Educators discuss how 100% of third graders at Speake, Eva schools met reading benchmark

Jul. 6—When former Speake Elementary School Principal Ryan Bowerman received notification in May that every one of his third grade students passed the reading portion of the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program, he and his teachers rejoiced over a feat accomplished by only a few schools throughout the state.

"It was on May 17, right before school let out, and we were having our Fun Day," Bowerman said of the results that were publicly released by the state a month later. "We all looked at the data and we looked at it twice. We couldn't contain ourselves, and I can feel myself getting excited just thinking about those emotions and how we felt that everyone had passed. From an educational perspective, that was one of my most favorite moments to be a part of."

The retention piece of the state standardized test, ACAP, went into effect during the 2023-24 school year. This meant third grade students who could not pass a benchmark score of 435 on the reading portion of the test would be required to attend a summer learning program and successfully take another assessment or would have to repeat third grade. Teachers can also construct portfolios of a student's progress to allow advancement to fourth grade. Students with good cause exemptions, like early English Language learners or the developmentally disabled, do not have their scores counted.

Forty-six schools in the state had 100% of third grade students reach the benchmark score this year, and Speake School and Eva School were among them.

During the 2022-23 school year, Speake, in the Lawrence County school district, earned a D on the state report card. When Bowerman was hired in July 2023, he knew they had some work to do and the school's staff was determined not to let third grade students fall behind.

"We only have one third grade teacher, Brandi Steadman, and she did a phenomenal job this past year in preparing those kids," Bowerman said. "We are also blessed with a high dosage tutor, Frances Spillers, who is focused on Tier III (individualized) instruction. So, those kids would have been pulled out of class and given additional support outside of their standard general education classroom. She worked on very specific skills with them to get them to grade level."

Bowerman said Reading Specialist Shannon Reed worked with Steadman to develop third grade lesson plans focused on achieving grade level proficiency.

Bowerman began a new role in May as principal of Moulton Elementary, the only school in Lawrence County to have a decrease in third grade reading scores this year, from 93.3% in 2023 to 87.9% in 2024.

He said this coming school year, Moulton Elementary will have 130 students in third grade and he hopes to meet the same goal he achieved at Speake.

"Say if you had 90% of third grade students that are sufficient in reading and there are 130 students, then that means 13 of those kids would not have been sufficient in the ACAP test score," Bowerman said. "Our goal is 100% and I think it's attainable. Every one of them deserve to be sufficient. There's not a child at that school that doesn't deserve to pass; there's not a child at that school that deserves to be retained."

—

Eva School

In the Morgan County school district, every third grade student at Eva School also hit the benchmark score on the reading portion of the ACAP.

Assistant Principal Dana Allison and third grade teacher Karson Nelson said data-driven instruction and an after-school tutoring program were essential in boosting reading skills. Before becoming assistant principal in May, Allison worked as a reading coach at the school during the 2023-24 school year.

"We would look for students who we felt were struggling with deficiencies and we would go back and re-teach," Allison said. "We looked at portfolios over the summer and so we had a plan going in."

Both Eva School and Speake Elementary have relatively small student populations, with Eva at 356 students and Speake at 180. During the 2023-24 school year, Speake had 22 third grade students and Eva had 35. Each school has only one third grade teacher.

Nelson said teaching in small groups makes more of an impact than teaching multiple students at once.

"That small-group intervention is where you are going to gear towards their gap that they truly need," Nelson said. "Either one-on-one or you could have a group of four or five. It really makes a difference when you can focus on them and see their struggle and understand exactly what they need. It's harder to do that with whole group instruction."

Allison said she and Nelson also work to identify second grade students who are struggling to read and begin giving them extra instruction.

"(Nelson) has already looked at who is coming up to third grade that we need to work on," Allison said. "We've already looked at their portfolios and she already knows where they are at and how to start the first week of school."

Nelson said constant communication with students' parents and families about their child's reading proficiency was also essential in improving test scores.

"I would reach out to parents and ask, 'Hey, why don't you try this at home,' or 'Have you guys noticed this at home,' and they were very receptive," Nelson said. "We were able to provide them resources to help their child at home as well."

— wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442.