Hamilton has seen improvements in its early literacy scores and has implemented a new strategy to continue to increase the scores, and officials say they’re hopeful to improve that early literacy score another point is possible in next year’s state report card.
Based on this past fall’s state third-grade English Language Arts, which includes the reading guarantee, district administrators say they are on the right path. The district saw improvement in test results as nearly a third of its third graders provided a proficient measure on the test, which was administered from Oct. 14 to Nov. 1.
“That test is measuring third-grade mastery and so we’re showing 31% of our students already have met that mastery,” said Hamilton Associate Superintendent Andrea Blevins.
Hamilton increased the proficiency rate by 1 percentage point over last year, which may not appear to be significant, however, Blevins said coupling the district’s gain with the 7% drop in the state score ― it went from 49% to 42%, which that lower number is more inline with historic state averages ― it was a noteworthy improvement, and is “an early indicator of what we’re doing is working.”
“We closed our gap on the state by 8 percentage points, which is pretty significant,” she said.
Each OST tests at the various grades change from year to year, and each test has a different difficulty level, Blevins said. So, proficiency thresholds one year may not be identical in another year. Based on the 7-point year-to-year state average decline from ‘23 to ’24, she said, “We do believe we are trending in the right direction.”
Improvements are anticipated as Hamilton is in its first full year of a new reading curriculum called Science of Reading and education model known as Expeditionary Learning, commonly called EL Education. Science of Reading has been transitioned into the district’s curriculum over the past couple of school years.
Hamilton City Schools, with more than 9,000 students, has eight elementary schools, two middle schools, a freshman campus and a high school.
Blevins said the district is being very intentional in how its teaching fundamental reading skills to students, as reading is essential in every aspect of a person’s educational experience and professional life.
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