Dr. Denita Dowell-Reavis
For the second year in a row, the state is praising Alexander County teachers and staff for the district’s superior performance with young readers. State school superintendent Catherine Truitt told the State Board of Education on August 1st that Alexander County has some of the highest scores in the state for kindergartners through third graders.
According to DIBELS, seventy-nine percent of Alexander County kindergarteners are at or above grade level. DIBELS is the mandatory state test, also called MClass. It stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. The DIBELS assessments are completed one on one with the teacher and student and are intended to measure foundational skills for reading.
In first-grade, 72% of Alexander students ended the year on or above grade level according to the test. In second grade, it was 67% and third 63%. The numbers show Alexander students outpacing their peers statewide by as much as six percent.
Truitt wrote in an email to district superintendent Dr. Bill Griffin, “Your DIBELS 8 data is fantastic and I can’t wait to tell everyone!”
DIBELS is given three times a year to all kindergarten through third-grade students. At the beginning of the year, only 25% of Alexander County five-year-olds were considered to be at or above benchmark on DIBELS. Over the course of the year, teachers worked to help that number grow to 79%. Alexander’s growth is impressive because ACS kindergartners come in lower at the beginning of the year than the other students across the state.