Struggling readers required to attend school for extra days

Elementary school students struggling to read will receive an extra month of instruction this summer under a new Beaufort County School District requirement.

About 2,000 district students in first through fifth grades are expected to need the free specialized classes, which will be required for students who score in the bottom 25 percent on standardized reading tests. The 18 instructional days will be held from 8:20 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays from June 1 through June 30, with bus transportation, breakfast and lunch provided by the district.

The $1.46 million program is being paid for with state money and has not forced the district to cut any other programs or services, said district spokesman Jim Foster.

▪ About $1.1 million comes from at least four state sources, including money for reading instruction, early-grades instruction, prekindergarten and unused school incentives for students at risk of failing.

▪ Another $330,000 was sent to the district to help it prepare for the implementation of a state law that will go into at the start of the 2017-18 school year.

The program is meant to bring as many students up to speed as possible before the law goes into effect. The new statute will require S.C. third-graders who are not proficient in reading to be held back.

“The district’s program is a proactive way of improving kids’ reading skills so that the state’s new retention rules won’t affect them” in 2017-18 and beyond, Foster said.

The district already offers traditional summer schools for middle and high school students, but recruited 160 additional teachers to staff the elementary reading program, Foster said. He anticipates all of the teachers, who volunteered for the program, will be elementary-certified educators, and will be paid their daily rates.

“Reading is the single most important skill, not only in school but in life,” Superintendent Jeff Moss said of the initiative in a news release. “The earlier we can intervene to help struggling readers, the more likely it is that those students can become successful as they move up through the grades.”

Foster says Moss was not required to seek the school board’s permission for the new program. He presented an overview of the plan to school board members at their work sessions in early February, “and they expressed their support,” Foster said.

Board member David Striebinger, who represents the St. Helena area, said he would like the board to produce some clear guidelines for when the superintendent is required to seek board approval on new projects or programs. As chairman of the board’s ad-hoc committee on board procedures, he hopes to define just that in the coming weeks.

“It may be very clear to (school board attorney) Drew Davis, but it’s not clear to me,” Striebinger said Monday.

Both Striebinger and board member Earl Campbell said they were optimistic about Moss’ plan.

“Some of our children need that extra help,” said Campbell, who represents the Grays Hill and Seabrook area. “It’s going to take a while. You’re not going to see improvement overnight. … But we hope that if the program is successful, by the time (these students) get to the middle school, we should see some improvement.”

The district trails slightly between the state in reading-readiness, according to the spring 2015 results of the ACT Aspire assessment.

Thirty-four percent of third- through eighth-graders met the ACT readiness level in reading in the district, compared to 37 percent statewide.

Several district elementary schools perform far worse, particularly the three schools with the largest percentages of poor students: Whale Branch Elementary in Seabrook, St. Helena Island Elementary on St. Helena and Joseph S. Shanklin Elementary in Burton.

Letters were sent home Friday with students who must attend the free summer reading instruction in June. Parents can apply for an opt-out waiver.

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 9:43 AM with the headline "Struggling readers required to attend school for extra days."