This document outlines a school district's plan to ensure reading proficiency by third grade as required by Minnesota law. The plan includes assessing students starting in early childhood to identify those at risk of reading difficulties. It also provides scientifically-based reading instruction for all students and intervention programs for students struggling to read by third grade. The district aims to increase the percentage of proficient third grade readers on state tests from the current 88.4% to 90.4% through continuous assessment and improvement of literacy instruction.

1. Reading Well By Third Grade
Our District 112 Plan to Ensure Student Reading Success

2. Minnesota Department of Education Requirements
for District K-12 Literacy Plan
Minnesota Statutes, section 120B.12, requires all public schools, including charter
schools, to create and post a local literacy plan by the end of the 2011-12 school year.
The statute also requires all public schools to submit reading proficiency data for all
Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students to MDE by July 1.
Our District Plan includes the following:
 An assessment plan which includes assessment of all students to identify
those students at risk for not reading well by third grade. An assessment
plan must include early and regular assessment and an ongoing monitoring
process.
Instruction provided to all students that is scientifically research based and includes
standards driven instruction in general education.
A strategic plan for students at risk of not reading well by third grade as
measured by not “meeting” the reading benchmark as measured by the MCA reading
test by the end of third grade. The plan must include programming that includes
increasingly intense tiers of intervention. Instruction will include research based
materials and practices.

3. Reading Well By Third Grade
A proficient reader is defined as;
A student who demonstrates proficient performance on the MCAII
Reading Assessment administered in third grade.
We will use other assessments in addition to the MCAII Reading
Assessment to examine the multiple factors that support reading
proficiency in the classroom setting.
Reading proficiency examines a student’s ability to understand and
apply letter sound associations, blend sounds to create meaning
from print, reading fluently, comprehend texts at multiple levels,
and generalize skills to read grade level text with success.
Grade level benchmarks provided later in this plan will allow district
instructional staff to identify those students at risk for not meeting
this definition of proficiency.

4. Eastern Carver County Schools
Reading MCA Trend Grade 3 All Students
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
All 91.40% 89.50% 87.50% 86.40% 88.40% 88.40%
District112 has a reading proficiency goal as follows:
Through a continuous improvement and assessment model implemented
during the 2012-2013 school year, our goal is to increase the percentage of
students proficient in reading, as measured by the MCAIII reading
assessment, by 2% from the current level of proficiency of 88.40% to 90.40%
across all elementary schools.

5. ASSESSMENT- EARLY CHILDHOOD
 An assessment plan which includes assessment of all students to identify those students
at risk for not reading well by third grade. An assessment plan must include early and
regular assessment and an ongoing monitoring process.
 All district children go through our district’s Early Childhood Screening Program sometime
between the ages of 3 and 5. The district using the Pearson ESI.P and ESI.R Screening
tool.
 Referrals are made for students in the areas of Speech or Cognitive Development.
Students then receive services through our Early Childhood Special Education
department.
 If a student scores below average or does not qualify for special education
services, parents are encouraged to enroll their child into one of the 4 types of early
childhood programs available in District 112.
 Progress for students in our early childhood programs are evaluated using the Work
Sampling Portfolio approach to assessment. The outcome of the work sampling is shared
with the Kindergarten program if the child remains in district for Kindergarten.

6. ASSESSMENT IN KINDERGARTEN AND GRADE 1
Grades K-1 NWEA Grades K-1 NWEA Grades K-1 NWEA
Fall Scores Winter Scores Spring Scores
Grade 30%ile 60%ile
Grade 30%ile 60%ile Grade 30%ile 60%ile
K 137 145 K 145 153
K 151 160
1 153 163 1 163 174 1 169 180
Proposed addition for 2012-2013 – Phonics Assessment using the QPA-
Quick Phonics Assessment Handbook.
Proposed addition for 2012-13 – Oral Language Assessment- Specific Test
to be
Determined.
Proposed identification of benchmarks for letter identification, oral language
and segmenting and blending.

7. ASSESSMENT IN GRADES 2 AND 3
Grades 2-3 Fall Grades 2-3 Winter Grades 2-3 Spring
NWEA Score NWEA Score NWEA Score
Grade 30%ile 48%ile Grade 30%ile 48%ile Grade 30%ile 48%ile
2 168 175 2 176 183 2 182 189
3 182 189 3 187 194 3 191 198
Grade 3 MCA: Grade 3 MCA: Grade 3 MCA:
Below 340 Does Not Meet Below 340 Does Not Meet Below 340 Does Not Meet
341-350 Partially Meets 341-350 Partially Meets 341-350 Partially Meets
Students identified as “at risk” will be administered monthly running
records to measure growth between standardized measures.
Houghton Mifflin Fluency assessments will be administered 3 times a
year.
A pre and post intervention assessment in phonics using the QPA-
Quick Phonics Assessment will be administered to identified students in
tiered interventions.

8. ASSESSMENT IN GRADES 4 AND 5
Grades 4-5 Fall Grades 4-5 Winter Grades 4-5 Spring
Grade 30%ile 48%ile Grade 30%ile 48%ile
Grade 30%ile 48%ile
4 192 199 4 196 202 4 199 206
5 199 206 5 202 209 5 205 211
Grade 4 MCA: Grade 4 MCA: Grade 4 MCA:
Below 440 Does Not Meet Below 440 Does Not Meet Below 440 Does Not Meet
441-450 Partially Meets 441-450 Partially Meets 441-450 Partially Meets
Grade 5 MCA: Grade 5 MCA:
Below 540 Does Not Meet Grade 5 MCA:
Below 540 Does Not Meet Below 540 Does Not Meet
541-550 Partially Meets 541-550 Partially Meets 541-550 Partially Meets
Students who do not achieve a rating of “meets” on the Grade 3 MCAIII Reading
Test and whose scores do not meet the criteria above, will be identified as “at risk”
Because they did not meet the benchmark for Reading Well in Third Grade.
Students identified will receive a tiered intervention that will address specific
reading needs.
Monthly running records will be administered to measure growth between NWEA
Assessments.
Fluency assessments from the Houghton Mifflin Reading Series will be administered

9. ASSESSMENT IN GRADES 6 THROUGH 8
Literacy Lab I 6th 7th 8th
Spring MAP (RIT) 5th grade MAP Below 200 6th grade MAP Below 203 7th grade MAP Below 207
MCA II (Scale Score) Below 540 Below 640 Below 740
Teacher Recommendation yes yes yes
Informal Assessments observed word identification/ observed word identification/ observed word identification/
decoding need decoding need decoding need
Literacy Lab II 6th 7th 8th
Spring MAP (RIT) 5th grade MAP Below 208 6th grade MAP Below 213 7th grade MAP Below 216
MCA II (Scale Score) Below 550 Below 650 Below 750
Teacher Recommendation yes yes yes
Informal Assessments TBD in 2012-2013 TBD in 2012-2013 TBD in 2012-2013

10. ASSESSMENT IN GRADES 9 THROUGH 12
Literacy Lab I 9th 10th 11th and 12th
Spring MAP (RIT) MAP RIT below 208 MAP RIT below 211 Not Applicable
MCA II (Scale Score) Below 840 on the 8th grade Below 840 on the 8th grade MCA Failed to pass GRAD component
MCA in Reading in Reading
Teacher Recommendation yes yes yes
Informal Assessments TBD during 2012-13 TBD during 2012-13 TBD during 2012-13
Literacy Lab II 9th 10th 11th and 12th
Spring MAP (RIT) MAP RIT below 218 MAP RIT below 221 Not Applicable
MCA II (Scale Score) Below 850 on the 8th grade Below 850 on 8th Grade MCA Failed to pass GRAD component
MCA in Reading Reading
Teacher Recommendation yes yes yes
Informal Assessments TBD during 2012-13 TBD during 2012-13 TBD during 2012-13

11. READING INSTRUCTION IN PRE-SCHOOL
4 Different types of Early Childhood Programs are currently available in District 112
in addition to Early Childhood Special Education Programs:
 Taste of Preschool – 2 ½ and 3 ½ year olds
 Preschool Plus – 3-4 year olds and 4-5year olds
 Child-Only Preschool- 3-5 years and 4-5 year olds
 Family Literacy Preschool- 4 year olds
Instruction at the Preschool level includes elements of the Houghton Mifflin
Storytown curriculum, literacy components from the Early Childhood
Indicators of Progress and instruction consistent with the Reggio Emilia
approach to instruction.
Ongoing assessment of early literacy skills is addressed through the use of Work
Sampling.

12. READING INSTRUCTION IN GRADES K-5
All students are to receive research based and standards driven
instruction
In general education. Currently all students in District 112 Elementary
Schools receive general education language arts instruction as follows:
 Students receive daily instruction using the Houghton Mifflin
Storytown materials appropriate for their grade level.
 Instruction includes phonics, vocabulary development, reading
fluency and comprehension.
 Teachers differentiate instruction to match each students instructional
level. Through the continuous progress initiatives at many of the
elementary schools, students may move out of their grade level for
individualized instruction.
 Instruction addresses district grade level outcomes in Language Arts.

13. TIERS OF INTERVENTION
If a student is at risk of not reading well by third grade or has not achieved reading
proficiency by third grade they are provided with increasingly intense tiers of
intervention.
 Interventions are research based and specific to the reading challenges of the
student.
 Embedded in the Tiers of intervention is a continuous monitoring system which
includes standardized measures such as the NWEA MAP test in Reading and
the MCA Reading test. In between these administrations, intermittent planned
assessments are administered that address phonics, vocabulary,
comprehension and reading fluency. These measures differ significantly based
on the age of the students.
 We will be identifying periodic assessment measures for Kindergarten, Middle
School and High School grades 9 and 10.
 Given the diverse nature of pre-school programming we plan to align pre-school
measures to the Kindergarten measures during the 2012-13 school year.

14. PRE SCHOOL IDENTIFICATION/INTERVENTION
Given the results of the preschool
screening students may be
assessed in the areas of Speech
and Language Development or
Cognitive Development or both. –
Referral to Early Childhood
Special Education may result.
Students who are identified as at
risk on the Pearson ESI.P or
ESI.R screening tools are
recommended to attend early
childhood programming.
All children residing in District 112
are expected to complete early
childhood screening between the
ages of 3 and 5.

15. KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE 3 TIERED
LEVELS OF INTERVENTION
Special
Ed
Services
Reading Rangers
Intervention provided
to grades 1-3
Title I Reading/ Literacy Instruction
All students receive small group or differentiated instruction at
the specific reading level of each student. Skills aligned to
grade
level Language Arts standards
Reading Instruction using the Houghton Mifflin Storytown
program which includes phonics and vocabulary
instruction.

16. GRADES 4 THROUGH 5 TIERED INTERVENTION
Special Education services-
Reading Instruction using research
based instruction and materials is
provided.
Literacy instruction provided that is in
addition to the building wide Language
Arts instruction provided to all students.
Research based materials and
assessments specific to student needs.
General Education Language Arts
Instruction using the Storytown Program
by Houghton Mifflin aligned to grade
level outcomes and differentiated for
student reading ability .

17. GRADES 6 THROUGH 8 TIERED INTERVENTION
Special
Education
Reading
Services
Literacy
Instruction
Specialized
for EL
students
Literacy Literacy
Lab I Lab II

18. GRADES 9 THROUGH 12 TIERED INTERVENTION
Special
Education
Reading
Services
Literacy
Instruction
Specialized
for EL
students
Literacy Literacy
Lab I Lab II

19. WORK TO BE DONE ….
As part of a continuous improvement model, the following work needs to
be completed during the summer of 2012 and during the 2012-2013
school year.
Identify measures and practices that insure identification of preschoolers “at
risk” for not reading well by third grade.
Identify specific benchmarks for the areas of : identifying letter sounds, and
sound blending/segmenting at the Kindergarten level.
Train teaching staff at grades 1 , 2 and 3 to administer the QPA and identify
another measure that will address- blending and segmenting.
Train intervention teachers of students in grades 4 and 5 to consistently
administer running records and fluency measures.
At middle school grades 6,7, and 8 and high school grades 9 and 10, identify
another measure of student reading growth to be administered between NWEA
test administrations.

20. Reading Well By Third Grade
Our District 112 Plan to Ensure Student Reading Success
If you would like to read our plan, it can be
found at http://bit.ly/litplan