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Educational Improvement and Assistance
Louisiana Reading First
Louisiana's Reading First Information
The following districts have been awarded subgrants for Reading First.
Assumption
Avoyelles
City of Bogalusa
Caddo
DeSoto
Franklin
Iberia
Iberville
Jefferson
Madison
Orleans
Concordia
East Carroll
City of Monroe
Pointe Coupee
St. Helena
St. James
Tangipahoa
Vermilion
Washington
West Baton Rouge
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Reading First Schools
There are currently over 100 schools participating in Louisiana's Reading First Initiative. Click on the link below to view schools by district that are participating.
Reading First Schools
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The Challenge
The Reading First legislation requires that the programs of reading instruction used in classrooms supported by Reading First funding be examples of research-based instruction. The challenge to the educators
involved in this project was to develop and implement a procedure for examining the core/comprehensive reading programs that will be submitted by the publishers to be used in the kindergarten through third grade classrooms of Reading First schools in the state of Louisiana. The intent was to develop and implement a procedure that will enable teachers and other educators to identify programs that meet the criteria for scientifically based instruction specified in the Reading First section of the No Child Left Behind legislation.
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Meeting the Challenge
Members of the Reading First staff in the state of Louisiana conducted nationwide research to determine the core/comprehensive and supplemental reading program review process that other states that had been awarded Reading First funding used to evaluate these programs. Based upon this research, it was decided to contract with all out-of-state reviewers that were recommended by each state’s review team. Ten reviewers were selected, all of which had prior experience using A Consumer’s Guide for Evaluating a Core Reading Program Grades K-3: A Critical Elements Analysis, March 2003 to evaluate K-3 core/comprehensive reading programs. Contracted reviewers represent the states of Washington, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, and North Dakota. Areas of expertise vary from university professors to regular and special education classroom teachers. It was agreed that the members of the review panels would meet for five days in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to examine the programs that would be submitted by the publishers of K-3 core/comprehensive reading programs.
Approved Core Reading Programs for Reading First
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Comprehensive Core Reading Programs
A core reading program is the primary instructional tool that teachers use to teach
children to learn to read and ensure they reach reading levels that meet or exceed grade-level
standards.
A core program should address the instructional needs of the majority of students in a
respective school or district. Historically, core reading programs have been referred to as basal reading programs in that they serve as the "base" for reading instruction. Adoption of a core does not imply that other materials and strategies are not used to provide a rich, comprehensive program of instruction. The core program, however, should serve as the primary reading program for the school, and the expectation is that all teachers within and between the primary grades will use the core program as the base of reading instruction.
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Why Adopt a Core Reading Program?
In a recent document entitled "Teaching Reading is Rocket Science," Louisa Moats
(1999) revealed and articulated the complexities of carefully designed and implemented reading
instruction. Teaching reading is far more complex than most professionals and laypersons
realize. The demands of the phonologic, alphabetic, semantic, and syntactic systems of written
language require a careful schedule and sequence of prioritized objectives, explicit strategies,
and scaffolds that support students’ initial learning and transfer of knowledge and skills to other
contexts. The requirements of curriculum construction and instructional design that effectively
move children through the "learning to read" stage to the "reading to learn" stage are simply too
important to leave to the judgment of individuals. The better the core addresses instructional
priorities, the less teachers will need to supplement and modify instruction for the majority of
learners.
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Connecting Scientifically Based Reading Research To Plans and Activities
The Louisiana Reading First plan for grades K-3 will provide guidelines for proposals using SBRR activities. Both state and federal funding will be coordinated for effective reading implementation.
Louisiana’s plan provides intensive, sustained staff development using scientific, research-based reading instruction. Effective reading instructional strategies that are grounded in scientifically based reading research, the use of SBRR core reading programs, and intervention materials that are aligned to the core reading program in conjunction with high-quality technical assistance will be provided through efforts of the DOE that will help districts evaluate and align present reading instruction (including supplemental and intervention activities), locate weaknesses, and plan improvement.
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Louisiana's Reading First Assessment Overview
Louisiana’s Reading First teachers will identify children who are at risk of reading disabilities or delay. Using valid and reliable indicators of skills highly associated with early reading success, all K-3 children are screened with measures that correspond to the five literacy behaviors in beginning reading: phonemic awareness, phonics (alphabetic understanding), and fluency (automaticity with the code), vocabulary, and comprehension (Simmons & Kame’enui, 1998).
Recently, the department received approval from the United States Department of Education (USDOE) to
move to the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) sixth edition subtests as the single-source assessment for screening, progress monitoring and outcome measures for all five of the essential components of reading instruction.
In addition to these changes, the department received approval to allow approved districts to:
1. Use all diagnostic measures identified in our state and district’s approved plan.
2. Progress monitor at three-week intervals unless student performance suggests a need for more frequent assessment.
These changes are a result of the department's continued effort to provide support, technical expertise, and assistance for the piloting and implementation of the new state school and district accountability system.
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Screening, Progress Monitoring, and Outcome Measure for Early Literacy
Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency with Connected Text, Vocabulary, and Comprehension:
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills. The measures were developed based upon the essential early literacy domains discussed in both the National Reading Panel (2000) and National Research Council (1998) reports to assess student development of phonological awareness, alphabetic understanding, and automaticity and fluency with the code. Each measure has been thoroughly researched and demonstrated to be a reliable and valid indicator of early literacy development and predictive of later reading proficiency to aid in the early identification of students who are not progressing as expected. When used as recommended, the results can be used to evaluate individual student development as well as to provide grade-level feedback toward validated instructional objectives.
The DIBELS homepage provides an introduction, information on the data system, sample reports, the manual, what DIBELS measures, downloads, benchmarks for K-3rd grade, and pricing information.
DIBELS Homepage
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Reading First Guidance
Details elements to be contained in state Reading First grants.
Reading First Guidance
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