Montebello School Teachers ‘Beat the Odds’ by Using Leveled Reading Programs for Students

PHOENIX - May 7, 2009 - Like a good challenge? Consider the daunting task faced by the teachers of Phoenix’s Montebello School.

Located in the Alhambra School District, Montebello School has received “Beat the Odds” recognition by the Beats the Odds Institute in Arizona for the school’s successful reading program, which has propelled many of the students more than one reading grade level during a single academic year.

Montebello’s teachers have accomplished this impressive feat despite their students’ wildly fluctuating reading abilities – in one grade alone, the reading proficiency ranged from college level down to not understanding the sounds of individual letters!

Montebello School’s diverse student body is 94-percent low-income and 93-percent minority. The highly mobile student body includes refugees from war-torn countries that have never attended school before, and 40-percent of the students move into, or out of, Montebello during the academic year.

Talk about a challenge!

Montebello Principal Jeff Sprout said when it comes to increasing the students’ academic performance, the school’s staff and teachers, “…scratch for every bit of it.” Principal Spout credits the exemplary dedication of his teachers, as well as and the incorporation of three Beat the Odds principles:

• Built-to-suit instruction and interventions
• Ongoing assessment
• Finding a good program and sticking with it.

One of the programs being utilized is the leveled reading program “Success for All” (SFA). SFA calls for students to be placed in reading groups based on their proficiency rather than grade level or homeroom class. Students then receive instruction just beyond their skill level.

“The program is not one-size-fits-all like most reading programs,” said Denise Ruiz, a seventh-grade teacher. “Since they are leveled according to their reading ability, students reading below level, as well as above, are challenged to reach a higher reading level.

“I think that is what the students like best about the program. It gives them all an opportunity to be successful.”

Assessment not only places students in the correct reading level from the start – it also ensures they move forward during the year.

“If they progress, we’ll pop them up to the next reading level,” Principal Sprout explained.

Quarterly tests include an AIMS predictive assessment, other standardized tests and a test on the material taught in the classroom during the quarter. Teachers also make weekly and informal daily assessments.

Leveled reading programs like SFA have become widespread in the Alhambra School District during the past seven years. Montebello School is in its third year of using SFA for students in grades K-3, and in the second year of implementation for students in grades 4-8.

During the first year of implementation, teacher Denise Ruiz saw her entire sixth grade class move up one grade level in just two months (one quarter). This year she is teaching a seventh grade class that began the year reading at the eighth grade level. A spring assessment showed that the majority of students are now reading on average between a ninth and eleventh grade level.

“I love to see how the students are able to progress and grow,” she said. “To see a struggling reader become confident in their abilities and become an engaged and active reader is the best part of this program.”

School-wide, Principal Sprout said reading scores on AIMS have improved and today more students are reading on grade level.

“When you have a wide range of ability levels like we do, a program like SFA is very effective,” he commented. “It provides a clear progression of what the student needs. Honestly, you will find people who like and do not like SFA, but it’s the one we’ve chosen and stuck with. It works for us.”