By Lori Ehde
Reading failure is costly. Children who cannot read suffer from low self-esteem and have academic difficulties. Once they fall behind, it's difficult to catch up to their peers.
Every time a child fails first grade, the school community loses more than $3,700, the national yearly average for education one child. Once a child is identified as a "reading failure" the cost continues to increase - for special help, special classrooms and special materials.
Moreover, the consequences of reading failure do not end with the cost to the child or the school district.
Society bears the costs, too. Illiteracy often results in unemployment and a life of poverty.
These facts were provided to Luverne School Board members during their Thursday, March 8, meeting.
But board members also heard good news about a promising program called Reading Recovery.
It's a supplementary reading and writing program for first-grade children who are at risk of failure in reading. Through early intervention, Reading Recovery helps children become independent readers.
"It's a preventative program," said Title 1 Teacher Angela Ahrendt. "In first grade, kids are just learning how to read. We want to catch the kids who are struggling and teach them good reading habits before they move on to second and third grade, so hopefully they can work within the average range of their regular classrooms."
Luverne implemented Reading Recovery four years ago through Title 1 monies.
"It’s exciting to the children's progress and to see the lightbulb turn on to reading," said Ahrendt, who has been teaching Title 1 for six years."
Ahrendt and Lisa Lundgren have been teaching Reading Recovery in Luverne for four years, and they presented the board with statistics pointing to the program's success.
A total of 66 children in Luverne have benefited from Reading Recovery, which targets students reading at the bottom 20 percent of their class.
Of those, 72 percent have successfully discontinued Reading Recovery and score in the average range on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
Local statistics show the students who participated in first-grade Reading Recovery, continued to fare well in second and third grades as well.
According to Ahrendt and Lundgren, the program is meeting and exceeding its anticipated goals.
The short-term goal of Reading Recovery is to accelerate children's progress in learning to read. The long-term goal is to have children continue to progress through their regular classroom instruction and independent reading within an average range after intervention is completed.
Following their presentation to the board, Superintendent Vince Schaefer said he was impressed by the information.
"I want to congratulate you ladies," he said. "Good job. Keep up the good work."