WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign
for Grade-Level Reading
Creating a Transformative System of Support for Early Literacy in West Virginia
Statisticks Lottery
Data
• In 2013, the average score of fourth-grade students in
West Virginia was 215. This was lower than the
average score of 221 for public school students in the
nation.
• „The average score for students in West Virginia in 2013
(215) was not significantly different from their average
score in 2011 (214) and in 1992 (216).
• „The score gap between higher performing students in
West Virginia (those at the 75th percentile) and lower
performing students (those at the 25th percentile) was
46 points in 2013.
• This performance gap was not significantly different
from that in 1992 (44 points).
Data
• The percentage of students in West Virginia who
performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level
was 27 percent in 2013.
• This percentage was not significantly different from
that in 2011 (27 percent) and in 1992 (25 percent).
• „The percentage of students in West Virginia who
performed at or above the NAEP Basic level was 62
percent in 2013.
• This percentage was not significantly different from
that in 2011 (61 percent) and in 1992 (61 percent).
History
• During the 2013 Legislative Session, Governor
Earl Ray Tomblin charged the WVBE to address
West Virginia’s 3rd Grade Reading Achievement
and low fourth grade NAEP reading achievement
results
• August 9, 2013 WVDE Advisory Committee on a
Comprehensive Approach to Early Learning KickOff Meeting
• National Governor’s Guide to Early Literacy
published in October 2013
• NIEER and CEELO recommended WVDE OEL join
the National Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
A Little More History
• November 2013 the WV State Board of
Education voted unanimously in support of
joining the National Campaign for Grade-Level
Reading
• March 26, 2014 first meeting of Leaders of
Learning (LoL) was held!
• 2014 Legislative Session passed HB 4618
outlining the components of the Campaign
• October 2014 WVSB passed a repeal and
replace of Policy 2512 (Critical Skills Grant)
What’s the purpose?
The Campaign is a collaborative effort by
foundations, nonprofit partners, states and
communities across the nation to ensure that
more children in low-income families succeed in
school and graduate prepared for college, a
career, and active citizenship.
The Campaign focuses on an important
predictor of school success and high school
graduation—grade-level reading by the end of
third grade.
Although schools must be accountable for
helping all children achieve, providing effective
teaching for all children in every classroom every
day, the Campaign is based on the belief that
schools cannot succeed alone.
Engaged communities mobilized to remove
barriers, expand opportunities, and assist parents
in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities to
serve as full partners in the success of their
children are needed to assure student success.
Three Key Areas
• School Readiness
• Attendance Gap
• Summer Learning Loss
As we go through each of the
components, begin thinking of how
your current role can support the
local Campaigns.
School Readiness
Too many children from low-income
families begin school already far behind.
The research also shows that these
children are less likely to be read or
spoken to regularly or to have access to
books, literacy-rich environments, highquality early care, and prekindergarten
programs.
By the time they reach school age,
low-income children have heard fewer
words than higher-income children.
30,000,000
fewer
Vocabulary
Research has shown that when it comes to risk factors
for vocabulary development, poverty trumps race,
urban vs. rural community, limited English proficiency,
and language impairments.
Vocabulary interventions have to be powerful enough
to accelerate, not just incrementally advance word
learning for students coming from low-income
households to narrow the achievement gap.
(Marulis and Neuman, 2011)
Still Face Experiment
Poverty
A poverty mind-set is not about economic
deprivation.
It’s about living with meager possibilities.
-Graham Cooke
The Attendance Gap
The Attendance Gap (Chronic Absence):
Too many children from low-income
families miss too many days of school.
Research has found that one
in 10 kindergarten and first grade
students nationwide misses nearly a
month of school each year in
excused and unexcused absences.
What are the Issues?
• Health Care
• Transportation
• Belief System
Summer Learning Loss
• John Hattie is Professor of Education at
the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
• 15 years research studying the typical
effect across 800+ meta-analyses, 50,000
studies, and 200+ million students ages 420.
• Speaks to the fallacy of using the “zero”
point to determine an increase in student
achievement.
The Disasters
•
•
•
•
Summer vacation -.09
Television -0.14
Retention -0.16
Mobility (shifting schools) -0.34
The achievement gap that exists between low-income
and high-income children can be narrowed or even
closed simply by giving books to low-income kids.
Just a dozen books selected by the child, at a total cost of
about $50, can achieve the same improvements in school
performance as $3,000 worth of summer school.
(Richard Allington et al, "Ameliorating summer reading setback among
economically disadvantaged elementary students ", February 2010)
Goal
By 2020 a dozen states or more will
increase by at least 100% the number of
low-income children reading proficiently at
the end of third grade.
Short-Term/Long-Term Goals
The only behavior measure that correlates
significantly with reading scores is the number of
books in the home.
An analysis of a national data set of nearly 100,000
United States school children found that access to
printed materials--and not poverty--is the "critical
variable affecting reading acquisition."
Jeff McQuillan, The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, 1998.
A typical middle class child enters first grade
with approximately 1,000 hours of being read
to, while the corresponding child from a lowincome family averages just 25 of those hours,
such differences in the availability of book
resources may have unintended and pernicious
consequences for low-income children' long
term success in schooling.
Jeff McQuillan, The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, 1998.
The most successful way to improve the reading
achievement of low-income children is to increase their
access to print.
Communities ranking high in achievement tests have
several factors in common: an abundance of books in
public libraries, easy access to books in the community
at large and a large number of textbooks per student.
Newman, Sanford, et all. "American's Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention
Tragedy"; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2000.
• Make books and printed materials accessible
to every child beginning at birth
• Continue access to classic and contemporary
texts (literary and informational) in all schools
• Ensure there is high-quality reading
instruction in every classroom, every day
• Provide regular, systematic, professional
development for teachers and instructional
leaders
Group goals (2020) focused on statewide
individual and organizational impact from the
attendees on the three key areas of the Campaign
for Grade Level Reading:
• School Readiness
• School Attendance
• Summer Learning
• Parent Engagement
Facilitate engaged communities that are
mobilized to remove barriers, expand
opportunities, and assist parents in fulfilling
their roles and responsibilities to serve as
full partners in the success of their children
are needed to assure student success.
All strategies and activities must have:
• State-Wide Scalability
• Sustainability (2020 and beyond)
• Capacity Building
How can you help?