NC students improve reading skills

The state’s kindergartners showed great improvement, going from a surprisingly low 33% reading at or above the benchmark — compared to 40% for kindergartners in other states — to 55% in the middle-of-year assessment, slightly ahead of the 53% average for other states taking the assessment, DIBELS 8, or Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.

Assessment results for individual school districts were not available.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt praised what educators have accomplished.

“Elementary educators have been putting the science of reading into practice throughout the past three years, and the results speak for themselves,” Truitt said. “This growth and continued progress is critical to ensuring our youngest learners are in the position to read, lead and succeed throughout their academic journey.”

She attributed the gains to the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS, training that began for all of the state’s 44,000 elementary school teachers in 2021. LETRS stresses phonics when teaching students how to read.

By July, all 115 school districts will have completed LETRS training, totaling 44,000 K-5 educators.

Since implementation in 2021-22, North Carolina students have steadily increased their benchmark results from 47% at or above benchmark in 2021-22 to 56% in the current school year’s middle-of-year assessment.

The 2023-24 beginning-of-year assessment was the first in which a majority of N.C. first-, second- and third-graders were on track in their reading skills.

While scores have been steadily rising for all subgroups, achievement gaps persist among Black, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native children and their white and Asian peers, said Amy Rhyne, NCDPI’s director of the Office of Early Learning.