Kenai Peninsula kindergartners gain on reading, but third grade stays flat near 59%

More Kenai Peninsula kindergartners are finishing the year at the reading benchmark than three years ago, but third graders haven't moved, the school district told its Board of Education on Oct. 5.

Last spring, 72 percent of the district's kindergartners were at or above benchmark on the reading screener state law requires for every K-3 student, up from 49 percent in 2024. Third grade, the last year the screener covers, ended the past three school years at 60, 59 and 59 percent, according to the district's presentation.

Third grade is the year that counts under the Alaska Reads Act, which aims to have students reading proficiently by the end of it.

Across kindergarten through third grade, 68 percent of district students finished last school year at or above benchmark, up from 64 percent two years earlier. The district's slides put Alaska at 60 percent and the nation at 64 percent. One slide summed up the record as "Consistently surpassing state and national benchmarks."

First grade improved too, ending last year at 72 percent, up from 65 percent. Students are also starting first grade further along: half were at benchmark this fall, compared with 22 percent in fall 2023.

This fall, third graders started at 60 percent, which the presentation calls a record. Kindergarten, first and second grade all started below last fall's levels.

James Harris, the district's intervention and assessment coordinator, presented the figures. The presentation credits strong instruction, the Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum and interventions under the district's reading improvement plan. It doesn't say how many students were tested or how individual schools did.