Superintendent of Public Instruction Visits CES to Celebrate Excellent IREAD-3 Scores

Lawrenceburg third graders ranked first in the county and second in the region on the IREAD-3 assessment.

Pictured (left to right): Andrea Spaeth, Director of School Services, Karl Galey, Superintendent, Dr. Katie Jenner, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Staci Knigga, CES Principal, and Brad Cutter, Dean of Students. Photo by Travis Thayer, Eagle Country 99.3.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) – The State Superintendent of Public Instruction was in Lawrenceburg today for a visit.

Dr. Katie Jenner made stops at Central Elementary School and Lawrenceburg Primary School following the release of IREAD-3 scores. Lawrenceburg Community Schools had the highest IREAD-3 scores in the county, and the second highest in the region.

According to the Indiana Department of Education, Lawrenceburg third graders earned a 93.7 percent pass rate on the reading skills assessment. Of the 126 students tested, 118 demonstrated proficient reading skills. Statewide results show that more than 65,000 Indiana’s third grade students, or 81.9 percent, demonstrated reading proficiency. 

Dr. Jenner was greeted by fifth grade students Silas Cutter and Isabella Sparks. They used skills learned through CES' dual language immersion program to welcome Dr. Jenner to their school. Cutter spoke in Spanish, while Sparks translated. Their greeting to Dr. Jenner can be seen in the video player below. 

The State Superintendent received a tour of the school, which included stops in Mrs. Holderby's and Mr. Abdon's 3rd grade classes, plus a look at Rosa Sabater's Dual Language Immersion class. 

Dr. Jenner saw first-hand how reading is taught at CES, including a small group session in Mr. Abdon's class. 

“The difference in what I look for is are they sounding out the words. You don’t see that everywhere,” said Jenner. “Sometimes you see the students guess at the words. Then if you ask them can you sound that out, they may struggle with it. That’s a skill, one of the five components, we have to make sure students know. Otherwise, they won’t be the reader that will help them most and sometimes not a reader at all.”

Some of the things that are helping with reading proficiency at Central Elementary School include:

• Two aids that rotate between classrooms
• Small group reading (skills based)
• Reading texts based on skills that are being taught (i.e. learning ‘ch’ words, the book will have a lot of ‘ch’ words in the text.

Third grade students work in a small group to work on reading skills in Mr. Abdon's class. Photo by Travis Thayer, Eagle Country 99.3.

Indiana has joined a growing number of states that require school to use curriculum materials that emphasize phonetic instruction when teaching children how to read.

The state’s third grade literacy rates have been dropping for a decade, according to the IDOE. Overall, results remain 9.5 percentage points below the state’s highest=ever, proficiency rate of 91.4 percent during the 2012-13 school year.

Dr. Jenner says the state hopes to achieve 95 percent reading efficiency among third graders. 

“I get asked a lot, is 95 percent too aggressive for the state?" It’s super aggressive but it can be done and we have no time to waste, and we have to keep working at it," said Dr. Jenner.