UPDATE:

The Board of Examiners today approved a $1.7 million contract for assessments that will be used for the state’s Read by Grade 3 initiative.

The contract enables the Nevada Department of Education to enter into a Chicago Public Schools Intrastate Interlocal Agreement with Northwest Evaluation Association — creating a state umbrella rather than having individual school districts form contracts for the assessments.

State Superintendent Steve Canavero emphasized that the initiative isn’t meant to penalize students whose reading skills aren’t up to par by the end of third grade. He said research has shown that students retained for literacy and reading development ultimately surpass their peers in academic achievement in future years.

The decision to hold a student back because of his or her reading level will be determined by more than just standardized tests, Canavero said. In addition, certain students, such as those who have disabilities or are learning English, won’t be subjected to the retention provision of the legislation.

With the introduction of appropriate reading interventions, Canavero said the state hopes to “see fewer and fewer students retained over time.”

— Jackie Valley

ORIGINAL STORY:

A Nevada program meant to ensure students don’t leave the third grade before they learn to read could soon be taking a big step forward.

The Nevada Board of Examiners is considering a $1.7 million contract on Tuesday that will allow the state to test the literacy of all traditional and charter school students in kindergarten through third grade three times a year. It’s part of the Read by Grade 3 initiative created in 2015 and replenished this session with $44.5 million for the next two years.

“This is really historic for the state,” said Kevin Marie Laxalt, an administrator of the program with the Nevada Department of Education. “This level of data has never been collected. This is pretty profound.”

Students’ reading abilities are being assessed already, but districts use different types of tests. Laxalt said the new assessments will allow the state to compare apples to apples across districts, identify students who need extra help and give classroom teachers granular detail about what specific aspects of reading individual students are struggling with.

“The reporting that the teachers receive on individual youngsters can really impact their classroom instruction,” she said. “If you don’t track how youngsters are doing early on, you can’t pull them up.”

The process will begin in kindergarten, when each child will receive a Brigance Early Childhood Screening in their first 30 days of class. That measures not just reading but social and survival skills, such as whether a child can recite their address.

Later, those kindergartners will take a computerized reading exam called Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) in the winter and spring. In the three subsequent grades, they’ll take MAP exams in the fall, winter and spring to track their progress.

If the contract is approved, the process will begin this school year so administrators can gather baseline data.

Read by Grade 3 is a multi-pronged literacy program backed by Gov. Brian Sandoval and based around the idea that children learn to read through third grade, but read to learn after that. More than a dozen states have such programs.

It requires each school to designate a teacher as a “learning strategist” that helps other teachers improve their literacy instruction and can be paid more for their work.

Districts make competitive grant applications for a share of the state-approved money and can apply their awards to tutors, literacy specialists, summer school programs and other projects to boost reading skills. In the most recent grant cycle, 23 of the 24 grant applications were approved.

The program’s efficacy is measured by a regular independent evaluation.

The most controversial part of the law has been the provision that students must be held back if they can’t read at the end of third grade, starting with the cohort of students who are now entering the first grade and have spent their entire school career with the Read by Grade 3 program. Democrats in the Legislature pushed to remove that part on fears that the rule was too absolute, but dropped the effort in the face of a likely veto from Sandoval, who’s advocated for a red line of accountability.

“The governor will not compromise on the goal of ensuring every student in Nevada is reading at grade level by third grade,” his spokeswoman said in a statement after a hearing on the idea.

Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson, chairman of the education committee that sponsored the repeal effort, indicated at a town hall in late July that he would bring the idea back in the next legislative session.

Laxalt conceded that she’s “mixed” on the retention requirement, but pointed out that there are 12 good cause exemptions that would allow students to move on to the next grade level in spite of the rule. It also comes with strict requirements for principals, including that they must provide a retained student with intensive interventions such as tutoring and consult with the child’s parents on a plan for reading success.

For now, the decision about whether a child should be retained will be based on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) the student takes in third grade, although a better score on the MAP test could also be ground for letting the student progress to fourth grade, Laxalt said. The department isn’t planning to use MAP results as a determining factor on whether a district gets a Read by Grade 3 grant.

Skeptics of the plan include the Nevada State Education Association, which pushed against the retention requirement during the legislative session. The union is concerned that there is too much testing in schools (NSEA backed a successful bill that will audit the number of exams students must take), and wonders whether there’s enough money in the program to meet the ambitious goals.

“There have been concerns about the amount of work demanded without the resources provided to make sure the students are successful,” said NSEA President Ruben Murillo. “We appreciate the $44 million, but that may be not enough to ensure that students are successful.”

He acknowledged that the data from MAP tests could be helpful in making informed decisions about the success of Read by Grade 3 and also whether individual students should be retained. But NSEA wants more flexibility on which factors can count toward a retention decision.

“Teachers have data that may not be part of the computerized testing system that should be considered and is probably a little more insightful than just a standardized test,” he said.

Read by Grade 3 Retention Guidelines by Michelle Rindels on Scribd