Students struggle with reading at 3 Rome schools

Over 50 percent of students in grades three through six at Elm Street, Anna K. Davie and North Heights are reading below grade level.

At least 50 percent of Rome students in third grade to sixth grade at Elm Street, Anna K. Davie and North Heights elementary schools are reading below grade level, according to 2018 Georgia Milestones results.

The highest percentages of students in these grades not reading on grade level were in fourth and sixth grade at Anna K. Davie Elementary and in fourth grade at North Heights Elementary.

There were 79.7 percent of fourth-graders at Anna K. Davie and 75 percent of fourthgraders at North Heights reading below grade level. Elm Street had the third most students reading below grade level, with 60.2 percent.

Of the students in sixth grade at Anna K. Davie 72.5 percent were not reading on grade level. Three other Rome schools had over 50 percent of students reading below grade level, Elm Street, 61.8 percent, North Heights, 56.5 percent, and West Central, 57.3 percent.

Of the third-graders at North Heights, Elm Street and Anna K. Davie, there were 50.8 percent, 53.8 percent, and 60 percent reading below grade level respectively. Similarly, in fifth grade, over half the students at these schools were reading below grade level.

At least 60 percent of students in these grades at East Central and West End elementary schools were reading on or above grade level. The highest percentage of students proficient or above in reading at these schools came in third grade, with 76.5 percent at East Central and 88.7 percent at West End.

Rome City Schools Superintendent Lou Byars said all schools need to have their students at least reading on a proficient level. When it comes to resources and training, he said the goal is to have them be consistent across the system. However, the schools with lower percentages of proficient readers will be looked to for providing additional resources, he said.

One of those resources is the Read 180 multimedia program, which Byars said is available to every school but not all schools have used. Anna K. Davie Elementary Principal Clifton Nicholson used the program with a limited number of students last year. Byars said the goal is to have more students this year use the program at the school.

The Floyd County Board of Education have approved the use of funds from a $3.23 million literacy grant to bring Read 180 into their own schools — Rome is also a recipient of the L4GA grant, totaling $1.26 million. Also the board approved the purchase of the program for the MAP assessment system, which Rome City Schools has been using. Officials for both systems tout the ability of the system to provide better individualized data on a student.

Rome City Schools is also planning to look into making early learning centers for 3-year-olds into a systemwide initiative, putting one at each school, Byars said. Currently, there is the South Rome Early Learning Center, which is in its fourth year, at Anna K. Davie. Initial data on reading levels shows students who have moved on from the program are outperforming their peers.

If the hard data continues to reflect positive results on reading ability from those who attended the program, then adding ELCs at each school would be strongly considered, Byars said.

In grades three to six in the Floyd County school system, only the sixth-graders at Coosa Middle School had over 50 percent of students reading below grade level, with 51.2 percent. One school in third grade and four schools in fourth grade had 40 to 45 percent of kids reading below grade level.

“I want them all to be better,” said John Parker, the assistant superintendent and chief academic officer for Floyd County Schools, of the scores.

Parker said the minimum goal for the school system is to outperform the statewide reading levels for every grade. Also, another goal is to see growth from year to year.

Parker and Byars both said there have been improvements in reading levels, but not to where school officials would like them to be.

“We’re not getting better fast enough,” Parker said.

A prior challenge, Parker said, was being able to analyze data on the reading levels of students before they reach third grade. But this year, under new Superintendent Jeff Wilson’s direction, that data will be gath- ered and used to identify any learning gaps.

Another step forward is the continued work to implement a uniform literacy curriculum, Parker said, which is close to being finalized. This makes it easier to support all schools from the position of the central office, he continued.