Reading skills in Oklahoma are putting a little more pressure on students and teachers these days.
Oklahoma is setting higher reading standards for third graders, which could impact a child’s ability to move on to the fourth grade. To prepare students for the future, teachers are raising the bar for children way before they even get to elementary school, and the age might surprise you.
Big books for little hands – it’s a common sight you’ll find in all of Communication Action Project classrooms, also known as CAP Tulsa. Each child soaks in all the pictures, letters and eventually words.
“This age is so fun for learning. They’re exploring, they’re excited about learning. They’re really starting to own their own learning, they’re getting invested,” said Cap McClure lead teacher Elena Beene.
The age at which these youngsters learn is critical, especially when it comes to reading.
“Reading helps you develop so many schools like comprehension skills. We can use reading to help build all those other foundation skills like math and science,” said Cap McClure lead teacher Jayme Whitson.
Oklahoma is one of almost 20 states where third graders must meet specific standards in reading before going to the next grade. That’s why children as young as four year olds now have higher expectations.
“We have objectives for all of the kids. They’re all the same. There are different levels for different age groups,” said Cap McClure lead teacher Jennifer Daggs.
Students who aren’t skilled readers by third grade are four times less likely than other proficient readers to graduate from high school. The teachers at Cap Tulsa are working to close that gap.
“We are very data-driven here and we have different ways of collecting it,” said Beene.
Teachers track things like literacy and the alphabet. They then use the data to tailor what they teach to their students. Each classroom has an extra pair of teaching hands and no more than 20 students.
“Having two teachers allows you to work one-on-one with kids because there is somebody who is able to kind of monitor the rest of the room,” said Whitson.
The short-term goal is for these four-year-olds to leave pre-kindergarten fully prepared for the next grade.
“The younger they are and the better foundation they have, the more successful they’ll be when they go into kindergarten,” said Daggs.
Long-term, students are on track to pass the state’s third grade reading exam, which in turn will correlate to how they perform in high school and beyond.
Studies show third grade is also the most pivotal year for students. If you aren’t a solid reader at that age, the years after can really be a struggle. Teachers encourage parents to spend 15 minutes of quality time reading with their children after school. They say this can make a tremendous difference.
