×

L’Anse schools working towards compliance

Teachers and administrators are preparing for another year of work getting third graders ready for the M-STEP, the state-mandated standardized test that could determine whether a student gets to continue to the fourth grade starting at the end of the 2019-20 school year. School staff have been working hard to prepare students since 2016 when Public Act 306, the bill requiring M-STEP testing commonly known as the third grade reading bill, was signed into law.

The Michigan Education Association (MEA) opposed the bill, but lobbied to get several changes to the bill to reduce the retention of students in the third grade.

“There’s a slew of research that shows holding students back, retention, does not improve student performance,” David Crim, MEA spokesperson, said.

The largest exception is that a student must test a full grade level below expected reading proficiency to be held back. If they’re only a partial year behind, they still go on to fourth grade, but will get 90 minutes of additional reading instruction per day that school year.

If a student has been held back before, they won’t be held back again because of the reading bill, either. Another option is showing proficiency through a body of work or retaking the test or an alternative test.

“Passing an alternative assessment is one way to get an exception to being retained in third grade,” L’Anse Area Schools (LAS) Superintendent Susan Tollefson said. “Which is a good idea as sometimes students just have a bad day.”

There are also exemptions for students who are new to a district or still learning English.

Literacy test scores have been low across Michigan, and have continued to get worse since 2016, according to Department of Education statistics. LAS third graders tested at 38.5 percent proficiency last year. This may seem low, but it’s above the statewide average. Tollefson said many of their students who didn’t pass are still within a grade level of proficiency and would not be retained because of PA 306.

LAS elementary schools have adopted multi-tiered support systems for their elementary reading program. For students who are not reading at their grade level, Individualized Reading Plans have been developed to get them to proficiency.

Angie Elmblad was hired by the Copper Country Intermediate School District (CCISD) in August of 2016 as a literacy coach and consultant with funds made available by the State of Michigan after the bill passed. She works with teachers around the district to help them learn practices and share tools to help them teach reading. One thing she teaches is phonological awareness. This is a way of teaching young kids to recognize the different parts of words, even before they’ve learned letters.

“They look at letters and they just see symbols,” Elmblad said.

Teaching children to recognize syllables and sounds they will attach to the letters helps them learn the alphabet more quickly.

Elmblad, Tollefson and Crim agree that parents are another key element in the success of their children. The first and foremost thing for them to do is stay in contact with their student’s teachers.

“The last thing we want to do is get them to the end of next year and then they receive a letter saying they did not pass the state assessment and that they will be in third grade again,” Elmblad said.

They also agree that reading to your kids, and having them read to you, is great but there are other things that can be done even when a family is on the move. Having them help write a grocery list, find things at the grocery store, or playing rhyming games or saying nursery rhymes can help, according to Elmblad.

“Anything like that is really going to support those kids,” she said.

Tollefson thinks more could be done at the beginning of school to better prepare children before they become students. She says not every child is ready to start reading by age 5.

“Unfortunately, many students come into kindergarten lacking some of the skills needed to be successful that first year,” she said.

Elmblad believes parents should engage their young children in conversation as often as they can, encouraging them to speak and ask questions.

“If students cannot speak in a complete sentence, they will not be able to write in a complete sentence, either,” she said.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today