Coalition discusses student readiness
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on February 18, 2016 1:46 PM
Students entering kindergarten are not expected to know how to read.
But, at the very least, the hope is that they walk through the doors ready to learn.
They currently have about a 50/50 shot at that, officials say.
"This year, 55 percent of the children walked in not equipped to read," said Carol Artis, director of elementary education with Wayne County Public Schools, adding that the average across the state is 44 percent.
Dr. David Tayloe, of Goldsboro Pediatrics, said not only do 50 percent of Wayne County kindergartners lack the language skills to begin reading, but more than 50 percent of fourth-graders are not reading at grade level.
Whether the situation is the result of poverty or a language barrier -- in the southern end of the county, where there is a larger contingent of Hispanics, that percentage climbs to 68 percent, the two said -- parental involvement is key.
A big proponent of pre-K programs like Head Start and early intervention, Ms. Artis said there are initiatives in place in the county addressing some of this.
Dr. Tayloe said his practice introduced a program several years ago, "Reach Out and Read," handing out books to patients to read to their young child. But even that has not had the impact it was designed to accomplish.
Because of that and the lagging student test scores, a grass-roots effort to improve the situation was created and coined the Wayne County School Readiness Coalition.
Nearly three dozen representatives from such agencies as Partnership for Children, WCPS, Head Start and Communities in Schools gathered recently to discuss the county's challenges and introduce a campaign to address the problem.
The Wayne County Public Library has received funding from Partnership for Children and United Way to hire a full-time person to coordinate efforts to promote early literacy.
Funding came through for one full-time person, but it will take more than that to be effective, library Director Donna Phillips said. At this point, the library is taking the lead, she said, but as it unfolds it could be transferred to another agency.
For any effort to be successful, it will take more than a few individuals or agencies sitting around the table, organizers said -- it will take the whole proverbial village to educate the county's children.
"It really has to be all-in," Mrs. Phillips said. "We have a strong history of the community collaboration. This community solution action plan that we will develop together, collaborating will allow us to push up our sleeves, work together and address this problem."
There is already an initiative in the state, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, whose goal is to ensure that more children in low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college or a career.
"It's a national campaign," she said. "In North Carolina right now, there are three other counties who have already joined, Mecklenburg, Wake and Moore."
The framework is to develop a community solutions action plan, which will take about six months, in order to enlist support and feedback from a wider audience.
"Our goal is to show that if a community really gets together and does this, it makes a difference," said Dr. Tayloe, who is also a former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and said that influential organization has also expressed interest in the topic.
"It's on their strategic plan," he said, adding that in October he will be addressing it when he serves on a panel. "So we are kind of on the radar screen with what we're doing."
Dr. Tayloe has long touted the importance of parents spending time not just reading to their children, but having face-to-face contact and talking to them.
Technology, screen time and a plethora of devices have eroded some of that time, he said.
"When there's a television running in the background, conversation drops significantly," he said.