In response to another year of dismal student test scores, Salem elementary schools are zeroing in on how they teach students to write, checking student progress in reading more reliably and doing more to communicate with parents about how to support their children learning to read, district officials said. Administrators who oversee elementary school education for the Salem-Keizer School District outlined the work during a special school board meeting on Oct. 22.  The meeting was intended to provide the board an update on its policy that sets targets for Superintendent Andrea Castañeda to meet. The policy set a target of 27% of third graders reading at grade level in 2023. Instead, state data released in early October showed the share had declined slightly, to 24%, and remained far below the state average of 39%. “This is a big concern to us,” said Deputy Superintendent Olga Cobb, who oversees elementary education, during the meeting. “We need to change that trajectory for our students.” After student test results plummeted in Salem and across Oregon during the pandemic, early literacy has become a key focus of Gov. Tina Kotek’s administration and Castañeda’s superintendency. She is in her second year leading Salem-Keizer, which has about 38,000 students. Tracking reading in real time In local schools, Cobb said a key part of their efforts is better data that lets teachers see where students are struggling in real time. Students take state assessments once a year in the spring, when it’s too late for teachers to do much to change their trajectory that school year. Last year, nine elementary schools began using a new in-class test that lets teachers and administrators sort students by how well they understand key reading and writing skills like phonics, irregular spellings and reading comprehension. The idea is to quickly identify students who need extra help, figure out what skills they’re struggling with and intervene. Now, it’s used in all district elementary schools. While similar tests have been used in previous years, Castañeda said the new assessment, called STAR, is the first to give the quality of data needed to sort students, and to see how well students can read and write in Spanish as well as English. “This is the very first year we have this level of information for third grade,” Cobb said. Deputy Superintendent Olga Cobb presents data from in-class reading tests given to Salem-Keizer School District second and third graders in September 2024. Her presentation was part of an Oct. 22, 2024, school board work session on literacy. (Screenshot) A September evaluation of most of the district’s third-grade students, about 2,800 students, showed about half were meeting or exceeding the district’s standards for reading in English. Cobb said that should mean they have the skills to pass the state test. About one in five were flagged for intervention, meaning they need help and more practice with specific reading skills in small groups. Another one in five need “urgent intervention,” the test showed. “These students may be two years behind in the reading trajectory,” Cobb said. That means they get help in small groups, but also one-on-one help from a teacher or reading specialist, an after school club or other focused help to catch them up. The school district tests all students in English. Those in dual language classrooms also get a Spanish test. The district’s results show that third-grade students tested this fall performed about as well on reading tests in Spanish as in English, while second graders performed better when tested in Spanish. About one in four district third graders, most of them native Spanish speakers, are in dual language elementary school classes. In kindergarten, those students spend about 80% of the day learning in Spanish, gradually increasing the share of English to about half by fifth grade. Oregon’s state test is only conducted in English. Zeroing in on writing Though the state test is often called a reading test, it goes beyond seeing whether a student can understand sentences they read. “They also are asked to write a summary of a text that they read or to compare two texts, or they also have to produce an information or opinion essay by the end of the exam,” Cobb said. District officials zeroing in on test results showed a number of students who didn’t meet state standards last spring are reading at grade level, but falling behind in writing skills, Cobb said. That’s led to a new focus on emphasizing writing instruction in class, as well as zeroing in on key literacy skills and making sure teachers have the training they need. Tom Charbonneau, a longtime elementary school principal in the district, is now working as an administrator overseeing reading curriculum and help for struggling students. He said schools are making sure students get a chance to write a three-paragraph essay in third grade classrooms so the state test isn’t the first time they see similar questions. “It’s a pretty rigorous assessment and we want to give students the opportunity ahead of time to understand what they’re being asked to do,” he said. “We know that they’re able to write better than a lot of them can show on that assessment.” Castañeda said the focus is on identifying key literacy skills schools can sharpen, not test-taking skills that are only useful in passing the assessment. “There’s a delicate balancing point between making sure our students experience the test format and becoming a district that spends its time teaching kids to test. We cannot become the latter,” Castañeda said. Family outreach, class size Charbonneau said the district is also doing more to let families know where their student stands and giving them tools to help struggling students at home. Conferences held last week gave teachers a chance to meet individually with parents. “We meet with every family that we can to talk about where the students are at and do some goal setting with them and provide them with some resources so the families can work together with the teachers to improve the outcomes,” Charbonneau said. “And then we’ll have conferences at other times during the year so we can monitor those goals, show how the students are flourishing and continue to really work on building a partnership with our families to increase their literacy outcomes.” Cobb said the district is partnering with the Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality to develop a 10- to 12-week course in early literacy to teach parents how to help their students at home. The coalition has been an education and advocacy group for Spanish-speaking parents for decades. Castañeda said to make sustained progress, schools also need smaller class sizes during the crucial years from kindergarten to second grade when students learn to read. “Smaller class size in the early grades really matters,” she said. The district focused on keeping the ratio of students to teachers low in kindergarten through second grade even amid budget cuts last year. Castañeda said despite that, “there are still very significantly large classes, K-3, and I have no doubt we will continue to hear from teachers who are facing difficult teaching conditions because of that.”  She said in “an ideal version of the future,” the district would get significant funding to lower class sizes in early grades. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. 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