Kenai Peninsula K-3 reading scores rise as third grade holds near 59 percent

Third-grade reading scores in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District have held near 59 percent for three straight years, even as kindergarten through third grade overall climbed to 68 percent, James Harris, the district's intervention and assessment coordinator, told the Board of Education at an Oct. 5 work session.

The figures come from mCLASS DIBELS 8, the reading screener state law requires for every K-3 student. Third grade, the last year the screener covers, ended the past three school years at 60, 59 and 59 percent at or above benchmark, according to the district's presentation. The Alaska Reads Act is meant to bring students to reading proficiency by the end of third grade.

Districtwide, the K-3 rate rose from 64 percent in 2023-24 to 66 percent, then 68 percent. The slides put Alaska at 60 percent and the nation at 64 percent last school year. They show 32 percent of district students in the two lowest bands, "well below" and "below" benchmark, against 40 percent for Alaska and 36 percent nationally. One slide summarized the record as "Consistently surpassing state and national benchmarks." The Alaska and national comparisons appear only in the district's slides.

Kindergarten and first grade carried the gains. Kindergarten ended the three years at 49, 71 and 72 percent, and first grade at 65, 68 and 72 percent.

Gains made within each school year, from fall to spring, narrowed from 26 points in 2023-24 to 24 and then 21 points last year. That is still above the Alaska figures the slides show: 21, 15 and 16 points.

Third grade began this fall at 60 percent, which the presentation calls a record. Kindergarten started at 24 percent, first grade at 50 and second grade at 51, each below fall 2025, when the rates were 25, 52 and 55 percent.

The presentation credits strong instruction, the Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum and interventions under the District Reading Improvement Plan. It does not say how many students were tested or how individual schools performed.

The screener is separate from AK STAR, the statewide test in English language arts and math for grades 3 through 9. The Department of Education and Early Development's Sept. 3 release of 2025-26 results, which Alaska News reported Sept. 3, put English language arts proficiency for grades 3 to 5 near 33.8 percent statewide, up from about 31.5 percent in 2023.

The board's own goal is a five-point rise in AK STAR English language arts proficiency from the 2026 baseline to the 2027 test. The slides do not give the 2026 baseline.