March is Literacy Month, and the Flint Center is excited about results from our Reading Rangers program piloted at three area elementary schools, Brownell STEM Academy, Flint Cultural Center Academy and Doyle Ryder Elementary School during the fall 2024 semester.
The reading scores of first, second and third graders showed marked improvement over the Fall 2024 semester for students who participated in the program.
Initial assessment tests indicated that to improve reading proficiency, 60% of students in the program needed intensive support, 8% needed strategic support, for 20% the general curriculum was sufficient and 12% were ready for more advanced instruction.
The ending assessment at the close of the Fall semester showed that only 20% (40% improvement) needed intensive support, 8% needed strategic support, for 40% (20% improvement) the general reading curriculum was sufficient and 32% (20% improvement) were ready for advanced reading skill development.
Overall, the numbers show that 60% of the students moved up in reading proficiency, and 40% increased their score in the same category, representing improved reading scores for 100% of the children in the cohort.
Why is it important that children are reading at grade level by third grade?
Third grade reading scores are crucial to future academic success because they mark the transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Students who fall behind in reading by third grade are at a significantly higher risk of dropping out of high school.
Early intervention with struggling readers through targeted interventions and support helps students improve reading proficiency in time to meet third grade reading score targets. This is the goal of the Flint Center Reading Rangers program, to work with kindergarten, first, second and third graders to improve reading proficiency at this critical point in a child’s academic career.
Reading Rangers is a partnership program with Springboard Collaborative, a national organization that brings teachers, parents and students together as partners in literacy teaching and learning.
Teachers at the participating schools were trained in the Springboard methodology and participated in team building huddles with parents to ensure continuity for the students.
The Flint Center hopes to expand the Reading Rangers program to more schools in the Flint Center’s Network for School Excellence in the Fall Semester 2025.
