Teacher training paying off: More black students meet reading standards

A teacher-training program aimed at boosting students' reading and writing skills is paying off for many struggling students, particularly African Americans, an analysis by the Seattle School District shows.

African Americans who previously failed to meet the state's tough reading standards doubled their pass rate after spending two or more years with teachers who'd completed the district's Literacy Initiative training.

The findings by the district's Research, Evaluation and Assessment Office will be presented tonight to the School Board.

"It confirms what we all know instinctually — which is the teacher is the most important thing and the most important relationship is the teacher-student relationship in creating achievement," Superintendent Joseph Olchefske said.

"The more we can do to increase the skills of teachers, to make that relationship focused on academic achievement, the better kids learn."

While the training has not narrowed the persistent achievement gap between white and minority students, it offers a ray of hope for many African-American pupils.

The study found the most dramatic improvement among students who in 1999 failed the reading section of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). Those who spent at least two years with literacy-trained teachers passed the 2002 test at twice the rate of students who spent a year or less with such teachers. The pass rate was 12 percent for African-American students without literacy-trained teachers and 26 percent for those who spent two years in the classrooms of trained teachers.

Results also were statistically significant for whites and African Americans who previously failed the WASL writing test and for students of all races who previously failed the WASL reading test and scored in the bottom two quartiles on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills.

There was little difference in the performance of students whose teachers had no Literacy Initiative training and those who had only one year of training.

Since the initiative was launched in the spring of 2000, 1,300 of the district's 3,000 teachers have enrolled in the two-year, 72-hour training given by the National Urban Alliance, based in Lake Success, N.Y.

Literacy consultants present a wide range of techniques for teaching reading and writing skills in all-day Saturday sessions, and they visit schools to coach teachers and demonstrate techniques. The district will spend about $2.7 million on the program this year.

The study compared 1999 WASL results of fourth- and seventh-graders with the performance of the same students when they took the test as seventh- and 10th-graders three years later.

No statistically significant change was found in the performance of Asian and Latino students. Latino students taught by literacy-trained teachers actually scored lower on the WASL than students taught by untrained teachers, but because of the small sample size the drop could have been due to chance. Latinos represent 12 percent of the district's 47,000 student population.

Lynn Brogan, director of the district's Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment office, said literacy specialists are consulting with bilingual educators and compensatory education specialists to explore the lack of improvement among Latino students taught by literacy-trained teachers.

While academically challenged students — African-American and white — benefited from literacy-trained teachers, white students gained at a faster rate than African Americans whether or not their teachers had received the training. That suggests the Literacy Initiative alone will not eliminate the achievement gap in reading and writing.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com.