Elementary
Read to Achieve (3rd Grade)
What is Read to Achieve?
Read to Achieve is a program created in legislation approved by the North Carolina General Assembly in July 2012. The goal of the legislation is for all students to be successful, proficient readers by the end of third grade. Students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate proficiency. Extra supports are offered for students in third and fourth grade as they build reading ability.
Students can meet the requirements of Read to Achieve in one of three ways:
1. State Assessments: BOG (Beginning-of-Grade Test): Third graders are administered the BOG test at the beginning of the school year. This test measures achievement in reading comprehension on a third grade level and serves as a starting point to show growth from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year. (Proficiency = level 3, 4, or 5)
EOG (End of Grade Test): Third graders are administered the EOG test at the end of the school year. This test measures achievement in reading comprehension on a third grade level and shows the growth made during the school year when compared to the BOG test. (Proficiency = levels 3, 4, or 5)
2. Alternative Assessments: An alternative assessment is an additional way to measure a child’s third grade reading and show proficiency when a child is not successful on the EOG. Your child may meet proficiency standards by scoring a level P on the mClass:TRC assessment, a scale score of 537 on the iReady online diagnostic assessment, or a level 3, 4, or 5 on the Read to Achieve Test.
3. Good Cause Exemptions: Good Cause Exemptions are meant for students that meet certain criteria as outlined in the Read to Achieve legislation. Students with a Good Cause Exemption do not receive a retained in reading label, if they do not meet proficiency standards in third grade. These exemptions include:
- Exceptional Children (EC) who have an IEP with a documented learning disability in reading and have received 2 years of documented reading interventions or require an alternative assessment (Extend 1).
- Limited English Proficient students (LEP) with less than 2 years of instruction in English as a Second Language.
- Students retained more than once in kindergarten through third grade.
What if my child does not pass one of the state assessments or show proficiency on an alternative assessment?
Summer Reading Camp is offered for students who do not meet proficiency standards during 3rd grade. Attendance in camp is required in order for these students to be promoted to 4th grade. The camp is designed to provide additional instruction in third grade reading. There is no cost to parents. Children attending camp will receive targeted, hands-on instruction in a small group setting, allowing the teacher to meet the needs of each student. Students are administered the Read to Achieve alternative assessment at the end of summer camp.
DavieLEADS was created through a $2.5 million grant from the Mebane Foundation to support a five-year early literacy initiative aimed at improving kindergarten readiness and increasing the percentage of students reading proficiently by the end of third grade. The grant includes funding for professional development and specialized support staff, including two full-time literacy coaches, as well as two professional consultants to develop and build the professional capacity of the kindergarten through third-grade classroom teachers in Davie County Schools.
The grant includes funding for professional development and specialized support staff, including two full-time literacy coaches, as well as two professional consultants to develop and build the professional capacity of the kindergarten through third-grade classroom teachers in Davie County Schools. The grant also provides funding for all elementary schools to develop a guided reading room filled with sets of leveled readers that will continue to be expanded throughout the initiative.
Introduction to DavieLEADS
EdNC DavieLEADS
“Professional development is an essential component of the DavieLEADS initiative. We want to invest in our teachers and provide them with quality workshops and training. They are much more valuable in producing student growth than a packaged program.”
- Jennifer Lynde, Chief Academic Officer
Guided Reading
A key workshop for elementary teachers focuses on guided reading, an instructional approach in which a teacher works with a small group of students who demonstrate similar reading behaviors and can all read similar levels of texts. The text is on the student’s instructional level and is easy enough to read with some fluency, but also offers challenges and opportunities for problem-solving.
Guided reading is a component of a balanced literacy framework for reading instruction, which also includes reading to students, having students read independently, and reading with students. The balanced literacy approach, as adopted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, strikes a balance between phonics and comprehension and is a way to teach all elements of English language arts instruction. It is designed to meet the needs of all readers and to inspire an authentic love and appreciation for reading among students. The other components of this framework are read aloud, shared reading, independent reading, word study, and writing.
In the News...
Davie County Economic Development: Moving the Needle on Early Childhood Literacy – Introducing “DavieLEADS” – Literacy Empowers Everyone in Davie to Succeed!
EdNC Article: DavieLEADS – First year results are in, Davie making great strides in early literacy achievement
EdNC Article: DavieLEADS focus on development – supporting professional learning communities in Davie County Schools
EdNC Article: Comprehensive, effective, kid-friendly phonics? Letterland becoming key component of DavieLEADS
Davie County Enterprise Record: Teacher training key to DavieLEADS
Professional Learning Communities
Davie County Schools’ PLCs are organized by grade level. Each school includes a time within its master schedule for the weekly meetings. During those meetings, teachers discuss how to increase academic performance by evaluating what is going well and what could be improved. They also delve into other issues such as creating common formative assessments, updating quarterly pacing maps, and reviewing testing data.
