The fundamental mission of our schools is to ensure that all students – regardless of zip code or background – are reading at grade level. At many schools, less than 50 percent of students are reading at grade level. Sadly, the 2019 Nation’s Report Card (NAEP) indicates that nationally, student reading results are declining:

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2019/ 

Although teaching students to read is our school’s fundamental mission, school board leaders often do not know how many of their students are reading at grade level or their school system’s plans to improve declining reading results. Tenet Leadership encourages all school boards to focus on adopting student reading goals for their school system and systematically holding school administrators accountable for achieving them.

Each school board student reading goal should have:

(1) A baseline (the percentage of students that can currently read at grade level);

(2) A target (the percentage of students that will read at grade level at some future date)

(3) A specific student population; and

(4) A deadline for improvement.

For example, a school board’s reading goal might look like this: 

In Ready Point School District, in September 2019, 30 percent of Hispanic students are reading at grade level. By September 2020, it will be 35 percent reading at grade level. 

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School leaders will focus on growing every child every day.