Young readers score low compared to state
By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer
Test scores indicate fewer Blaine County first-, second-
and third-graders read at expected levels than do their statewide
counterparts.
But the scores indicate more Blaine County kindergartners
read at expected levels than do their statewide peers.
Those are a few of the highlights from the fall scores of
the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI), released Dec. 19 by Superintendent of
Public Instruction Marilyn Howard.
The IRI is a 10-minute test administered in the fall,
winter and spring that indicates whether a student is reading at grade
level, near grade level or below grade level, as set by the state
Department of Education.
In Blaine County, the new scores indicate that 43 percent
of third-graders read at grade level, compared with 46 percent across the
state. In the second grade, 42 percent of Blaine County students read at
grade level, compared with 47 percent across the state. In the first
grade, 57 percent of Blaine County students read at grade level, compared
to 62 percent across the state.
Blaine County kindergartners fared better, however, with
43 percent reading at grade level, compared to 39 percent across the
state.
Blake Walsh, the Blaine County School District testing
coordinator, was not available to comment on the scores.
Last year was the pilot year for IRI testing.
"Based on what we learned in the pilot year, we made
some modifications," Howard states in a press release. She called
this year’s version more "rigorous."
The scores are important to school districts because the
state will use them to determine the amount of money available for schools
to give extra help to students reading below grade level.
The Blaine County School District is slated to receive
$29,550 to cover personnel and administrative costs of providing
"extended time" help programs to its 197 below-grade-level
students.
Schools that receive the money must test students before
and after the extended time programs, and then report on their
effectiveness. The education department plans to compile the reports and
submit them to the state Legislature.
The IRI and the extended time programs are two parts of
the Idaho Reading Initiative, adopted by the Legislature in 1999. To fully
comply with the initiative, the education department must create
professional development requirements for teachers, a project now
underway.
