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{"source_url": "http://www.capoliticalreview.com", "url": "http://www.capoliticalreview.com/capoliticalnewsandviews/only-32-of-stanislaus-county-third-graders-read-at-grade-level/", "title": "Only 32% of Stanislaus County third-graders read at grade level.", "top_image": "http://www.capoliticalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/school.png", "meta_img": "http://www.capoliticalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/school.png", "images": ["http://www.capoliticalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/school.png", "http://3b9m3d3keq0q4enwal2laffp.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CA_War_Against_Trump_300x250_Static.jpg", "http://3b9m3d3keq0q4enwal2laffp.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/dmh_banner_234x60.jpg", "http://3b9m3d3keq0q4enwal2laffp.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/school.png", "http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a3d2e134d750218ad3fb55c998c0a9e0?s=70&d=mm&r=g", "http://3b9m3d3keq0q4enwal2laffp.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/landslide_banner_234x60.gif", "http://3b9m3d3keq0q4enwal2laffp.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/sharedaddy/images/loading.gif", "http://3b9m3d3keq0q4enwal2laffp.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Lacey_Logo_for_USJF.gif"], "movies": [], "text": "By\n\nGovernment education in California is a failure. After several years of Common Core, the results are in: \u201cTheir first action was to discover how proficient Stanislaus County children were in reading. They reviewed the California standardized test scores for third graders, an age where students transition from \u201clearning to read\u201d to \u201creading to learn.\u201d They found that only 32% were proficient, a number Tiwater called \u201cabysmal\u201d and far below the state average of 48%. Stanislaus County is 50% lower in reading scores than the rest of the State. But, the whole State of California is at 48%\u2013a total, absolute failure. Who thinks it is not a crisis when less than 50% of our government students are not reading at grade level? Yet, the Democrats run legislature are making it worse by ending charter schools\u2014and that is what they are doing, killing them with regulations and unions. California has so many crisis\u2019 that it is hard to say which is more important. Yet the education of our children is being destroyed by politicians and unions\u2014where is the public outcry? Why are the people in Stanislaus demanding an end to the failed policies? Parents need to speak up.\n\nOnly 32% of Stanislaus County third-graders read at grade level. How Stanreads! helps\n\nBy ChrisAnna Mink, Modesto Bee, 12/31/19\n\nLike many great love stories, it started with coins in a fountain.\n\nOnly this time, the love is for reading, and the fountain is in the foyer at Stanislaus County Office of Education in downtown Modesto.\n\n\u201cIt all started with Dee Dee Baker taking the coins from the fountain to donate to the library,\u201d said Lisa Tiwater, SCOE\u2019s assistant superintendent of instruction, while talking about StanReads!, a program to propel county children to read at grade level by third grade.\n\nBaker has since retired, but about five years ago, she was the director of literacy and the SCOE liaison to the Stanislaus County Library.\n\nWhen Baker took the coins to the library, she learned about the national campaign for grade level reading and was excited to have SCOE join the effort. SCOE joined forces with the Stanislaus Community Foundation.\n\nFrom there, Stanislaus Reads emerged, which evolved into StanReads!, which is part of the five action teams that make up Stanislaus Cradle-to-Career Partnership.\n\nTheir first action was to discover how proficient Stanislaus County children were in reading. They reviewed the California standardized test scores for third graders, an age where students transition from \u201clearning to read\u201d to \u201creading to learn.\u201d\n\nThey found that only 32% were proficient, a number Tiwater called \u201cabysmal\u201d and far below the state average of 48%.\n\nStanReads! takes action\n\nResearch has shown that reading proficiency at the end of third grade is one of the strongest predictors of high school graduation, as well as success entering the workforce.\n\nMegan Lowery, director of Cradle-to-Career at SCOE, said that though third grade reading is a classroom-based indicator, the group quickly realized that everything that happens in a child\u2019s life, especially early on, impacts what happens in the classroom.\n\nPoverty, lack of access to books and limited parental literacy are among many factors that contribute to low literacy among children, according to the Literacy Foundation.\n\nStanReads! identified schools from eight county districts, including Capistrano Elementary School in Empire, to participate in a pilot program to assess reading obstacles among local kids and to test solutions.\n\nEarly actions included trying to curb school absenteeism, maximizing summer learning, understanding kindergarten readiness and getting more books into children\u2019s hands.\n\nResearch shows that chronically absent kids in kindergarten and first grade are less likely to be capable readers in third grade and to graduate from high school.\n\n\u201cIf they\u2019re not there, we can\u2019t teach them,\u201d Tiwater said.\n\nChronic absenteeism \u2014 missing more than four weeks of the school year \u2014 affects about 10% of county pupils across all grades. StanReads! instituted community awareness campaigns about the importance of school attendance and reading to young children.\n\nMeanwhile, over the summer, students lose at least one month of reading ability, called the summer slide. This can be mitigated if kids participate in enrichment activities, so StanReads! took inventory of the county summer programs.\n\nSchool readiness means that children show up to kindergarten ready to learn, which led to formal assessments of kindergarteners and the start of the StanReady! action team.\n\n\u201cYou can\u2019t be an action team without some actions,\u201d said Tiwater. \u201cWe have to balance talking and research with doing.\u201d\n\nApplying programs to pilot schools\n\nShe said StanReads! took multiple actions at the pilot schools, including the attendance campaign, the Imagination Library, afternoon reading clubs and providing schools with \u201chigh interest\u201d books focused on topics more aligned to students\u2019 interests.\n\nOne of their first steps was offering families enrollment into Imagination Library, a national nonprofit that promotes literacy. Once a month, children ages zero to 5 are mailed books at no cost to families. Participation is funded by the Stanislaus Community Foundation and other philanthropic groups, including the Modesto Rotary Club.\n\n\u201cThe mailman brings them to us, so every day we check the mail to see if there\u2019s more books,\u201d said Forest Arnold, a second grader at Capistrano in Empire.\n\nForest and his rambunctious 5-year-old brother, Eric Von Hudson, were eager to talk about their favorite books, including \u201cViolet the Pilot,\u201d about a little girl who draws instructions to build and fly a plane.\n\nEric said his mom reads to him every day, and Forest proudly said, \u201cI read myself.\u201d\n\nCapistrano Elementary became one of the pilot schools in 2016-17, the second year of StanReads!.\n\n\u201cThey immediately offered me more books,\u201d said Principal James Jensen. He harvests any resources that he can to get books for his students.\n\nNearly all Capistrano students qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch, about two-thirds are Latino/Hispanic, and 1 in 5 are English learners.\n\nAbout 40% of their students read at grade level, which is above the Stanislaus County average, but still below the state average. The county\u2019s 32% is in line with Merced and Madera counties, but behind Alameda, Fresno and Sacramento.\n\nStanislaus County Library\u2019s role\n\n\u201cReading and literacy is what we do,\u201d said Annie Snell, supervising librarian of youth services outreach and a facilitator for the StanReads! team.\n\nShe said parent engagement is one of the library\u2019s concerted efforts with StanReads!, because some parents don\u2019t know the importance of reading to their children. They also help families sign up for library cards.\n\nThe library opened \u201cpop-up\u201d libraries at locations where parents and kids visited, such as the county\u2019s Women Infant and Children (WIC) office at Hackett Road.\n\nThey also helped place and stock Little Free Libraries filled with gently used books on each pilot schools\u2019 campus, as well as other neighborhood locations. At the birdhouse-shaped structures, anyone can take a free book, and if they can, leave a book.\n\nLowery said that over the past four years, they\u2019ve seen an increase of 12% of third graders reading at grade level, though they aren\u2019t sure which actions were most effective.\n\nStanReads! and Cradle-to-Career are trying to discover which actions are most valuable, and affordable, to scale up across the county.\n\nSomething seems to be working.\n\nThat was evident recently at the Capistrano school library, which was full of children enthralled with the story being read by the librarian.\n\n\u201cIf the community can get behind anything related to StanReads!, it\u2019s a plus,\u201d said Principal Jensen. \u201cBring in books. Donate to schools. Volunteer to read to kids in school. We need to do everything we can to get books in the kids\u2019 hands.\u201d\n\nEven if it\u2019s simply tossing coins into a fountain.\n\nCradle-to-Career is hosting a Community Summit on March 13, 2020, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Modesto Centre Plaza.\n\nFor more information or to volunteer with the partnership, visit: https://www.stancoe.org/division/administrative-services/cradle-career\n\nThis story was produced with financial support from The Stanislaus County Office of Education and the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project\u2019s Report for America initiative.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": [], "publish_date": "Wed Jan 1 20:26:30 2020", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "http://3b9m3d3keq0q4enwal2laffp.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/themes/church/images/favicon.ico", "meta_data": {"og": {"locale": "en_US", "type": "article", "title": "Only 32% of Stanislaus County third-graders read at grade level. - California Political Review", "description": "Government education in California is a failure.\u00a0 After several years of Common Core, the results are in: \u201cTheir first action was to discover how proficient Stanislaus County children were in reading. They reviewed the California standardized test scores for third graders, an age where students transition from \u201clearning to read\u201d to \u201creading to learn.\u201d They \u2026", "url": "http://www.capoliticalreview.com/capoliticalnewsandviews/only-32-of-stanislaus-county-third-graders-read-at-grade-level/", "site_name": "California Political Review", "updated_time": "2020-01-01T15:31:57-08:00", "image": "http://www.capoliticalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/school.png"}, "article": {"section": "Stephen Frank's California Political News And Views", "published_time": "2020-01-01T20:26:30-08:00", "modified_time": "2020-01-01T15:31:57-08:00"}, "twitter": {"card": "summary", "description": "Government education in California is a failure.\u00a0 After several years of Common Core, the results are in: \u201cTheir first action was to discover how proficient Stanislaus County children were in reading. 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