Volunteer, 14-year-old Hallie Jeppesen, read a picture book about St. Patrick’s Day to a group of students at Eagle Cliffs Elementary School Thursday.
“I really think it’s important for kids to learn how to read and read on their own, and reading is really good for them to develop and grow,” said Jeppesen.
Statewide assessment data show fewer than half of students in grades 3 through 8 read in line with their grade level and age. The Billings Schools District and its community partners aim to build literacy and a love for reading.
Jeppesen is among the roughly 175 volunteers who signed up for the United We Read event, which on Thursday morning sent volunteers to elementary school classrooms across the district to read aloud. Community partners included the Education Foundation for Billings Public Schools, the Big J Show Cares and the United Way of Yellowstone County,
In Yellowstone County, state data show students are about six percentage points below the state average, with fewer than 40 percent of students grades 3 through 8 reading at or above the appropriate age and grade level.
Literacy coach Hillary Gnerer says that data doesn’t always capture the impact of early intervention.
“It’s kind of a bummer when we have kids who have started so far behind and have made some huge growth and are still in that red area where they might be showing up as not benchmark,” said Gnerer. “That kind of data report doesn’t show the amount of improvement that that child has made.”
Gnerer says this is the first year the school district is sending a full staff of literacy coaches to all elementary schools on a regular basis, building on a grant-funded research program that kicked off in 2021.
She says the district is working closely with students to bring them up to age-appropriate reading levels before third grade, which is when she says students shift from learning to read to reading to learn.
“That’s why early intervention is so important and it’s so important that we get kids the foundational skills needed early,” she said. “So that they can build upon their skills and become better learners for the rest of their life.”
