NAMPA, Idaho — Lone Star Middle School students spent their Tuesday morning with well-known children's author Margaret Peterson Haddix.
"I hope they also see themselves as writers, that they can look at me and say, okay, this is a real live human being who's doing this," Haddix said.
As students make their way from kindergarten through third grade, they're assessed on their literacy through the Idaho Reading Indicator. Data from the State Department of Education shows two-thirds of those students last school year were assessed at a tier 1 level, meaning they can read at grade level.
"And then tier two is the first round of intervention, kid who's not quite at grade level," I asked.
"Right. What are those pieces that we do and how do we know? So more than anything, it's not just what we do, but it's how do we know where we need to place those interventions?" Wonderlich said.
New legislation making its way through the statehouse aims to increase the number of coaches for all Idaho teachers, specifically focused on reading interventions.
"It would provide state literacy coaches, additional state literacy coaches throughout all six regions that would be in schools alongside teachers coaching on, at minimum, a monthly basis for participants," Wonderlich said.
The state's director of academics, Meghan Wonderlich, tells me there are currently six coaches available for teachers statewide, and there's a waitlist.
"The program educators are seeing the value in it as what they have said to me in no uncertain terms is I see the value in it because I'm watching what it changes in what I'm able to do for my students," Wonderlich said.
"And just in tier one?" I confirm.
"Absolutely. Just in the classroom," Wonderlich said.
Lone Star principal Greg Heideman tells me reading interventions also extend into the middle and high school levels.
"Yes. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we try to target very early with students that we know will need those additional supports. We try to be very strategic," Heideman said.
Both Wonderlich and Principal Heideman told me the same thing. At third grade, students transition from learning to read, to reading to learn.
"So we believe that reading is one of the key indicators of long-term success in life," Heideman said.
