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Turning Reading Scores Around in an Under-performing School

Four years ago, the children at Hillcrest Elementary School in Orem, Utah, were consistently testing below the Alpine School District's average reading scores. The school was not close to its goal of having every student reading at grade level by the third grade.

Today, the school has met that goal. In fact, Hillcrest's third graders ranked first this year among the district's 35 elementary schools in an important standardized reading test. And the school's third-grade teachers report that they have never had so many proficient readers.

What happened? "There's no doubt that it's the Waterford Reading Early Program™," says Ronda Corbett, the school's project leader for the program. "We know this is what made the difference, because nothing else changed."

Now school officials in the district, one of Utah's largest, have taken notice. "Frankly, this kind of turn-around wasn't expected of us because Hillcrest had been under-performing for so long," Ms. Corbett said. "But the change has been very significant."

In addition to the impressive third-grade reading test scores, the first-graders have also been shining, Ms. Corbett said. In 1995, before the Waterford Early Reading Program was introduced, it was only a small minority of first-graders whose reading scores placed them in the "proficient" or "advanced" categories; most scored in the "basic" or "below" categories. But since 1997, a year after the kindergarten level of the program was introduced, that pattern has been reversed; the vast majority of first-graders consistently score as "proficient" or "advanced" on the state reading test.

"Our kids really can read," said Ms. Corbett, "The Waterford program gets them to be fluent readers."

Ms. Corbett may be contacted directly about the program via email at rondacor2000@aol.com.

  
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