(Editorial - Graphic Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Years of teamwork and training has Wood County Schools ready for full implementation of the state’s Third Grade Success Act next year. When lawmakers voted in 2023 to establish requirements meant to support proficiency in reading and math by the end of third grade, Ashlee Beatty and her team swung into action.

Beatty is director of curriculum and instruction. She and the aides, teachers and administrators tasked with making the required changes have been working “piece-by-piece” on an effort to develop screening and assessment in English language arts and math, AND the support students will need to become proficient before moving on from third grade.

Approximately 180 teachers have either finished or are starting the two-year training course for Lexia’s Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. I-Ready assessments for reading and math are in place. Literacy tasks meant to help screen for characteristics of dyslexia are being conducted. And, classroom aides have been added to first, second and third grade; while others are being replaced by certified interventionists.

Through it all, parents have a better idea how their students are progressing.

“The Third Grade Success Act has a really heavy component on parent notification and involvement,” Beatty 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.”

Students are being supported in their education in a new way, with the idea being that fewer of them reach the point of needing to wait another year before moving to the next grade.

“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.

Doing that job well requires dedication and persistence. Wood County Schools appears to have both; and there will be plenty of student success to show for it.