Local News

Two Yuma schools among 12 with steadily improving reading programs
BY TAMMY KRIKORIAN, SUN STAFF WRITER
Published on: March 30, 2006

Alice Byrne and Orange Grove Elementary Schools were recognized among a group of 12 Arizona schools in a study released Thursday for steadily improving test scores in populations with high poverty and a high number of English Language Learners.

The study, called "Why Some Schools With Latino Children Beat the Odds ... And Others Don’t," was issued by the Center for the Future of Arizona and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.

"This study offers well-founded hope and a tangible plan that can be replicated in Arizona schools and at schools across the country," Lattie Coor, chair and chief executive officer of the Center for the Future of Arizona, said in a news release.

Jim Collins, who wrote the bestselling book "Good to Great," was also a pro bono consultant in the study.

"The analysis included personal interviews, surveys of administrators and teachers, the examination of report cards and Stanford 9 scores in third-grade reading and eighth-grade math," the release said.

The study identified six keys to success evident in each of the 12 schools including ongoing assessment, a strong and steady principal, collaborative solutions and individualized instruction.

Jean Touchet, the Reading First assessment coordinator at Orange Grove, said among other efforts, the school is in its third year as a Reading First school.

Through Reading First, the school uses DIBELS, or the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, to assess the students three times a year.

"One of the things that you do is you teach, and then you give the students an assessment to determine whether they’ve mastered it," Touchet said. "For those students that haven’t mastered it, you then go back and provide tutorials and then you re-evaluate them again. It’s a cycle that you go through."

Touchet said students are grouped into three categories: intensive, strategic and benchmark.

Individually or in small groups, he said, students are given additional instruction in the areas they are deficient.

"We progress-monitor them," he said. "If it hasn’t been fixed, figure out what you need to fix it."

Touchet said there is a "tremendous commitment" from the school and throughout the Somerton district for the students to succeed.

When he started 10 years ago, Touchet said, reading scores across the district were at 25 percent on the Stanford 9 test.

"(Now) we’ve got teachers scoring 85 and 90 percent on AIMS scores ... To me that’s a tremendous growth that we’ve made," he said.

Diane Laguna, a reading intervention teacher at Alice Byrne, said students are tested each year to determine what their language capability is and groups them based on their levels.

The school also has reading intervention groups and various programs in place to address individual student needs, such as small-group instruction in reading.

Laguna said teachers make themselves available for one-on-one sessions with students during recess, lunch, before school and after school.

"We make sure all kids in every grade level are mapped out as to what their needs are," Laguna said.

Laguna said it’s great for the school to be recognized, and it’s a reflection of a district-wide effort in Yuma Elementary School District 1.

"A lot of it goes to our principal," Laguna said of Juli Peach. "She’s always been wanting to push us and I think her commitment goes
down to all of us. It just filters down."

Maria Monjardin is a parent whose daughter Jazmir is a fourth-grader at Orange Grove.

Monjardin, who is also an instructional assistant at the school, said her daughter entered kindergarten as an ELL student.

"She learned quick," Monjardin said. "In a year, she was out of (ELL) and now she’s on the honor roll."

Monjardin attributes the success of Orange Grove students to progress monitoring, interventions and teachers that come in before school to help their students. She said there is also a lot of parent involvement.

Teachers constantly give her feedback on how Jazmir is doing, she said, and parents are always welcome in the school. "Everybody’s making sure where their students need to be," she said.



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