Elementary school children in California are still struggling to meet literacy standards in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, although a recent study shows districts that implement literacy programs boosted their students’ reading and writing scores regardless of demographics and resources.
A recent study by the literacy advocacy group California Reading Coalition found that in 2022, only about one-fourth of low-income Latino third graders met grade-level standards in reading and writing and that their scores fell, on average, by 8 percentage points over the past three years.
However, researchers noted that several of the state’s lowest-performing schools in 2019 made significant improvements in 2022, likely driven by a focus on reading and instruction.
“The clear message is that it is not the students themselves, or the level of resources, that drive student reading achievement,” researchers stated in the report. “The primary drivers are district focus on reading, management practices, and curriculum and instruction choices.”
For example, Palo Alto Unified, one of 2019’s lowest performers, improved by 9 percentage points in 2022, according to the study.
That district’s Every Student Reads Initiative, which began in 2021, appears to be having a positive effect on literacy scores, researchers said.
The initiative, which aims to get all students reading at grade level by the third grade, assesses student needs, then allows teachers to customize lessons for their classroom, according to the initiative’s website.
Additionally, according to the study, the top performing districts come in all types—urban, rural, and suburban—across nine different counties, with each district’s high-need population ranging from 39 to 94 percent.
“Any district can succeed at teaching reading,” researchers said.
The study examined 285 districts across the state based on how many Latino third graders from low-income families met grade-level standards in English language arts on the state’s Smarter Balanced assessment test in 2022.
Researchers exclusively looked at results from low-income Latino students because they make up the largest group of students in California—43 percent—according to the researchers.
Districts with fewer than 100 low-income Latino third graders were excluded from the analysis.
Additionally, according to the researchers, they examined third-grade reading achievement because it’s “widely recognized as a critical milestone for future student success.”
