ADRIAN – Third grade students at Adrian Elementary School, part of a rural school district in the poorest county in the state, posted the top reading scores among all third grade students tested in Oregon earlier this year, according to recently-released state test scores.  The Adrian School District’s overall reading scores were the second-best in the entire state for all kindergarten through 12th graders tested, according to Peter Rudy, public affairs specialist with the Oregon Department of Education. The remarkable showing results in part from a local effort by teachers, their assistants and administrators to put more emphasis on reading, according to interviews. In recent years, test scores have been dismal across Malheur County and the state. Educators worry about the future of students who can’t read at a level they should. In Adrian, with 294 (137 attend the elementary school) students, state test results show that 81.3% of Adrian third graders were proficient readers. That’s up from 50% in 2019, before the pandemic. By comparison, 39% of third graders in Oregon on average tested as proficient in 2024. Adrian teachers focused on teaching students how to read with a method that centers on having them sound out words and relate letters to sounds. The district, based in a town with a population of about 160, hired a reading specialist four years ago. In recent years Adian officials expanded the role of the specialist using state funding aimed at boosting reading scores. The specialist works with students individually and in groups.   Abundant research shows the importance of a student reading proficiently by the end of third grade. The idea is that students go from learning to read to reading to learn by the end of third grade. The walls in third grade teacher Kelsey Zimmerman’s classroom focus on the elements of reading. (The Enterprise/STEVEN MITCHELL) The walls in third grade teacher Kelsey Zimmerman’s classroom are adorned with everything reading. The wall closest to the doorway has punctuation marks with short descriptions on how to correctly use them. There is also the “focus wall.” Signs and notes remind students of key reading skills such as comparing and contrasting cause and effect and reading a sequence of events. Then there are the “big idea words,” where third graders are exposed to words like “loyal” sovereignty,” democracy,” and “civic.” During a recent class, students in Zimmerman’s class worked on recognizing the sequence of events in a text, the history of the War of 1812. Students shot their hands up with excitement when Zimmerman questioned them to get them involved with the lesson, especially when it came to learning multiple-meaning words in vocabulary. Think, bark on a tree versus bark like a dog, or bear in the woods versus bear a load. Zimmerman, Adrian’s lone third grade teacher, said the enthusiasm in the class is partly due to students getting to third grade with the skills to read. “They’re excited because they know it,” she said. “Students don’t want to be here when they don’t.” Adrian Elementary School third grade teacher Kelsey Zimmerman asks students for a show of hands on Tuesday, Oct. 15, during a reading lesson. Adrian’s students recently posted the highest reading scores in Oregon. (The Enterprise/STEVEN MITCHELL) In the next door classroom, kindergartners filed in after a recess. There, they gathered cross-legged around a seated Elizabeth Martin, Adrian’s reading specialist. Martin’s job, among others, is to come into the class for a short session in the morning to work with students sounding out words and correlating the sounds of words with letters. For instance, students, at an early age, learn the sound k and that it can be spelled as c, ck or ch. This teaches students to blend the sounds of letters to decode unfamiliar words. During Martin’s session, she read aloud basic sentences that they repeated back to her: “Today was my birthday,” she read to the kindergarteners, which they then repeated back in unison. Then, she had the students count the number of words in the sentence, explaining to them the word birthday is one word, a compound word. These are the foundational skills students gain before they move on to Zimmerman’s class. By the time they reach the third grade, they are ready to move into writing and comprehend more complex words and sentences, which are essential to learning from the fourth grade. Elizabeth Martin, an Adrian Elementary School reading specialist, sounds out words with kindergartners on Tuesday, Oct. 15. Adrian Elementary School students are reading at more than 70% proficiency overall, the second-best score in all of Oregon among students tested. (The Enterprise/STEVEN MITCHELL) Martin said new teachers coming out of college to work in Adrian use this method to teach reading more than in the past, given that the need is backed by so much research. Kindergartners and first graders are being taught by those teachers. The change in how educators teach students to read underscores a broader shift in education, according to Superintendent Nick Ketterling. He said there is now an emphasis on sounding out words and correlating the sounds with letters when teaching elementary-age students to read. The trend has taken hold in the last decade, according to Rhonda Fritz with Eastern Oregon University. She has trained instructional coaches in several districts in Malheur County and around the state. Ketterling said students are given regular pop quizzes to assess where they are at with the material. Those students identified as falling behind spend time with Martin. She meets with the students in groups based on grade level. On Tuesday, she was set to meet with a pair of sixth graders. As it turned, just one showed up. The other was absent that day. From left, Adrian Elementary School third graders Kamryn Proesch, Cain Garcia, Callie Bayes and Nayton Walsh settle in for a reading lesson on Tuesday, Oct. 15. Earlier this year, Adrian third graders posted the top reading scores among all third graders tested in Oregon. (The Enterprise/STEVEN MITCHELL) While prepping for the one-on-one session, she said that parent support and the new curriculum at all grade levels contributed to the district’s improved reading scores. She also credited the shift in teaching reading, with its emphasis on sounding out words and associating sounds to letters. Zimmerman, who is in her 25th year of teaching, said the approach to teaching reading has gone back and forth over the years. She said early in her career, her teacher mentor told her that she would see the “pendulum” swing. Zimmerman said her mentor advised her to stay “in the middle” and work in different teaching methods. “If you’re staying in the middle and kind of doing all of it, you’re gonna be fine,” she said. “And I think that I’ve always stuck to that as a teacher.” Zimmerman said another aspect that has helped her is the Regional Educator Network, an association of teachers in eastern Oregon. There are 10 networks in Oregon. She belongs to an eastern Oregon group that meets weekly on Zoom. Zimmerman said it’s been helpful to meet with others teaching third grade, especially others teaching in a rural community. She said just recently a Lakeview third grade teacher from the Zoom session shared teaching strategies with her. “Just having that collaboration with other third grade teachers is so awesome,” she said. Zimmerman said she has never had a group of students come in so well prepared. “They love reading,” she said. What is satisfying, she said, is that students are on a path that will allow them to continue to advance even further. This article was originally published by the Malheur Enterprise, which shares ownership with Salem Reporter. STORY TIP OR IDEA? Send an email to Salem Reporter’s news team: [email protected]. The post A rural eastern Oregon school district has the best reading scores in the state. Here’s how they did it. appeared first on Salem Reporter.