Rochester School Department

How to Reach the 90% Reading Goal

Introduction
Reasons for the goal
How to reach the 90% reading goal

Community Involvement

Helping Students Succeed
Parent Interventions in Reading and Language Arts
Student Interventions in Reading and Language Arts
Parent Interventions in Math
Student Interventions in Math

Each School and the School District will focus on the development of community involvement in90% reading goal.

Daily Reading

a. 20 minutes of daily reading

i. Student roles (daily reading log, reports, read)

ii. Parent's role (Monitor, document, model reading to the child)

iii. School roles (provide model, parental training, books, document progress)

iv. Community Role (incentives, mobilize the community, volunteer readers,)

Second Father
The Kennewick School Board heard about another victory just a few months later from a young divorced father, nervous at telling his story but speaking with riveting earnestness. He had frequent visitations with his preschool son, Jason, but he never really knew quite what to do. So Jason spent time "at" Dads, but not time "with" Dad. Dad was frustrated, but at a loss to know what to do.
Jason was in an Early Childhood Educational Assistance Program, a project run by the Kennewick School District. The mother, as custodial parent, received the home visits, but the father started dropping in at the classroom. He loved seeing Jason interact with the other children, observed the different styles of behavior management the teachers used, and recognized quickly how much the children enjoyed being read to.
But what really made the difference was when Jason started bringing his books from the family educator on visits to his father. He insisted on being read to, and he insisted on hearing the same books over and over. The father didn't really like being "forced" to read to his son, but he found he was enjoying having Jason sit on his lap during their reading time. He realized he was getting a lot from the experience, and that he and Jason were growing closer. Sharing stories was cementing their father-son relationship. They began visiting the public library, shopping for books together, and building "Jason's library" at the father's house. Reading together had helped an unsure father discover that there's a something to do "with' a preschooler.

Parents Make the Difference

Imagine a kid who practices batting and pitching a ball to his dad an hour every day all summer from the time the child is three until he is eight [ June, July, August = 120 hours a year for 5 years.] Imagine a second kid-no practice, no training, has never slipped his hand in a base ball glove, has never run the bases, has never swung a bat, has almost never seen a full game played. Imagine that they turn out the same day for Little League tryouts.
The skill level between these two young ball players is like the skill level in reading readiness of our incoming kindergartners.

Reading Foundation

a. A Committee of School Personnel, School Board Members and Community Members should explore the need for a Reading Foundation to Mobilize the Community to support Reading for children Birth to 21.

b. The School Board and Management Team shall explore the possible grants to support the 90% reading goal

c. The School Board and Management Team shall explore a public relations program to mobilize the community to support reading Birth to 21.

How to Give Your Child a Quarter Million Dollar Gift.

High School graduation and Lifetime Earnings:

Individual lifetime earnings of high school graduates $964,000 -
Individual lifetime earnings of high school drop-outs $630,000 -
The earning difference of $334,000.

At third grade, we can predict 75% of those who will graduate and 70% of those who will drop out of high school primarily from their high and low reading and language skills.

A mom or dad, sister or brother who reads twenty minutes a day with a child from birth can first increase their chance of high 3rd grade reading skills and then of high school graduation. When that chance increases by 2/3rds, the child's probable increased lifetime earings increase by $200,000.

Information gathered from World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1998,95, for earning levels of education levels. See Dee Norman Loyde, "Prediction of School Failure from Third Grade Data" Educational and Psycaological Measurement 38 (1978):1193-1200: "As the least of the primarty grades the third grade is the point at which basic reading skills have been taought (and hopefully learned), as well as the grade in which it has been estimated theat 50% of future achievement patterns have been set." Predictive factors other than reading include IQ, retention, and GPA.