This Marion County school district had the highest growth in reading scores. This is why.

At first glance, Warren Township's recent scores on Indiana's standardized literacy test do not look like anything worth celebrating. Out of the 11 school districts in Marion County, Warren sits fourth from the bottom.

But a deeper look at the scores reveals that the Warren Township school district registered 5% growth in overall third-grade reading proficiency rates in its 2022-23 IREAD-3 scores compared to the previous school year.

That improvement — more than any other district in the county — helped Warren climb up a notch as some of the county’s typically top-performing districts fell multiple percentage points.

Warren Township still sits in the bottom half of districts in the county, with 69.8% of third graders testing as proficient, but the rapid growth in just a few years showcases the district’s commitment to early literacy intervention work and going all-in on the “science of reading.”

More on dropping reading scores: Indiana third graders haven't caught up on reading skills post-pandemic, IREAD results show

The science of reading consists of a series of research-backed methods that focus on how brains learn to read, with a heavy emphasis on phonics and phonemic awareness. Indiana has fully endorsed this method with a new law that requires all schools to be using science of reading-based curriculum by 2024.

Warren Township has embraced science of reading methods, or brain-based literacy, as district leaders like to call it, since at least 2018.

But the main ingredients for the district's improved scores have been continued support for teachers and providing targeted help for students, said Assistant Superintendent Ryan Russell.

What the science of reading looks like in the classroom

At Pleasant Run Elementary School in Warren Township, you won’t find students being scolded for shouting in the classroom.

Shouting is encouraged, or at least shouting about letter sounds and forming words together by sounding them out.

In Carisa Kimmon’s first-grade classroom at Pleasant Run, that looks like students running through a PowerPoint of “sound slides” where students practice letter sounds as they move in a way that helps them memorize the sound.

A picture of a hand touching green slime sits above/below the letter 'i', so students use a hand motion that mimics their hand pulling away from something sticky, and at the same time students shout the sound “i” makes at the beginning of “ick.”

The kinesthetic aspect of learning letter sounds is a major component of brain-based literacy, Kimmon said

“We want that really solid foundation so that when a kid sees that symbol they need to automatically know that sound,” Kimmon said. “We want that engrained and we want their brain to remember that instantly.”

Other tactics include students tapping out each sound a word makes on their arm. Pictures of Kimmon's students' mouths hang on her classroom walls to show students what their mouths should look like when making letter sounds.

Tools to practice phonics can look different from classroom to classroom, but every K-4 teacher in Warren uses the same sound slides and actions that come from a phonics curriculum known as Roxie Reading.

Amy Hartung, a reading interventionist at Pleasant Run, said the consistency of the curriculum across the district has been another key to success.

"So even if a student is coming from Brookview Elementary, they're working on the same things as here, so that child is going to be able to pick up right where they left off," Hartung said.

Warren undergoes a 'fundamental shift'

Warren, along with many other school districts across the country, has gone through a reckoning with how to teach reading. Most districts are distancing themselves from the “whole language” approach, which encourages students to memorize whole words or phrases and use context clues to guess words.

Science of reading, by contrast, places a high priority on phonics and phonemic awareness along with teaching fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Russell said the district recognized a “fundamental shift” needed to be made after years of poor literacy scores.

“I phrase it as we were doing the wrong thing for the right reasons,” Russell told IndyStar. “We really wanted to ensure that our students are successful and can excel in reading achievement, and we were utilizing the best resources we had available at the time.”

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Kimmon said she noticed that her students who did not master those foundational phonics skills had problems reading later.

“When they were getting to the third or fourth grade, they might be reading to that point but then when they're asked to really problem solve and be able to decode those longer words, they really were struggling with that,” Kimmon said.

Kimmon, like all the other Warren teachers, has undergone 36 hours of professional development on the mechanics of the science of reading.

The district also provides $1,000 stipends for teachers who want to do the training outside of allotted working hours or for those who want to receive some additional training.

All teachers in the district will receive a Warren-specific certification in the science of reading by the end of this school year, Russell said.

The district uses the Wonders curriculum for reading that Russell said has some gaps. To fill those, Warren created its own “daily sounds spelling routine” that is built into every language arts block to specifically address phonics and phonemic awareness.

Drilling down on student needs

Hartung, who just started her 25th year of teaching and eighth year as Pleasant Run’s reading interventionist, focuses on figuring out exactly what students' needs are and on providing intense targeted help during the school day or after if needed.

Throughout the school day Hartung works with small groups of four to five students who need extra help outside of the normal ELA class.

More on the science of reading: How Marian University became a leader in preparing teachers on the science of reading

The students she works with typically need more direct help with their literacy skills, which can be difficult to give in a classroom of 20 students.

Hartung also strives to make reading exciting for her students. When Hartung heard that one of her students liked the Navy Seals, she went out and bought grade-level books on the elite operations force just for that student.

“It's like a puzzle piece,” Hartung told IndyStar. “What do we do to fit things together, so they can have that ‘aha’ moment and go, ‘I can do this’ and keep that excitement about reading.”

Students take a series of assessments that evaluate reading skills throughout the year. The data ends up on a spreadsheet that Hartung uses to track each student. She then either helps the students herself or provides guidance to teachers on how to best help the student.

Warren also has reading coaches in all of its elementary schools who help teachers every day. They recommend how the teachers can adjust their teaching methods in the moment and give feedback later on about how to implement better the science of reading in the classroom.

Pleasant Run also mandates that fourth-grade students who failed the IREAD exam last year participate in mandatory after-school tutoring twice a week.

Moving forward for Warren Schools district

Implementing these changes, however, has brought challenges as well, Russell said. The hardest part has been finding the time for training.

The future of the program is also uncertain. Some of Warren's $28.6 million in federal COVID relief dollars, also known as ESSER funds, went to cover the bulk of the district's literacy efforts.

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Districts must allocate the remaining of those dollars by the end of September 2024.

Russell said he doesn’t know yet if sacrifices will have to be made in other parts of the budget, but the district will continue to look for other money whether through grants or the district’s operating referendum dollars, which just received a boost thanks to voters approving a new rate in May.

Hartung said she would like to see a continued emphasis on professional development in the district.

“Because if we’re not continuing to learn, we’re not being fair to students,” Hartung said. “Because that’s exactly what we are asking of them.”

Contact IndyStar reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @CarolineB_Indy.

Caroline’s reporting is made possible by Report for America and Glick Philanthropies. As part of its work in Marion County, Glick Philanthropies partners with organizations focused on closing access and achievement gaps in education. 

Report for America is a program of The GroundTruth Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening local newsrooms. Report for America provides funding for up to half of the reporter’s salary during their time with us, and IndyStar is fundraising the remainder.  

To learn more about how you can support IndyStar’s partnership with Report for America and to make a donation, visit indystar.com/RFA.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How one Marion County school district improved its IRead scores