{"id":5476,"date":"2016-02-10T11:34:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T18:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parkrag.com\/?p=5476"},"modified":"2016-02-10T11:34:52","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T18:34:52","slug":"park-city-school-district-is-taking-a-big-gamble-with-removing-reading-aides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/10\/park-city-school-district-is-taking-a-big-gamble-with-removing-reading-aides\/","title":{"rendered":"Park City School District is Taking a Big Gamble with Removing Reading Aides"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, on KPCW, Leslie Thatcher interviewed school board member Tania Knauer. Ms. Thatcher asked Ms. Knauer about removing reading aides from our elementary school classrooms. The exchange was as follows:<\/p>\n

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Leslie Thatcher:<\/strong> There is a petition moving through, lots of churn on social media with regard to reading aides\u00a0and the fear from parents that the district\u00a0is taking away reading aides. Is that the case?<\/p>\n

Tania Knauer:<\/strong> Yes. But we are also basically looking at reallocating resources because our scores show that our current reading program is ineffective. We have 7.4% of our 11th graders reading at proficiency and these are kids that have been with us up to 10 years. We are missing something somewhere. So, all educational program need to evolve\u00a0and especially\u00a0when they are not showing progress. So we actually have 22 people as reading aides which comes out to 12.8 FTE and something we’ve heard from\u00a0our classified people is that they really want full time jobs and benefits. So basically we are turning those into 14 full time job, 32 hours a week which is 11.2 FTE and we are giving them all benefits. We are having higher quality classified\u00a0jobs. Those\u00a014 aides\u00a0will then be in our Full time Kindergarten classrooms. We’ll have a full time gifted person, an intervention specialist, as well as an instructional\u00a0coach… and these will all be licensed educators\u00a0that will be providing the support that teachers\u00a0need.<\/p>\n

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\nI\u00a0probably need to clarify the lead statement by Ms. Knauer. I don’t believe only 7.4% of our 11th graders are reading at a proficient level. If so, Park City School District should be worrying less about being the best school district in the country. Yet, I’m not sure which group she was referring to. Here are this year’s sage results for 11th graders in Park City:<\/p>\n

\"sage11thgrade\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s say Ms. Knauer was referring to groups classified as Hispanic or Economically Disadvantaged, which both are at the 20%-30% proficiency level. \u00a0While not 7%, those\u00a0levels are still not acceptable. Given that, I have three\u00a0questions:<\/p>\n