NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — North Little Rock School District faculty said there is a problem with students' reading levels and the next school year is the first trial of their new plan to solve it.
"If you can't read you can't do math, you can't do science, you can't do social studies, so we want to be able to tackle those deficiencies right now," North Little Rock School District Communication Coordinator Dustin Barnes said.
8th graders begin ACT Aspire testing on April 23rd, and those scores will determine who is placed into a new "critical reading class".
North Little Rock High School principal Scott Jennings notified 8th graders' parents in a letter.
"We wanted to send it to parents to encourage their students to take this test really seriously. If there's some areas we need to work on, then that's what that class is for," Barnes said.
Arkansas Department of Education research shows 31% of students at North Little Rock Middle School read at grade level.
More reading teachers will be hired to teach the new class and teachers already with the district who specialize in reading will teach it as well."
"Those teachers who understand the science of reading, who understand how to decipher words, and meaning, and comprehension. so those teachers will be able to specialize in those particular areas," Barnes said.
Incoming freshmen won't be the only students getting extra help.
They're also adding a reading class for 6th graders.
"After that year if students are still needing some intervention, needing some help with reading, we'll be assigning them to a reading class in 7th and 8th grade as well," Barnes said.
This all part of a new reading program this district is implementing called Wilson language system.
"It's highly touted, bringing up reading scores and so that's what we want to do. We know that our reading scores are not where we want them to be but we are getting this new reading program so that we can handle those areas, tackle those areas where students need to improve," Barnes said.