Principal
touts P'burg schools' program
Tuesday, October 12, 2004 • By LINDA
LISANTI • The Express-Times
PHILLIPSBURG -- The school district's Early Childhood
Program is making great strides in literacy, school
officials say.
Principal Judy Leh came before the school board Monday
to highlight some of those accomplishments.
She said Phillipsburg's preschool and kindergarten
students consistently scored well on literacy and vocabulary
assessments during the 2003-04 school year and made gains
over the previous year.
"They're doing fantastic ," Leh said. "The recipe is
working."
Among the achievements are: 78 percent of all
kindergarten students scored 80 percent or better on the
Kindergarten Individual Reading Inventory Comprehensive
Assessment, an in-house test. This was a 20 percent increase
over 2002-03, when 58 percent of the children reached the 80
percent mark. 184 of the 203 kindergarten students -- or
about 90 percent -- who took the DRA Reading Levels test
scored advanced proficient; 18 students scored proficient
and just one student scored basic. 42.4 percent of the
district's kindergarteners demonstrated very strong skills
on the Get Ready to Read literacy test they took in fall
2003; 31.8 percent had strong skills; 16.7 percent had
average skills. The 2003-04 average among the district's
kindergarten students on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
was 5.4, meaning they are reading at the age level of 5
years and 4 months old.
"The students are dead-on where they are supposed to
be," Leh told the school board.
She attributed the positive results to the full-day
preschool and kindergarten programs Phillipsburg is required
to provide to all 3- and 4-year-old children living in the
district. The requirement that the children be taught under
the program is based on the district's status as one of the
state's 31 poorest.
This is the fourth year for the mandated early childhood
program in Phillipsburg, Leh said, adding that 85 percent of
the eligible children in the town are enrolled.
She also pointed to the program's highly trained
teachers, discovery learning techniques, as well as the
focus on writing and literacy in the curriculum as reasons
for the testing gains.
"It's important to know that what we're doing is working
" she said.
Reporter Linda Lisanti can be reached at 610-258-7171 or
by e-mail at llisanti@express-times.com.
© 2004 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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