IHAA - Reading Achievement K-3
Date Adopted: 8 August 2018
Current Review / Revision: 9 April 2025
Purpose of the Policy
The Board adopts this policy to ensure reading proficiency in Kindergarten through grade three.
Reading Assessment
Subject to legislative appropriations, District elementary schools shall annually administer the Acadience reading assessments at the beginning (before September 30), in the middle (between December 1 and January 31), and at the end (between the middle of April and June 15) of grade one, grade two and grade three.
Following each benchmark assessment, the school shall notify parents or guardians of their student's results by October 30, the last day of February, and June 30, respectively. The school shall also report to the student’s parents or guardians the student’s reading level at the end of grade three.
If a benchmark assessment or a supplemental reading assessment indicates that a student is scoring below benchmark, the school shall take the notification and reading remediation interventions outlined below for students not reading at grade level.
Utah Admin. Rules R277-406-4(1) to (5) (June 7, 2024)
Reading Achievement Plan
Each elementary school in the District shall, through its school community council, develop a reading achievement plan as described in Policy GE. The reading achievement plan includes a benchmark assessment, intervention, and reporting components. The school principal shall be responsible to provide leadership and allocate resources and support for teachers and students to implement the reading achievement plan and achieve the reading goals. The Board shall require the reading achievement plan be revised if the Board determines a school's students are not making adequate learning gains.
Goal Achievement Reporting
In addition to the reports provided to parents under the reporting component of the reading achievement plan, the District shall annually provide parents with a copy of the student’s comprehensive statewide assessment results, which includes measurements of reading performance.
Reporting to the Board
The Superintendent shall annually report to the Board on the assessment data and other information submitted to the State Board of Education relating to K-3 reading performance in the District at the District level and at the school level. The Board may use this information to work with the Superintendent to review and revise plans to enable the District to meet K-3 reading goals.
Reading Proficiency Plan Submitted to the State Board of Education
The District shall submit a plan to the State Board of Education for reading proficiency improvement that incorporates the following components:
1. Assessment;
2. Intervention strategies;
3. Professional development for classroom teachers in kindergarten through grade three;
4. Reading performance standards; and
5. Specific measurable goals that include the following:
a. A growth goal for each school within the District based upon student learning gains as measured by benchmark assessments; and
b. A growth goal for the District to increase the percentage of third grade students who read on grade level from year to year.
Report Submitted to the State Board of Education
The District shall annually submit a report to the State Board of Education accounting for the expenditure of program money in accordance with its plan for reading proficiency improvement.
The District shall use program money in a manner that is consistent with Utah Code.
The District shall make an annual report to the State Board of Education that includes information on:
1. Student learning gains in reading for the past school year and the five-year trend;
2. The percentage of third grade students reading on grade level in the past school year and the five-year trend;
3. The progress of schools within the District in meeting goals stated the District’s plan for student reading proficiency; and
4. The correlation between third grade students reading on grade level and results of third grade language arts scores on a criterion-referenced test or computer adaptive test; and
The annual report to the State Board of Education may include recommendations on how to increase the percentage of third grade students who read on grade level.
The District will submit its report to the State Board of Education through the Utah eTranscript and Record Exchange (“UTREx”) on or before July 1 of each year.
Scoring Below Benchmark or Demonstrating Characteristics of Dyslexia—
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that is neurological in origin and is characterized by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and poor spelling and decoding abilities and typically results from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.
A student scores below or well below benchmark when the student performs below or well below the benchmark score on the benchmark reading assessment and requires additional instruction beyond that provided to typically developing peers to close the gap between the student’s current level of achievement and that expected of all students in that grade.
For any kindergarten, first, second, or third grade student who is demonstrating characteristics of dyslexia or who through assessment is determined to be scoring below or well below benchmark, the school shall take the following actions:
1. Notify the student’s parent that the student is demonstrating characteristics of dyslexia or is reading below grade level;
2. Administer diagnostic assessments to the student;
3. Using data from the diagnostic assessment, provide specific, focused, and individualized intervention or tutoring to develop the reading skill;
4. Administer formative assessments and progress monitoring at recommended levels for the benchmark assessment to measure the success of the focused intervention;
5. Inform the parent of activities that he or she may engage in with the student to assist the student in improving reading proficiency;
6. Provide information to the parent of the student regarding reading interventions available to the student outside regular instructional time that may include tutoring, before and after school programs, or summer school; and
7. Provide instructional materials that are evidence-informed for core instruction and evidence-based for intervention and supplemental instruction.
In meeting these standards, “evidence-based” means that a strategy (not including reading software) demonstrates a statistically significant effect, of at least a 0.40 effect size, on improving student outcomes based on either strong evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented experimental study (as further defined by the State Board of Education) or moderate evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented quasi-experimental study (as further defined by the State Board of Education). “Evidence-informed” means that a strategy is developed using high-quality research outside of a controlled setting in the given field (as further defined by the State Board of Education) and includes strategies and activities with a strong scientific basis for use (as further defined by the State Board of Education).
Utah Code § 53E-4-307(1)(c), (4)(a) (2024)
Utah Code § 53G-11-303(1) (2023)