2008 – 2009 Reading Improvement Data Summary

The 2008 – 2009 school year was the maiden voyage for Mount Logan Middle School Discovery. We learned along with the kids and anticipate an even better year. The following is a summary and analysis of the reading data we gathered. We used the Gates McGinitie reading assessment to verify our students’ progress. We pretested them in September, tested them again in January and posted them test in May. The test was administered by our school reading specialist, Betty Simper. Assessing Our First Year

Premises: 1. Students need to LOVE reading!!!! 2. There is no skill more universally critical to school achievement than reading. 3. Reading is of primary importance in ALL academic areas. 4. Each student should gain one grade level each year in reading ability. 5. If a student enters 6 th grade reading below grade level we have to find a way to make up the deficit and help them enter 7 th grade reading at grade level. Discovery / Reading Improvements

44 of our 52 students entered Discovery reading below grade level. (85% reading below grade level) 37 of those 44 students left Discovery reading on or above grade level. (85% moved up to or above grade level reading ability) Our average entrance reading ability was 5.1 Our average exit reading ability was 7.7 (that is an average reading gain of 2.6 years)

The Achievement Gap

Comparison of Reading Comprehension Abilities

Comparison of Greatest Gains in Reading Ability

Comparison of Greatest Gains in Reading Ability (ESL students)

Discovery / Reading Improvements An average reading improvement of 2 ½ grades in one school year??? How is that possible? Are you sure your testing data was reliable? Was this a fluke? Is it sustainable? Is it duplicatable? Even though the 2008 – 2009 school year was the maiden voyage for Discovery, we assure you the reading improvements we achieved are not an anomaly.

Discovery / Reading Improvements There are two phrase we feel apply here: “If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.” and… “If it ain’t working try something else!” To us it begins that simply. Our incoming middle school students have been in traditional school reading programs for 6 years. These programs have very respectable track records and achieve good results … for most. But, some of our students, after 6 years of more traditional reading approaches, still aren’t reading well enough to academically compete when they enter middle school. We’ve heard the number that 40% of our incoming 6 th graders are reading below grade level. We don’t personally have access to any data to confirm or deny that number, but our Discovery data shows that 85% of our kids are reading below grade level. Discovery is designed to do “something else” to help these kids.

Discovery / Reading Improvements To truly grasp the significance of the progress our Discovery students made, you need to clearly understand that 85% of these students came into Discovery reading below grade level. Whatever varieties of reading methods they had previously experienced had not succeeded in bringing these kids up to grade level in reading abilities. Therefore, upon leaving the single teacher security of the elementary school and entering the multiple classes and multiple teacher world of the middle school they were not academically prepared to fully compete with their peers. Their confidence was down as well as their abilities.

Discovery / Reading Improvements