The Horizon School Division is close to meeting the province’s literacy goals.
By 2020, the education ministry wants 80 per cent of the province’s Grade 3 students reading and writing at grade level – or exceeding it. Horizon is at 77 per cent, an increase of 16 per cent since 2016.
Kevin Garinger, the division's director of education, said meeting the provincial goal by 2020 is something they’re certainly working hard at.
“Because we continue to see growth, our trajectory would demonstrate that we should be very close – if not beyond – that 80 per cent.”
When it comes to meeting the goal, much will also depend on the cohort of Grade 3s the division will have by 2020. That cohort began Grade 1 this year. Garinger said they’ve been assessing the Grade 1 and 2 students and they’ve also seen growth in their literacy skills.
To meet the goals, the director of education said the division has made literacy a pivotal part on what they do every day. Each school has a plan to improve literacy, teachers are collaborating across the division to share best practises with each other and a district-wide literacy team provides additional support.
“They do residencies in our schools and they help to support our administrators and ultimately our teachers in looking at the great practise that’s in place and making it ever greater, if possible, by being able to look deeply at practises.”
The continuous assessment of the students provides the division with the data to pinpoint which students are having the hardest time meeting grade level, which allow teachers to develop individual plans to help those students.
The division also continues to assess literacy after Grade 3.
“There is no mandate to assess all the way to Grade 10,” Garinger said. “We are.”
Reading comprehension is a major focus of those assessments.
