
DATE: Friday, September 26, 1997            TAG: 9709250538

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: 3B   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Education: A Special Weekly Report 

SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER   

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   80 lines

NORFOLK SCHOOLS ARE READING INTO SUCCESS LITERACY INITIATIVE THAT BEGAN LAST SEPTEMBER WILL NOT BE EXPANDED WITH MORE TEACHERS, COMPUTER PROGRAMS

When the school system vowed last year to put reading first, it wasn't joking.

It sent students who weren't achieving to summer school and taught parents better ways to help their children read.

The result: Test scores are up, and the district is expanding the reading initiative it began last September - putting more computer programs in schools this year, hiring more reading teachers, and continuing with effective strategies.

``Reading has been a concern for years,'' said Joyce Swindell, Norfolk's senior coordinator of communications skills. ``We've tried different things over the years, but it wasn't a concerted effort, as we're doing now.''

After years of realizing that reading test scores were too low, the School Board developed a goal last year to make all students proficient readers by the end of the third grade.

It began a massive reading initiative that pumped more than $1 million into reading specialists, books and computers, curriculum changes and tougher academic standards. The standards retain elementary and middle school students who are not reading on grade level and require them to attend summer school.

District officials are pleased with the payoff:

Norfolk had a 42 percent increase in summer school enrollment this summer.

This spring, reading scores from the Stanford 9 test were higher than scores in math and language skills. In the past, standardized test scores in reading were lower than those in other subjects.

Reading scores remained consistent among first- through fifth-graders, and seventh-, eighth- and 11th-graders, despite an expected drop after the state converted from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills to the more rigorous Stanford 9. School administrators were expecting scores in all subject areas to dip drastically. In fact, scores did fall in math and language skills.

Swindell said the district has more work to do, but she and others point to the improved reading scores, such as those at Lindenwood Elementary, as evidence of the good the program has done and the potential to do even more.

This spring, Lindenwood saw the largest increase in reading test scores in the district. The school, which before last spring had the lowest reading scores, saw its fourth-graders score in the 37th percentile of the Stanford 9. The score means Lindenwood's fourth-graders scored higher than 36 percent of fourth-graders nationwide. The school ranked in the 19th percentile on last year's Iowa test scores.

Kathy Verhappen, who served as the reading specialist at Lindenwood last year, said the principal was instrumental in pushing staff training and bringing in special support for reading.

One program brought in retired administrators and school teachers who volunteered and worked individually with students who needed additional help.

``It was a combination of things,'' Verhappen said. ``We have a lot of support here, and we were determined to do better.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

VICKI CRONIS, The Virginian-Pilot

In a busy kindergarten classroom at Lindenwood Elementary School

Graphic

Reading comprehension

Graphic

HOW NORFOLK BOOSTED READING SCORES

Elementary schools were required to set aside up to two half-hour

blocks daily for uninterrupted reading and writing. Many also

received special computer-based reading programs to make learning

more fun.