
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 31, 1993                   TAG: 9310290164
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI COUNTY WORKING TO HEAD OFF ILLITERACY

Pulaski County's schools are attacking reading problems from the bottom up, starting with kindergartners who show signs of learning difficulties, administrators say. Superintendent William Asbury concedes that, in the past, poor students have simply been pushed through the system instead of being held back. "It's not always a matter of [not] being smart," Asbury said, citing other difficulties such as family troubles that keep students from being successful.

A child who does not read at grade level by fourth grade will "most likely become a dropout or a discipline problem by high school," he said.

But Asbury doesn't intend for that to happen, and standardized test results suggest his system may be on its way to reducing illiteracy by heading it off in elementary school.

Of 399 county students attempting the Literacy Passport test series last spring, 65.9 percent passed all three parts, a jump of 9 percentage points from last year. That compares favorably with Montgomery County, where 664 students took the tests this year, and 71.1 percent passed all three, up 12 points from a year earlier.

Keeping youngsters in school is a priority for Asbury. "We're hooking kids to to stay in school," he said. Pulaski County's annual dropout rate, which used to be in double digits, has dropped to around 5.5 percent, according to school officials.

In an effort to confront reading problems early, county schools have established a benchmark that all children read at or above grade level by the end of third grade.

"We do begin identifying youngsters in kindergarten who are at risk instructionally," said Assistant Superintendent Phyllis Bishop. The county got about $900,000 in federal and state funds this year to help youngsters "with educational deprivation" or who score below the 25th percentile in standardized tests, she said.

The system has 13 teachers and 11 aides whose sole job is to help at-risk youngsters get up to speed by the time they take the Literacy Passport test in sixth grade. Bishop said programs continue through eighth grade if necessary.

Pulaski County schools have invested heavily in computerized learning systems, and Bishop said the school system has brought that technology to bear in its remedial reading efforts.

Overall, this "emergency-room approach," as Asbury calls it, provides a lot of individual attention, and he's confident of success. "They will become readers," he predicted.

by CNB