA is it intertwines foundational skills of reading and language comprehension piece by learning about experiences. Students will be reading fables, fairy tale or about astronomy in first grade.
It is extremely engaging for students. It will get students talking to each other, learning from each other. I’m really excited for June when a group of our teachers are trained for the first time. I want to see their faces. I think that will be telling if they’re really excited to get going.
Q: Why is third grade a good indicator of student achievement when talking about literacy?
Brown: Third grade is the tipping point from learning how to read to reading to learn. By the time we get to the end of third grade, if students don’t have some of these foundational skills mastered, it sets them back in all of their learning.
Q: Why has it taken the district so long to adopt new curriculum?
Tharaldson: Some things that have happened in our district if you look at the big picture in leadership, we’ve had a lot of challenges. Those aren’t small things when you lose a superintendent, COVID-19 and the derecho. This is important, but it fell off the hierarchy of needs. We are primed up for this right now.
I’m excited because right now we’re both passionate about making sure our kids have the right materials, and our teachers are trained.
Q: Tell me about how teachers will be trained to deliver this curriculum this fall.
Tharaldson: We are prepared to launch this new curriculum in August. To be prepared for that time frame, all materials will be delivered directly to schools by the end of April.
We wanted it here a couple of months early, so teachers had the opportunity to get into that material, to be excited about it. Many teachers will plan over the summer. They’re going to be more prepared and excited to start their year.
Instructional coaches will be trained as facilitators of this curriculum for three days this summer and two days in August. Monthly professional learning will occur from that point on throughout the (2024-25) school year. Support, coaching and professional learning time for teachers will be critical in the success of this implementation.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
Tom Barton of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.