Schools do more to help kids catch up

When some kindergartners start school, they're entering the classroom without the skills they need in reading comprehension, vocabulary, math problem solving and computation. That puts them behind. In the past, these deficiencies could have sent them down the road toward special education.

A new program being implemented in some local schools aims to use testing to find these students earlier - and then do more to help them catch up.

It's called Response to Intervention. If implemented correctly, it has great promise to help students do better in school.

School districts in Dixon, Amboy and Prophetstown-Erie already have started their programs, while Rock Falls District 13 and Sterling schools are laying the groundwork.

The state of Illinois is quite interested in the concept and has been promoting it. The new state school superintendent, Christopher Koch, described the approach as "... all about really looking at assessing students and where they are and providing interventions for students, and if they don't work, changing them. That's the essence of teaching and learning as far as I'm concerned."

Younger students will be tested to find out what, if any, deficiencies they have. The tests provide a basis to chart and assess students' abilities. Then, trained teachers and administrators can focus on these problems, see which students are not performing at grade level and give them extra attention so their deficiencies can be remedied.

The attention might involve working with a specialist in a small group of students, or it might be one-on-one tutoring during or after school.

Tests are administered later to see whether the intervention is working. If so, fine. If not, educators can try another approach to get across the concepts students need to know before they can move on.

Dixon school officials who talked about the program at last week's board meeting believe it will help reverse the district's trend of declining math and reading scores at most elementary grade levels. While students still are scoring above state standards, those standards keep rising, so improved performance is needed to stay above the minimal benchmarks.

Good leadership is all about identifying problems, devising solutions and implementing them. We're glad to see Dixon and other schools embrace this new approach to improving student performance. There's no guarantee it will work, but it's better than not trying anything at all.