Since signing on with an intensive phonics program and receiving a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, scores for the Sacramento City Unified School District rose from the 35th percentile nationally in reading for first-graders two years ago, to the 54th percentile last year, to the 62nd percentile this year. The state will release all district scores tomorrow. Joseph expects to see more such successes. Sacramento's poor children fared better under a reading program called Open Court reading program than under the program used previously, boasted Superintendent Jim Sweeney, and middle-class kids fared better, too. While the district had concentrated on reading, math scores rose as well.
Administrators figure that children who can read do better at other subjects, like math.
The key to Open Court's success is explicit, systematic direct instruction of phonics for new readers. Teacher training is intensive. The district pushes teachers to complete the curriculum within the year. Five of the district's 57 elementary schools didn't enroll in Open Court, but used a different program, Success for All program, which emphasizes phonics, but less comprehensively. The best Success for All school had a score of 59, below the average for Open Court schools.