State’s pilot program for struggling third-grade readers starts in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - On the first day of summer classes for Kids on Course University, about 100 students and their teachers passed a faux-Olympic torch around Cleveland Elementary's open field before sending a dozen balloons floating into the sky.

'This is not summer school, this is fun school,” one boy said as he walked back inside the school's front door. 'I won't read.”

Librarian Mary Pat Schulte overheard him as she held the door open for students.

'Oh,” she said, 'you'll read.”

Six weeks of summer courses started Tuesday for about 750 students in the Cedar Rapids school district. The tuition-free program, developed by the Zach Johnson Foundation, targets rising first- through fifth- graders who missed state benchmarks for reading proficiency last school year.

Folded into Kids on Course University is a pilot summer program for students who fall short of statewide reading standards in third grade. Once Gov. Terry Branstad's reading and retention law takes effect, those students will be required to take summer courses or to repeat third grade.

The law, initially set to take effect in 2017, could be delayed for a year due to a lack of state funding.

Classes are being offered at five schools and are open to students who attend one of the district's schools receiving Title I funding - those identified by the federal government as 'in need of assistance” - and whose test scores showed they were not proficient in reading, said Val Dolezal, the district's director of prekindergarten through eighth grade.

While students in other grades will work on subjects such as math in addition to reading, students in these classes - those students who did not reach third-grade benchmarks - will focus exclusively on improving their reading skills. At least 75 hours of reading instruction over the next six weeks will act as a pilot program for the state, Kids on Course University director Amy Evans said.

Kids on Course University has 10 classrooms of fourth-graders across the program's five host schools - Cleveland, Garfield, Grant Wood, Harrison and Hiawatha elementary schools.

The state assigned one of three different teaching methods to each of the teachers, Evans said. Both teachers at Cleveland will use a computer-based model, while other teachers in the program will use a rigid, scripted 'reading mastery” style or a 'business as usual” model that allows teachers more flexibility.

'We had no control over” which method each teacher was assigned, explained Linda Stoltenberg, one of Cleveland's fourth-grade teachers. 'It was all just picked out and given to us.”

Teachers will report progress after every 10 hours of instruction, Evans said.

That information will be sent to the Iowa Reading Research Center, which works under the auspices of the Iowa Department of Education and is based at the University of Iowa's College of Education.

About 130 school districts in Iowa are participating in pilot programs this summer.

At Cleveland on Tuesday, educators Steph Stulken and Lisa Shaver were dressed in bright, patriotic outfits and working to keep students excited - despite being in class in July.

'I can promise you we will commit to you as teachers and we'll have a lot of fun,” Shaver told students outside as they let balloons float away.

Some of the students, while enjoying frozen treats, said they were excited to spend time reading during their summer.

'I like reading,” Alyssa Ligon said. 'You get to go on adventures.”

Joel Janss, whose grandson is in one of Cleveland's fourth-grade classes, said he was hopeful about the program as he waited outside the school for Stylze Carlson to get out of class.

'He's just short of the marks they've developed,” Janss said. 'We think this will really help him get over that hump.”