Statewide report shows 76% of Antioch third graders reading below grade level for 2017-18, 2018-19 school years
Source: California Reading Coalition
AUSD rankd 248 out of the 287 districts included that enroll 72% of students from over 1,000 districts in California; statewide results show over half of all third graders, 3+ million, reading below grade level
“…the primary drivers are district focus on reading, management practices, and curriculum and instruction choices.” – report
No ideas to address situation shared by district’s trustees
By Allen Payton
As the Antioch school board president and trustees continue to participate in a power struggle for control of the board and an internecine Robert’s Rules of Order battle, 76% of the district’s third graders are reading below grade level. That’s according to the California Reading Report Card, which ranks districts based on their effectiveness in teaching reading by 3rd grade. It is produced by the California Reading Coalition and includes data from the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, since no testing took place in 2020.
In addition, the report shows 73% of the district’s third graders are “High Need Students”.
According to their website, the California Reading Coalition, founded this year, “is made up of educators, advocates, researchers, and policy makers committed to improved reading outcomes for all California students.” They “support school districts and advocacy groups in focusing on the California reading crisis and working to improve curriculum, instruction, teacher development, and ultimately outcomes for every student.”
According to the report, “The clear message is that it is not the students themselves, or the level of resources, that drive student reading achievement – the primary drivers are district focus on reading, management practices, and curriculum and instruction choices. The Top 30 Districts come in all types: urban, rural, and suburban, across 10 different counties, with high-need students levels ranging from 39% to 96%. Any district can succeed at teaching reading.”
The organization offered additional details about their research and report:
“Key Findings (read the presentation for more)
Top districts had double the percent of students* in our analysis at grade level vs. low-performing districts (50% vs. 25%), serving similar students and with lower funding. On average high performing districts have a similar share of high-need enrollment (62% vs. 75%), while low performing districts have higher funding levels ($14 thousand per pupil vs. $12 thousand). There are top performing districts with over 90% high-need enrollment, and low performing districts with less than 20%.
A surprising finding is that none of the top performing districts are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area contains nearly half of the lowest performing districts, including large districts like San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified, and West Contra Costa County Unified. By contrast, Southern California has 80% of the high performing districts, led by Los Angeles County, where over half of all ranked districts are in the top 20% statewide. Fresno County is also a standout, with 4 of the top 30 districts (including 2 of the top 5), while making up only 1% of all ranked districts.
How the Rankings Work
Districts are ranked by the percent of socio-economically disadvantaged (SED) Hispanic/Latino (Latinx) students who “meet or exceed” grade level for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) 3rd grade ELA test. We combined the two most recent CAASPP cycles (2017-18 and 2018-19; no testing took place in 2020) to account for variation between years.
Our rankings are based on one particular student group – SED Latinx 3rd graders (for a more detail, visit our ‘Why Latinx 3rd Graders?’ page). District comparisons must focus on specific sub-groups – an “apples to apples” comparison. Not only do SED Latinx students make up 43% of California K-12 enrollment, they are also less likely to have outside learning supports than families with more resources, higher educational attainment, and more English literacy. Results for these students therefore help us see how effectively schools teach reading, separate from the contribution from parents and outside resources. We believe that better results for these students almost certainly mean better reading instruction for all.
The rankings include districts with 100 or more SED Latinx 3rd graders. This provides a larger sample for each district, less susceptible to year-to-year variation. These districts make up 287 of California’s over 1,000 school districts, and enroll 72% of all students.
For data sources, visit our Sources & Notes page.”
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Comparison With Neighboring Districts
Neighboring districts scored better than Antioch, but not by much, with Brentwood Union Elementary having the fewest third graders reading below grade level at 64% and the lowest percentage of high need students at 31%.
In Pittsburg Unified 66% performed below grade level and 76% were high need, and in the Oakley Union Elementary School District 73% of third graders tested below grade level and 47% were high need.
Questions for AUSD Trustees, Superintendent & Staff
The following questions were sent to the five Antioch School Board trustees and Superintendent Stephanie Anello, on Friday.
What is being done to rectify this situation? What ideas, programs or suggestions have any of the trustees proposed during their terms on the board? Have any been approved and implemented? If so, what are the results? If so or if not, what do you propose be done?
Since education begins at home, what is being done to work with the parents or guardians of the students reading below grade level to help them?
For the Hispanic/Latino students, is it a matter of Spanish being the primary language at home? How many ESL students are there in the district, please?
Have there been any efforts to work with Rocketship Delta Prep to learn what their best practices are which, according to their reports, show significant advancement among their students and in just one school year, and implement them in district schools?
On whom does the responsibility lay for this, the board, superintendent, principals, teachers and/or parents?
Are there subject matters being taught in the classroom that aren’t required that take time away from focusing on reading skills?”
In response, Board President Ellie Householder wrote, “Answers to most of your data questions (i.e. demographics) can be found via Data Quest: https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/” and “In terms of the nuanced and programmatic questions, I refer to District staff.”
However, that website only answered the question about how many third-grade English learners are in the district. The answer is 300 out of all 1,224 for a total of 24%. Householder did not share what ideas she has proposed or answer the other questions, so they were resent to her.
Board Vice President Clyde Lewis responded, “Thank you for pointing this out. These numbers should receive the attention and plans should be developed to address them. I believe that by working with those on the ground and listening to educators, we can work with parents to develop sound strategies.”
Anello was out of the office both Friday and Monday, Sept. 24 and 27 An automatic response referred to Associate Superintendent Christine Ibarra and Deputy Superintendent Jessica Romeo. They were then sent the same information and questions after work hours on Monday.
9/30/21 UPDATE: AUSD Responds – Following are the Herald’s questions repeated and the answers from Associate Superintendent Christine Ibarra:
Q – What is being done to rectify this situation? What ideas, programs, or suggestions have any of the trustees proposed during their terms on the board? Have any been approved and implemented? If so, what are the results? If so or if not, what do you propose be done?
A – AUSD is heavily invested in a computer adaptive instructional program known as iReady. All students in grades K-8th participate in this research-based program. This program provides three diagnostic assessments per year and produces individualized placement levels in reading. The students then engage in a pathway of instruction that is both done within the computerized program itself and supported by intervention prep teachers on campuses with direct instruction that is tailored to the individual levels and needs of each student. Since this is our third year utilizing this program, we have data that shows significant growth in students’ reading levels and abilities at all grade levels even during distance learning.
Furthermore, AUSD has provided every elementary school with a full time intervention teacher who works with small groups providing intentional and targeted support in areas of need, specifically in fluency skills and reading comprehension. These intervention teachers utilize a wide array of differentiation strategies and support to ensure their time with student groups is maximized for the greatest impact on student growth and achievement.
In addition, AUSD has an MOU with UC Berkeley’s California Reading and Literacy Project for the 2021-2022 school year. This partnership provides professional learning for all teachers TK-6th grade specifically focused on developing teachers’ content knowledge and expanding their teaching strategies guided by the state-adopted frameworks, content standards, and the science of reading.
Read 180 is a research-based program being reintroduced to AUSD intended for secondary students who are performing two or more years behind grade level in Reading.
AUSD is also heavily invested in the AVID programming and professional learning community which has provided hundreds of teachers across all grade levels with outstanding workshops focused on critical reading strategies across content areas so that all teachers have tools and supports to support reading levels at any grade level. This summer alone, we had 50 teachers attend virtually.
The iReady program, Read 180, the AVID program, and the UC Berkeley partnership are Board approved contracts and the intervention teaching positions were board approved via the LCAP and Expanded Learning Opportunities grant.
Q – Since education begins at home, what is being done to work with the parents or guardians of the students reading below grade level to help them?
A – We provided ongoing trainings and support during school closures remotely in both English and Spanish. The parent trainings were not only for technology support efforts but were designed to also increase parents’ capacity to support their students at home and in their academics. iReady specifically provided parent institutes that were widely attended virtually. Since returning to in-person learning, we have worked closely with our District English Language Advisory Committees (DELAC) as well as our Parent Advisory Committees (PACs) and Site Councils from all schools across the district to assess what parents need and are interested in engaging in to support their students’ academic achievement. Most, if not all of our elementary and middle schools, host parent training nights focused on both literacy and mathematics and are working to determine how to continue that effort with COVID-19 protocols in place this year.
Q – For the Hispanic/Latino students, is it a matter of Spanish being the primary language at home? How many ESL students are there in the district, please?
A – AUSD currently serves 2,687 English Learners (EL) and has over 450 students being tested to determine their English Learner status as of today. Although Spanish is the largest group of English Learners’ population in AUSD, we have over 30 different languages spoken within our EL population.
Q – Have there been any efforts to work with Rocketship Delta Prep to learn what their best practices are which, according to their reports, show significant advancement among their students and in just one school year, and implement them in district schools?
A – The AUSD Educational Services department meets annually with Rocketship and reviews their programming efforts as required. Best practices are shared and exchanged during those meetings. Since we have not had summative state data results in the last two years, the conversation has not been directly about the improvement of test scores. In the 2019 CAASPP, AUSD students performed higher in English Language Arts.
Q – On whom does the responsibility lay for this, the board, superintendent, principals, teachers and/or parents?
Are there subject matters being taught in the classroom that aren’t required that take time away from focusing on reading skills?
A – Educating students and ensuring students have all the supports and opportunities they deserve and require is a collective responsibility. When we can work together to that end, we will see students reach their full potential.
the attachments to this post:
CA Reading Coalition logo
CA Reading Report Card graphic
