“Up until second grade, you’re learning to read, and then from third on, you’re reading to learn,” Shehee said.
According to the Nation’s Report Card (NEAP), which tests kids across the country, Ohio’s reading scores for eighth graders dropped five points in 2022 compared to 2019. Only two states — Nevada and Hawaii — and the Department of Defense’s schools saw an increase in their test scores for eighth graders.
Dayton Public assistant superintendent Lisa Minor said Dayton’s kids who are failing core content classes are identified and matched with life coaches along with additional resources, such as tutoring and on-site learning in some grades.
Middle schools now have a reading lab where students who are identified as needing additional help will go in addition to their regular English class. Reading specialists monitor kids who are struggling to see if reading might be part of the problem.
Last summer, programming was available through the district for younger grades, and a Freshman Academy was open to incoming freshman. Shehee said that programming also made a difference in what students were seeing over the summer.
Additionally, tutors in the community can help those students, Minor said, and the school tracks how the student is doing with all of those interventions.
But a major problem the district is still facing, like many others in the country, is chronic absenteeism. Minor said while the district has met its goals to improve chronic absenteeism, there’s a lot more work to be done. For those worried about their child reading, she said getting them to school is a key part of that.
“We are strongly appreciative to our community partners who are working along with our kids, even outside the school day,” Minor said. “And we’re appreciative to families for staying engaged and being involved in challenging us to know what their kids are doing.”
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