One month into the school 2026-27 school year, educators at Steelville R-3 School District provided an update on student academic performance at the Sept. 24 Steelville Board of Education’s monthly meeting.

Assistant Superintendent Matt Hammonds, who also serves as the school district’s director of learning, updated board members on the performance of the district’s literacy plan, which was updated and approved at the previous board meeting. The literacy plan sets minimum standards for student reading performance and outlines intervention methods, referred to as reading success plans (RSP), for students who perform below minimum standards.

Hammonds said that fall benchmark testing is nearly complete for all grade levels except for kindergarten, and noted that statistics for kindergarten performance may change as initial reading assessments come to an end in November. The district uses STAR Reading, an online adaptive reading assessment, to determine student literacy performance.

Hammonds’ report provided information on the number of students in reading success plans in kindergarten through fifth grade by cohorts for both this year and last year during fall benchmark assessments. If a student qualifies for a reading success plan, it means their literacy performance was below standard.

The number of kindergarten to first grade cohort students who qualified for a RSP increased from 24 last year to 26 this year. Students in the first to second grade cohort who qualified for RSPs decreased from 38 last year to 26 this year. The number of students in the second to third grade cohort who qualified for RSPs decreased from 23 last year to 15 this year. Students in the third to fourth grade cohort who qualified for RSPs also decreased from 27 last year to 11 this year. Finally, students in the fourth to fifth grade cohort who qualified for RSPs decreased from 35 last year to 19 this year. Overall, according to data provided in the board report, 187 students in kindergarten through fifth grade qualified for RSPs last year. This year, that number fell to 99. That is a decrease of 88 students, or 47 percent.

The 99 students who currently qualify for RSPs represent about 27 percent of Steelville R-3’s 369 students enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade. The proportion varies by grade. First grade has 26 of 58 students who qualify, or 45 percent. In second grade 26 of 59 students, or about 44 percent qualify. The proportion falls to about 23 percent in third grade, 20 percent in fourth grade and 25 percent in fifth grade. Only two of the district’s 57 kindergarten students currently qualify, although kindergarten testing remains ongoing.

Hammonds said while the number of students who qualify for RSPs decreasing is a good sign, that over the summer, students often lose some of what they’ve learned throughout the school year, a phenomenon that educators refer to as “summer slide.”

“We know summer slide is reading slippage that happens during summer for those younger grades,” Hammonds said of student knowledge retention.

Steelville Elementary Principal Candice Richter attributed a potential jump in first graders in RSPs to an increase in test difficulty, which might catch some kids who are experiencing “summer slide” off-guard.

“Being a former first grade teacher, your biggest year to read is (kindergarten) to (first grade), so the rigor of that test changes significantly.

Hammonds also pointed to professional development training for teachers as a reason that literacy scores are improving. This year, middle school and high school teachers in Steelville are being offered Aspire training, a professional development course that teaches evidence-based practices for literacy instruction.

Hammonds added that the three-tiered intervention system used in the Elementary School has been effective in helping students who need RSPs.

“The elementary’s tier two and tier three system with title interventions goes a long way in making sure that our students are growing in those reading success plans,” Hammonds said.

The tiered intervention system outlines what steps educators take to help students struggling with literacy. Tier one involves regular classroom intervention. Tier two involves small group instruction or tutoring. Tier three can involve special education services and one-on-one instruction.