Increasing Student Reading Proficiency with a Shift Change

Melanie Hill-Anderson • Cahn Fellow 2020

Our project reviews strategies to increase reading proficiency for a targeted group of students at E.L. Bing Elementary. For at least 3 or more years at Bing Elementary, only about 30-45% of our students in grades K-5 have exited the school year reading on grade level. Due to reading being the basis for all subjects, the sparse number of proficient students was concerning. As a result of this data, we wanted to deepen our lens on how we could increase our reading proficiency rates in grades K-5, with our primary focus on our 4th grade students. Our project focused on solving the mystery of what was causing our students to lack reading proficiency. The goal was to continue to track this group of students into 5th grade; however, the principal was transferred to another school based on the need for school turnaround and the Ally was also transferred to a separate school amid transformation.