WAPS Reports Large Improvement in Student Reading Scores for 2022-23 School Year

Facebook/WAPS

(KWNO)- The Winona Area Public School District announced last week in a press release that students reading scores have ‘soared’ in the 2022-23 school year.

With many elementary scores around the state reportedly being lower than expected since the pandemic, this increase shows that schools may be getting back on track.

WAPS credits the “Robust professional development for teachers, new resources to use in the classroom, and a focused effort on better understanding the comprehensive research behind learning to read,” as to why the scores increased.

The increase was substantial, WAPS is reporting that students in grades 1-4 reading at or above their grade level jumped nearly 10 percent so far this school year, this according to internal assessment data presented at a school board meeting on March 23. Students in the aforementioned reading bracket jumped from 52.8% to 62.7% from September to January.

This is the first year of WAPS implementing a new resource from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), a resource that was the preferred option of teachers last year, and has been in full use since October, according to the press release.

Kristie O’Brien, WAPS Director of Learning and Teaching, said, “That is a significant increase that we are pleased about.”

The goal of the new resource (HMH) was to strengthen what is known as Tier 1 instruction, the instruction that all students receive in the English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum and includes robust professional developmental opportunities for teachers and staff, says the press release from WAPS.

WAPS adds that on top of this new resource, the district is providing robust professional development opportunities in the comprehensive sciences of reading. Teachers were given the opportunity to join a Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling cohort, and the district is collaborating with Winona State University professor Joan Sax-Bendix, an expert in literacy instruction.

“It goes beyond the curriculum and the core resource,” said Goodview principal Emily Cassellius. “It’s about knowing and understanding how kids learn to read, and making sure we have consistent instructional practices no matter the classroom that students are in.”