THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 118 lines
Connie Zimmerman, a reading specialist at Campostella Elementary School, flings open the doors of metal storage cabinets and shows off the promise of the coming school year.
The cabinets are packed with thousands of new books - shiny paperbacks with bright covers of yellow, blue, green and red, full of stories and pictures about animals, children and places of the world.
Wednesday morning, less than a week before school opens, Zimmerman began distributing the new material to teachers. She couldn't contain her glee.
``We've got over 9,000 books for this. It's incredible,'' said Zimmerman, working in the school's reading room.
The books are part of a new reading initiative at Campostella called ``Success For All.''
And the program's name aptly sums up this urban school district's No. 1 priority this year: making every child a proficient reader.
School officials were elated this week when President Clinton announced a $2.75 billion national reading initiative - which would go toward providing reading specialists and tutors in schools all over the country - that dovetails with Norfolk's plan to ensure that children have mastered reading by the time they leave third grade.
``We're on the cutting edge,'' Norfolk schools spokesman George Raiss said Wednesday.
The need to refocus attention on reading is clear: Last year, standardized tests taken by the school system's fourth-graders showed that nearly 40 percent of them - about 1,000 students - were reading below grade level. Systemwide, officials estimate that about 30 percent of elementary students in kindergarten through third grade - about 3,000 children - currently are reading below par.
Frustrated by the persistently poor performance of many of its students, the School Board has drawn a line in the sand for teachers, students and parents:
Beginning this school year, third-graders who aren't reading on grade level won't be promoted to the fourth-grade.
Students not reading at grade level in kindergarten through third grades, in fifth-grade and in eighth-grade will be required to attend summer school or face retention.
For the first time, all elementary schools will be required to set aside up to 2 1/2-hour blocks daily for interrupted reading and writing.
Elementary teachers are undergoing 20 hours of mandatory training in reading techniques.
Each elementary school will employ a ``parent technician,'' a liaison between the school and families who shows parents ways to help their children do better in school.
Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. has ordered a study to determine which reading programs produce the best results so other schools can benefit.
Overall, the district has funneled $1.4 million into the initiative. The cash is being used to hire more reading specialists and to purchase books, computers and other materials for customized reading programs like Campostella's ``Success For All.''
``I believe the formula we have put together will get the job done, if we can deliver that same enthusiasm and belief to the teachers and give them the support they need,'' said Nichols, a former elementary school teacher and principal.
Administrators are pushing the initiative with an almost religious fervor.
``I think collectively we've got to say that reading is the No. 1 priority,'' said School Board member Joseph T. Waldo, an architect of the retention plan. ``If that child has to miss something else, like art, that's just the way it is, because reading is the most important thing in that child's life. Some budget items may have to suffer, because we are going to teach kids how to read.''
In the works is a plan to tie the school system's initiative into a citywide literacy campaign. The city library, after years of stagnant budgets, this year received an infusion of cash from the City Council to expand its book collection, and could serve as a natural tie-in to tout Norfolk as a ``community of readers,'' school officials said.
Also, Nichols said, the district plans to recruit volunteers and parents to help teachers improve students' academic performance.
``We're not just going to ask them just to copy dittos or to do hall duty or to monitor cafeterias,'' Nichols said. ``We're going to make sure that every volunteer that comes into the schools can contribute to our No. 1 goal - making our students literate.''
More than $700,000 will be used to expand the computer-based kindergarten program ``Foundations in Reading,'' piloted by three elementary schools last year and expanding into 10 more this year.
Kindergartners get double the benefits: They learn to use computers and gain the skills needed to become readers.
``I have children who don't want to leave the machines, they actually cry,'' Roberts Park Elementary School Principal Mary Lumpkin said.
Overcoming problems associated with poverty - hunger, crime, violence and lack of preparedness for school - is a fact of life Norfolk teachers face every day: 64 percent of the district's students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
Zimmerman, though, said good teachers don't judge the academic potential of children based on where they live.
``When children come into this building, economics or social status have nothing to do with it,'' Zimmerman said. ``What children learn depends on what adults in that building believe and do. We believe all children can learn.''
About $500,000 will go to expand a first-grade program called Reading Recovery, including the hiring of 12 additional reading specialists. The teachers work one-on-one daily with students for 30 minutes of intensive instruction.
Teachers hope to make reading more fun and relevant. At Campostella, for example, teachers will use puppets to teach phonics lessons. Zimmerman has a bear puppet named ``Alphie'' - short for Alphabet.
``The kids love it,'' she said. ``They talk and interact with him.''
If nothing else, the initiative's value lies in focusing teachers, principals and parents on the importance of reading, officials said.
``Research shows that students learn best what teachers spend the most time on,'' Zimmerman said, ``and we're giving reading priority here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color by Photo by VICTOR W. VAUGHAN
Reading specialist Connie Zimmerman will use her puppet ``Alphie'' -
short for Alphabet - among other devices to make reading more fun
and relevant for children at Campostella.
Photo V.W. VAUGHAN
Connie Zimmerman helps with ``Success for All'' at Campostella.
KEYWORDS: READING PROGRAM NORFOLK SCHOOLS SUCCESS FOR ALL by CNB