Worthington City School District

1. Worthington City School District Third Grade Guarantee Update Curriculum Liaison Council Jamie Lusher, ELA Coordinator

2. Learning Targets • Update of the requirements of the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. • Overview of our current status pertaining to: • BOARD POLICY • PROCESS • COMMUNICATION • Celebrations & Planning

3. What is the Rationale of Third Grade Guarantee? • “All students entering the third grade must demonstrate a certain level of competency in reading before advancing to the fourth grade. This level will start between ‘limited’ and ‘proficient,’ and will rise over time. Almost all of the provisions of the new law take effect in the 2012-2013 school year.” 12 students would have been impacted

4. Ensuring Best Practices while Complying with Spirit of The 3GG • The Worthington City Schools has current board policy and procedures to ensure teachers annually administer a reading diagnostic assessment to assess reading skills of all students in kindergarten to third grade. • Every child K-3 is assessed with an approved diagnostic assessment (K-RAL, MPG, DRA/FNP) • The BOE has a policy on retention and mid-year promotion that details the retention criteria. • Procedures are in place to immediately notify and partner with parents of students who score “not on track” on the reading diagnostic assessment.

5. Best Practices, continued. • Procedures are in place to provide intensive reading remediation targeted at the student’s specific reading deficiencies immediately after identifying a student who needs a reading improvement and monitoring plan. • Policy in place to have a reading improvement plan completed by the student’s teacher and parents within 60 days of identifying a student as “not on track.”

6. Best Practices, continued. • Our building teams develop reading improvement and monitoring plans to include: • Identification of specific reading deficiency • Description of additional instructional services • Opportunities for the parent to be involved in the instruction services • A process to monitor reading progress • Specialized, research based reading curriculum • Statement that their child may be retained if they do not reach their required scores on the ELA assessment at the end of the third grade

7. Highly Qualified Teachers • All students on reading improvement and monitoring plans have teachers with reading endorsements on their teaching licenses or have passed a rigorous test of reading principles designated by the state board of education • OR • All students retained by the third grade guarantee have a “high performing teacher” as determined by their third grade reading guarantee, but still demonstrate proficiency in other areas.

8. Data & Documentation • We have implemented procedures to track and report the following data to ODE during the EMIS yearend collection on the implementation of the third grade reading guarantee are in place: • Which students are “on track” and “not on track.” • What types of intervention services are given to each student

9. In April of 2006, the Worthington Board of Education adopted a comprehensive approach to literacy instruction, the Strategic Balanced Literacy Framework. Diagnostic & Formative assessments are a critical component of this model. Our work in supporting all students to develop and build skills in : Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Fluency, Vocabulary Acquisition, Comprehension & Writing has only become more systematic and research-based as a result of our focus on ensuring that NO child is retained.

10. Professional Development for all teachers in every building: • Leveled Literacy Reading Intervention Professional Development and Resources provided to each elementary • Differentiated guided reading instruction • Research support Tier I and Tier 2 Interventions; • Strong implementation of the Balanced Literacy Framework. • Fundations: Systematic Phonics Program K-2 • Awarded the Early Literacy Grant in 2013 • Continued Expansion of summer school reading intervention program to support 300 students 2013-14

11. Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing. -Euripides