Whitfield County literacy and reading teachers tested some 3,200 students — every child in kindergarten through second grade — over 13 days shortly after school began.
This gives them the baseline scores to begin the school system’s literacy initiative, an effort to make sure that all students are reading on or above grade level by third grade.
“This was a big effort, but it shows how serious we are about this,” said Board of Education Chairman Louis Fordham.
Board members were briefed Monday night on the testing.
Caroline Woodason, teaching and learning coordinator, said the students were given four tests to grade their reading skills and comprehension.
Whitfield County Schools is investing $800,000 to begin this year the Literacy Collaborative framework, which trains teachers to use intensive techniques to help students develop strong reading and writing skills.
“This will allow teachers to know where their students are right now, their starting point. Long term, it will allow us to follow the students and see how they progress,” Woodason said.
Fordham said the school system must be able to show parents and community members how the program works.
“This is a long-term effort. But any time we make an investment like this above what we are already doing, we have to be able to show a return,” Fordham said.
The literacy initiative starts this year in the six elementary schools with the highest poverty levels: Antioch, Cedar Ridge, Dawnville, Dug Gap, Eastside and Valley Point.
But Woodason said the school system needed data for all elementary schools because of how transient many of the students are.
“A child in Westside today might be in Beaverdale tomorrow, so we wanted to get as many students as possible,” she said.
Officials plan eventually to expand the initiative to all the elementary and middle schools.
Dalton Public Schools is in its eighth year of using the Literacy Collaborative. Officials from both school systems as well as local business and political leaders announced earlier this year they would use the program as part of a community-wide effort to get all students reading on or above grade level by third grade.
“We have a lot of partners in this,” Fordham said.
Local News
September 11, 2012
Whitfield County schools start reading program
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