Reynolds Visits Oskaloosa To Learn About Reading Program
Governor Kim Reynolds, Lt. Governor Adam Gregg, Rep. Guy Vander Linden, Sen. Ken Rozenboom, and Amy Meyer from Mahaska County United Way hear from Americorps Instructors on Friday.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds joined the United Way, Oskaloosa School officials and Americorp to talk about the one-on-one reading interventions helping students.
Each student in the program gets 20 minutes a day with one of the two Americorp members who serve as literacy tutors.
The focus of the program is to help students who are reading just below grade level to bring them up to grade level.
The Americorp Reading Program is sponsored by the United Way. United Way had decided that reading was going to be a strategic initiative, “because what we found is, that if kids aren’t reading at grade level by third grade, they [educators] have a very difficult time of them actually catching up,” said Crystal Meier, Director of National Service Programs with United Ways of Iowa.
“Reading is really the key that unlocks the rest of your life,” said Meier. “We’re very fortunate that United Way of Mahaska County has taken on the role also of supporting this program in terms of making it possible for Oskaloosa Elementary to have two tutors, in terms of financially supporting those.”
Oskaloosa is one of the original schools for the Americorps Reading Program, which is now in its 5th year.
Iowa’s program is a replication of the model created by Minnesota.
The Americorps program in Iowa started with ten members, which included Oskaloosa. There are now 73 programs in place across the state. The program statewide served 1631 children, helping them become proficient in reading.
The Americorp program does what is called interventions, and the instructor doesn’t sit and read to the student, but instead uses scripted interventions, a total of ten interventions, and focus on the part a student is having difficulty with.
Examples of interventions for kindergarten and first-grade students, letter sounds may be the primary focus. Second and third-grade students may be reading level passages.
“United Way of Mahaska County is so happy to be involved with this program since its inception,” said Amy Meyer, Director of Mahaska County United Way. “We really want to harness community dollars and direct them to a program we know is really making an impact in our community. I hope that with additional awareness and support, we can continue to grow the program, not just in Mahaska County, but across the entire state.”
Oskaloosa Superintendent Russ Reiter spoke about the value the program brings to the district. As the person who has to watch the bottom line for the district, his first question when approached about the program was what the cost would be.
The other concern for Reiter was what strategy was going to be used, and making sure it would be research-based. “With all the data they shared with us, it was impressive.”
“Early on there was some concern if this was going to work, but very quickly we looked at the data and knew that it was very productive,” added Reiter.
Reynolds listened to those gathered at the roundtable presentation. She was joined by Iowa Lt. Governor Adam Gregg, Iowa Representative Guy Vander Linden and Iowa Senator Ken Rozenboom.
The group then had an opportunity to sit in during a reading intervention session and observe how the process is undertaken.
“You’ve done a phenomenal job,” said Reynolds to the group after viewing the intervention session.
Reynolds asked the group if data was available about how each district was doing within the program, and how each area education agency was helping to play a role in the program.
“If I can see significant trends that are happening here, it makes a lot of sense to continue to look for ways to support the great work that you’re doing,” said Reynolds. “It just seems to fit with everything else we’re trying to do. What I’ve always been appreciative with United Way is it’s always based on data. You base your decisions on outcomes.”
