Charleston Co. School District working to improve reading performance levels

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The Charleston County School District is putting a major focus on reading performance levels and is working to make the district better as a whole.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Charleston County School District is putting a major focus on reading performance levels and is working to make the district better as a whole. CCSD is looking to increase reading levels specifically among elementary and fifth grade students. The district is already seeing some incredible growth when it comes to literacy, and the Board has high hopes for the future. They are preparing for this year’s SC Ready exam. The SC Ready is the statewide end-of-the-year assessment and last year, the students of CCSD outperformed any prior year that they have in the district’s history. Superintendent Anita Huggins believes they can anticipate that those numbers will continue going up. The Board’s vision is to get all students in the district reading on grade level by fifth grade. Huggins says that students must know how to read to be successful in any area. CCSD is using the program known as iReady to keep track of student’s progress. iReady has personalized lessons and is designed to monitor students’ learning and adjust as needed so each student gets the best possible tools for success. So far, iReady has proven to be successful and they are well on their way to reaching their goals. Using data from iReady, Huggins compiled a Superintendent’s report to evaluate where the students in the district were at concerning reading levels. In the fall semester of last year, 47.2% of all fifth-grade students met or exceeded their projected reading level performance. In this winter semester, that percentage jumped to 64.5%. The number of students who exceeded the projected reading levels more than doubled from fall to winter. Overall, the district is seeing exponential growth among all students, especially those between third and fifth grade.

The district’s focus on specific student groups

The board is putting a heavy focus on African American, Black, and Hispanic students. The board set a goal to have 60.7% of all Black and Hispanic fifth graders reading at grade level by 2027. The data included in the superintendent’s report shows that they are on track for these goals. In the fall semester of last year, only 19.9% of Black and Hispanic fifth graders were at meets or exceeds when it came to reading performance levels. By winter, this number had increased to 37.7%.

Continued efforts and strategies

Huggins says that they are continuing to push for growth among these numbers and this has everything to do with teachers prioritizing the needs of students and providing support in every area they need. She says they are proud of the growth they have seen thus far and look forward to what is to come. “This is significant for Charleston. It is significant for the work and the commitment and speaks to that of our teachers and our school leaders,” she says. She says they have several strategies to continue increasing these reading level numbers for all students. Huggins says they plan to continue to monitor this data around the clock to plan, assess and reteach when necessary. She says this depends on teachers knowing what students need and prioritizing those needs, whether extra grade level support, intervention or wraparound services. Huggins says she is confident that they will continue to see growth after the SC Ready in a few weeks, based on the results of the data thus far. “We are cautiously optimistic that we are going to see even more gains this year, which is so very encouraging and again, speaks to the commitment of the talented teachers and leaders across this district,” she says.

Encouragement for parental involvement

Huggins says that she encourages parents to reach out to the school if they need a better understanding of where their students are when it comes to reading performance levels and what they can do to support them. She encourages parents to be actively involved in understanding how this data is used in their schools.