Reading program shows impressive first-year results in Muscogee County School District

A pilot program the Muscogee County School District is using to improve reading and writing at its lowest-performing schools has delivered impressive first-year results.

In October, 13 of MCSD’s 53 schools implemented the program called Achieve3000, a Web-based system that delivers differentiated instruction in nonfiction reading and writing. The district will spend $630,000 over three years for the program in those schools.

On a computer, students in a class read the same content in news articles from the Associated Press and National Geographic, but Achieve3000, headquartered in Lakewood, N.J., tailors the complexity of the text to each student’s reading level.

The reading levels in Achieve3000 are expressed through Lexiles. The Lexile scale measures a text’s complexity and a person’s reading ability so the student can comprehend at least 75 percent of the text, a balance between understanding and challenging material. The students take an exam that sets their initial Lexile level. That level increases or decreases based on how well they do on the computerized lessons.

Georgia’s new and more rigorous standards for public schools assume students will read on at least a 1300 Lexile level by 12^th grade. The average U.S. high school senior graduates with a 920 Lexile level, according to Achieve3000.

The grade-level equivalencies for Lexiles are expressed in a range, such as 330-700 in third grade, 565-950 in fifth grade and 1010-1185 in eighth grade.

In the report presented the Muscogee County School Board last week, Lorrie Watt, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, mentioned the following encouraging numbers:

▪  The expected growth was 65 Lexile points for students who did at least 40 Achieve3000 activities this past school year, but MCSD soared over that mark with an average gain of 105 Lexile points.

▪  For the students who did at least 80 Achieve3000 activities, the expected growth again was 65 Lexile points, but MCSD zoomed past that mark with an average gain of 120 Lexile points.

▪  For the students who averaged a 75 percent on their first try of an Achieve3000 activity, the expected growth again was 65 Lexile points, but MCSD more than doubled that mark with an average gain of 140 Lexile points.

Also encouraging is that MCSD’s portion of students who are registered in Achieve3000 increased their after-school usage of the program from 44 percent in the middle of the school year to 52 percent by the end of the school year, Watt said. The goal is to spend 30 minutes per day on Achieve3000.

Superintendent David Lewis told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “This research-based resource is part of the long-term plan to address specific areas in need of improvement. The preliminary results of the pilot program are quite positive and show promising growth in student Lexile scores. We thank the Board of Education for funding this pilot and other curriculum resources that, given time, will prove to be a good return on the investment.

“We also recognize the effort required to implement this supplemental instructional resource and appreciate the hard work of our students, teachers, and administrators, as well as the support of our parents, who made this initiative successful. These results are notable indicators of positive progress in the critically important foundational skill of reading toward college and career readiness.”

Lewis thanked Chattahoochee Valley Libraries director Alan Harkness for his staff noting the Lexile level for books in the collection. Harkness told the L-E that the books aren’t labeled with the Lexile or Accelerated Reader levels but both levels are indicated in the collection’s online catalog listing for any fiction and most popular nonfiction books. Patrons may find which books are in a Lexile or Accelerated Reader range by doing an advanced search, he said.

The 13 MCSD schools that implemented Achieve3000 in 2015-16 were: Carver High School, Baker and Eddy middle schools and Davis, Dawson, Downtown, Forrest Road, Fox, Georgetown, Lonnie Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Rigdon Road and South Columbus elementary schools.

If the board approves the superintendent’s recommendation Monday night, for $940,000 over three years, the district will add 24 more schools to the program: Allen, Blanchard, Brewer, Dimon, Dorothy Height, Gentian, Hannan, Johnson, Key, Midland, North Columbus, Reese Road, River Road, St. Marys Road, Waddell, Wesley Heights and Wynnton elementary schools and Arnold, East Columbus, Fort, Midland, Richards, Rothschild and Veterans Memorial middle schools.

This story was originally published July 13, 2016 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Reading program shows impressive first-year results in Muscogee County School District."