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PARKERSBURG — Wood County Schools officials are outlining an extensive system of assessments, interventions and parent communication designed to support struggling readers and mathematicians ahead of the full implementation of West Virginia’s Third Grade Success Act next year.

“The entire purpose of the bill is for our students to be proficient in reading and math by the end of the third grade,” Ashlee Beatty, director of curriculum and instruction, said.

The Third Grade Success Act (passed in 2023), House Bill 3035, required the state Board of Education to develop screeners and benchmark assessments in ELA and math for students in kindergarten through third grade, as well as a multi-tiered system of support for students exhibiting substantial reading or math deficiencies to ensure students are proficient before moving past the third grade. The bill also allowed for teacher aides and interventionists in early elementary classrooms up to third grade.

Three Years of Preparation and Training

Beatty said Wood County Schools has been working toward this moment for about three years, rolling out the required components “piece-by-piece,” with the retention portion of the guidance coming in now.

She said a major focus of the district has been professional development for teachers, especially in the science of reading.

“That’s the science of reading training for English language arts,” Beatty said. “We have been doing that work for quite some time, and really believe in great professional development that ensures our teachers are highly qualified.”

She said the district has been using LETRS training, which the state has now expanded statewide.

“It is a two-year training course,” she said. “We have about 180 teachers that have either finished it or are starting it. So that’s been the meat of our science of reading training.”

Benchmarks, Dyslexia Screening, and a New Support Team

The district uses the state-approved i-Ready benchmark assessments in reading and math three times per year for all students in grades K-8.

“This data allows us to see how our students are progressing over time and whether our instruction and interventions are moving students towards proficiency,” Beatty said. “We use this data to evaluate our trends and adjust our supports where needed.”

She said based on benchmark results, the district now conducts additional literacy tasks to screen for characteristics of dyslexia.

“Those tasks don’t diagnose dyslexia, but they do indicate reading difficulty that may be characteristics of a student having dyslexia,” Beatty said.

She said to support this work, the district has created a dyslexia support team, with one teacher from every grade level who completed a four-week course about dyslexia through the International Dyslexia Association. Beatty said meetings are held regularly to look at assessment data, talk about screeners and additional tools or interventions.

“That’s new for us, and we’ll continue to build their knowledge and utilize them,” Beatty said.

From Classroom Aides to Interventionists

Over the past three years, Beatty said Wood County Schools has added classroom aides to grades one, two, and three. The law permits one aide per classroom with more than 12 students, and the district has been following that guideline, she said.

However, looking at current data and anticipating next year’s demands, Beatty said the district is replacing many classroom aides with certified interventionists in certain grades.

“We have proposed to the Board of Education to switch to an interventionist model for our third-grade classrooms and a few select second-grade classrooms,” she said.

While aides have played an important role, she said the new model is designed to give students more targeted, data-driven support.

“The aides have been wonderful to support us operationally and support instruction in the classroom,” she said. “But as we look at the data and what is coming next school year, we need the interventionists to assist with developing the improvement plans and providing the targeted and intensive interventions that we need.”

The shift from aides to interventionists will inevitably change the feel of the classroom, Beatty said, but she said the district has written the proposed job description so that interventionists will both support core instruction and provide focused interventions.

“Anytime you make a change in staff, there is a shift in the dynamic in a classroom,” Beatty said. “We have specifically written the proposed job description for these positions so that they are spending time in the classroom supporting what we call the core instruction–ELA, math, science, or social studies–so they can still push in and support their readers and co-teach with the teacher, and then during designated intervention times, they also would be pulling out (students).”

To expand services further, she said the district is proposing slightly adjusted work hours for interventionists, as well, so they can support after-school tutoring.

“We have proposed adjusting the work hours slightly so that the interventionist begins their day a later and ends a later,” Beatty said. “That will allow us to offer extended learning or tutoring after school to students as well, which is something we haven’t been able to do … county-wide.”

Beatty added interventionists will be certified teachers with training to spot reading and math difficulties and choose appropriate assessment tools.

“They would be a certified teacher that has received previous training in identifying reading difficulties or identifying math difficulties,” she said. “They would certainly be trained to identify students that may have a deficit … and also be trained to select the appropriate assessment tool for them and administer it.”

Stronger Communication with Parents

Students whose scores fall below predetermined i-Ready cut scores are flagged for intervention, and families are notified quickly.

“The parents or guardians of any student in kindergarten through grade three who exhibit a deficiency in reading or mathematics at any time during the school year must be notified in writing of the deficiency no later than 15 days after identification,” Beatty said.

She said one of her favorite parts of the Third Grade Success Act is its focus on parent notification and involvement.

“The Third Grade Success Act has a really heavy component on parent notification and involvement,” she said. “All of the plans we develop, all of the assessment tools, we are to be providing regular updates on how our students are progressing towards proficiency. And I think that’s very beneficial, because we are a team.”

She emphasized that the school-parent partnership is central to helping students succeed and reducing the likelihood of retention.

“It really reiterates the importance of the parent and school relationship and how we’re working together,” she said. “If we do the job well: we identify early, we intervene very, very specifically with the students, and ideally we make a pathway to proficiency for all of them.”

Retention as a Last Resort

Students who do not meet standards on the General Summative Assessment (GSA) in reading or math may be held back, though the policy also outlines specific exemptions that can be considered.

Beatty said years of work on teacher training, early screening (including for characteristics of dyslexia), individualized improvement plans, and targeted interventions and extended learning opportunities are all designed to identify struggles early and provide intensive support so that few students ever reach the point of retention.

“The hope is that it becomes a rare occurrence. Because if we do the job well, we identify early, we intervene very, very specifically with the students, and ideally we make a pathway to proficiency for all of them,” Beatty said.

Doug Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com