By JIM BUTLER
Kids who learned to read in Grade 1 return to class in early August to find second grade is where rubber meets the road.
They move from learning to read, “see the cat run” for instance, to reading to learn, why the cat is running, for instance.
Making the transition is critical, educators note, because from Grade 3 on students, even in the age of video and YouTube, are expected to learn and absorb through text. Reading Is Fundamental is not just a catchy slogan.
That is background for a significant change pending in the parish’s Pupil Progression Plan as it moves to identify struggling second-grade readers earlier.
The plan is a state-required document outlining how a system handles student placement, promotion, retention and graduation requirements.
Beginning this school year second-graders will be considered for retention if he/she scores at the lowest level on end-of-year screening.
The student will be given two additional tries to score higher before the next session begins. After three lowest-level results, the plan proposes, the student will be screened for dyslexia.
At that point the School Building Level Committee decides — retain or promote.
That is a team that focuses on helping students with academic, social, emotional or physical difficulties.
Under state regulations there are exceptions — students with limited English proficiency, those alternative assessment eligible, students with a special plan already retained in previous grade and those with intensive intervention history.
Promotion of students eligible to be retained is subject also to approval of parents, principal and superintendent.
The students must be provided an individualized academic support plan, 90 minutes of daily reading instruction and 30 minutes of daily reading intervention.
This year’s LEAP testing showed Rapides in the upper echelon of early-grades reading proficiency as concentration on early intervention begins to produce measurable results.