Starting this fall, the state’s public elementary school students will learn reading, writing and language skills under the same curriculum.
Starting this fall, the state’s public elementary school students will learn reading, writing and language skills under the same curriculum.
The state Department of Education is implementing statewide McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders, a kindergarten to sixth-grade reading program. Reading Wonders marks the “first exclusive adoption of a single program” in Hawaii history, according to McGraw-Hill, a New York City-based education publishing company.
The DOE selected the program in the 2012-13 school year, and schools gradually have been starting to use it since.
Full implementation will take place in the upcoming academic year, though schools in all three Big Island complex areas already did so.
For example, the Ka‘u-Keaau-Pahoa Complex Area began dabbling with Reading Wonders three years ago, Superintendent Chad Keone Farias said, and by last year, most schools in the complex were using it.
Farias said the complex area hasn’t yet noticed proficiency gains directly attributable to the new program, but it’s seemed to benefit students who move between schools. The complex area features a high student transiency rate — up to 30 percent at some schools, he said.
“There’s no real magic bullet. Kids respond differently, but we like the program’s consistency mainly because of our transiency,” he said.
Launched nationwide in 2012, Reading Wonders touts itself as “the first core reading program designed specifically for the Common Core State Standards.” The program was selected about four years ago by a panel of Hawaii teachers, coaches and principals who praised its “variety of fiction and nonfiction texts” and easy-to-navigate digital materials.
The DOE hopes Reading Wonders better prepares students for the new Common Core standards, which are a national set of common learning expectations aimed at helping students better prepare for college and the workforce. The state fully implemented the new standards in the 2013-14 school year, and in spring 2015 transitioned schools from the Hawaii State Assessment to the more rigorous “Smarter Balanced” statewide exam — thought to better align with Common Core.
State educators also hope Reading Wonders helps struggling readers. Research shows a child’s reading proficiency at the end of third grade might be a strong indicator of future reading success. One Yale University study found about 75 percent of students who read poorly in third grade remained poor readers in high school.
The 2016 Hawaii Kids Count report released earlier this year revealed about 71 percent of the state’s fourth-graders were not proficient in reading in 2015, slightly higher than the 65 percent national rate.
David Dinkel, principal of Chiefess Kapiolani Elementary School last year, previously called Reading Wonders “another positive step the state’s taken.” He said Kapiolani students in the 2015-16 school year seemed to thrive on the program’s “leveled reading” component, which groups students based on their reading level. That proved particularly beneficial for those falling behind, Dinkel said at the time.
“We try to address all students’ needs instead of pigeonholing every student into one,” he said.
Efforts to speak to a member of state DOE leadership by press time Monday were unsuccessful.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.