CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Some of Iowa’s youngest learners are falling behind in reading this year, according to the state Department of Education.
During a news conference Thursday, Iowa Department of Education Director Ann Lebo said state literary screening scores are down from last year across kindergarten through third grade, based on annual testing done to ensure students will be proficient learners by the time they start fourth grade.
“Decreases range from five percentage points for kindergarten to 21% for first grade,” Lebo said. “But we have the time, opportunity, and capacity to intervene now to ensure that our students do not fall farther behind.”
That’s a concern for Katie Ripke, whose son, Henrik, is a first-grader in the Lisbon Community School District and has struggled with reading.
“Sight words were what are the big thing that they focus on in kindergarten, and that hasn’t been a strong suit for my 7-year-old,” Ripke said.
After schools moved to virtual learning last spring, beginning an extended summer break for many families, Ripke and her husband made plans so that Henrik didn’t fall too far behind heading into first grade.
Henrik attended a two-week summer school session offered by the school district, and his parents hired a tutor to help him with reading.
“I understand how privileged we are that we are in a position where we could, A) find a good reading tutor for him, and B) be able to afford it,” Ripke said. “Even with all of that going into this school year, he was still behind in reading.”
The Grant Wood Area Education Agency, which works with 32 public school districts across seven eastern Iowa counties, said it started talking about ways to help students through the pandemic as early as last spring, anticipating larger gaps among students this year than they would normally see.
Literacy Consultant Jess Quandahl said her team has been working with the state and teachers on plans to help students catch up on learning missed due to the pandemic.
Quandahl said engaging kids at home can help prevent some problems in the classroom.
“Read with kids, make sure kids have access to books, reading together and just sort of enjoy reading with your kids, and that is the thing that will help the most,” Quandahl said.
A study released this week by the education nonprofit NWEA found that nationwide, reading scores in grades three through eight are about where they were last year. But students in those grades have fallen behind in math on average.
The report also acknowledges that its findings are incomplete, missing data from “student groups especially vulnerable to the impacts of the pandemic,” including Black and brown students and students with disabilities.
“The added hardships endured by families who lack the resources to support their children’s learning at home only offers to widen the educational disparities for some of our most vulnerable students, as 42% of all Iowa students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, and 6.5% are English language learners,” Lebo said Thursday.
This year, Lisbon Schools have temporarily transitioned to remote learning only once, for a two-week period at the end of November.
Ripke hopes it safely stays that way before kids, including her own, fall behind even more.
“Wear the mask, follow the recommendations, and make sure that the kids, the staff at the schools — the teachers, the administrative staff, the coaches, everybody — that we protect them so that we can keep the schools open,” she said.
Copyright 2020 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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State reports younger Iowa students have fallen behind in reading since pandemic's start - KCRG
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