The Monroe City Schools is facing a dilemma that it knows exists, but has offered a solution; an increasing number of its students are being moved through the system without being able to read sufficiently.
The fact that it is happening all over the state doesn’t make it any easier.
This week State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley told the state Board of Elementary and Secondary education that the Louisiana students are not getting the results they deserve.
His comments came on the heels of a state report that half of the students in kindergarten through third grade are performing below grade level.
Reading problems have been one of the reasons why Louisiana ranks near the bottom nationally in education.
Just under 60% of kindergarten students were reading below grade level in 2020, up from 50% in 2018, according to the state Department of Education.
The report shows nearly 58% of first graders are below grade level in reading, compared to 39% in 2018. Among second-graders, nearly 52% fell below the standard, compared to 41% two years earlier. For third graders, more than half were subpar compared to 41% in 2018.
It’s a problem that was high on the priority list of the Monroe City School Board last year but it soon disappeared.
Board members Brandon Johnson and Betty Ward Cooper were on fire to push for an early childhood center for city schools. This became important when the board learned two years ago that an increasing number of poor students were beginning Kindergarten without pre-school or Head Start exposure.
For all purposes, these students, hundreds of them now, are in the system two years behind others.
Some are learning their ABC’s or how to sound out single-syllable words for the first time in the first grade because they are two years behind.
The problem began when the local Head Start Program became a profit-making program run by an out of state company called Prime Time.
To make a profit, the company cut the number of Head Start students nearly in half and discontinued bus service for the remainder. It meant a larger number of students would miss the Head Start exposure.
The school district pays for some pre-school classes, but not nearly enough.
This year the school board committee talked about plugging the pre-school gap, including working with Prime-Time to partner to expand its services, especially since the program leases a city school building.
The discussion went nowhere and has disappeared. There were no changes in the district’s budget to insure all eligible students received pre-school instruction, even those unable to attend Head Start.
Cooper, as president, didn’t push the issue.
When it became Brandon Johnson’s agreed upon time to serve as president, most in the community were sure that a pre-school center would be a priority, especially since this was his passion.
He was not elected, but hopefully, the new leadership will push the pre-school issue harder and lean on the superintendent to help its most economically disadvantaged students have a fair chance.
So the challenge for 2021 board leadership is to stop the continuous brain drain in the system that is happening in the k-3 area.
One way is to insure improved reading skills is to provide, with Prime-Time or some other method, pre-school experiences that will give the new crop of students a chance to enter Kindergarten on grade level rather two years behind.
