WESTFIELD—A national educational program is being heralded by school officials, after results have shown marked improvement in reading levels for Westfield students.
Read 180, a national reading comprehension program created by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), is being credited with improving student reading skills across the entirety of Westfield. Recent numbers that HMH and the Westfield School District shared showed improvements in reading levels, as well as in state testing like the MCAS.
From left to right: Sam Howe, Dan Kane, Christopher Rogers
“There’s growth across all the classrooms,” Sam Howe, senior vice president of academic planning and analysis for HMH, said. “What you saw was three out of four students had roughly a year’s growth in reading skill and half had two year’s growth.”
In addition to the local success of the program, when compared nationally the improvements are perhaps even more impressive.
“Since its inception five years ago, Westfield has been exceptional in comparison to nationwide school systems,” Dan Kane, a Highland Elementary School and Read 180 teacher, said.
HMH looked at data from 4,000 school districts, and according to Kane, Westfield ranked highly in that sample size.
“Westfield is in the top five percent, which out of those numbers is statistically significant,” Kane said.
Regarding MCAS scoring, increased scoring was not as prolific as the improved reading levels, but the amount of students in Westfield who scored in the two lowest levels dropped. To school officials, this is also critical to the improvement of students.
The program was first brought to the city in 2012 by then-administrator of student interventions Dr. Jennifer Alexander and has been maintained since, showing improvement in students since its implementation.
The program, which is overseen by now-administrator of student interventions Christopher Rogers, is reportedly used by over a million students nationwide a day. It utilizes a multi-prong approach to increase reading skills in students through curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development from grades 3 to 9, Rogers said, with some students being assisted in grade 10.
The program’s goal is to get students to their respective grade level’s reading expectations, and as noted by Howe, it also succeeds in exceeding those levels. The program works with students through reading, answering questions and comprehending text, which becomes more difficult as the student goes along.
According to Rogers, the program has provided the outline to help students improve, but it is the work of faculty that has resulted in its success.
“The tool is a great tool and we’re heavily invested in the tool, but it’s the work of those on the ground,” he said.
Initial costs to the city for implementation of this program were not available at press time, but with nearly 540 students enrolled in the program at an annual cost of $100 per student, the yearly costs for Read180 is almost $54,000.
Additional praise also came from superintendent of schools Stefan Czaporowski, who has seen the program from both the school level and the administrative level.
“First as a building principal and now as the superintendent for the district, I fully recognize and appreciate this program’s positive effect on student achievement,” Czaporowski said.
