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Idlehurst reports midyear kindergarten reading gains after UFLI and Heggerty instruction
Summary
Idlehurst (Edelhurst) Elementary School presented midyear literacy data April 8 showing gains in kindergarten phonics and decoding after implementing UFLI and Heggerty; the school reported higher percentages meeting benchmarks and reduced numbers needing intensive support.
Idlehurst (Edelhurst) Elementary School told the Somersworth School Board on April 8 that kindergarten students are showing measurable improvement in foundational literacy after district adoption of the UFLI phonics program and daily Heggerty phonemic-awareness lessons.
Liza Coco, principal of Edelhurst Elementary School, introduced the presentation and said staff have focused this year on early literacy and professional learning communities aimed at consistent classroom practice. Assistant Principal Kate Gove described a distributive leadership model and the school’s use of structured PLCs for data-driven instruction.
Reading specialist Kelly Hebert presented midyear screening data collected in January. Hebert said, “The percentage of students meeting or exceeding the benchmark increased from 37 percent to 48 percent,” and noted the share of students in the “well below” category dropped from 40 percent to 30 percent. Hebert also reported phonemic-awareness gains (meeting/exceeding benchmark rose from 45 percent to 64 percent) and improvements in nonsense-word fluency (from 26 percent to 45 percent meeting/exceeding benchmark). Hebert attributed the shifts to systematic phonics instruction via UFLI and daily phonemic practice.
First-grade teacher Jody Corbiel led a short in-room phonemic activity demonstration and described Heggerty lessons used to teach blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation; the board briefly attempted the exercises. Corbiel said the classroom lessons take about six to seven minutes and that students were able to add and delete phonemes and blend new words more quickly after repeated practice.
The presenters explained screening tools used: DIBELS for foundational reading measures and a spelling assessment (Words Their Way) to track spelling-stage growth. They said some incoming kindergartners arrived with varied early-education experience (Head Start, YMCA, in-home care or no prior schooling), and the cohort will be tracked across grades to monitor sustained gains.
Board members asked whether the kindergarten cohort’s data will be linked to later first-grade outcomes; presenters said the district is tracking cohorts across grades and that the data are available to the board. The board expressed strong support for the instructional work and thanked staff for the presentation.
