By DAVID BOYLE
In a recent board meeting the district presented data that showed that 3rd grade students were losing ground in their reading progress.
The board’s goal is that the percentage of grade 3 students proficient in reading on the state summative assessment, the AK STAR, will increase from 32.4% in May 2023 to 46.4% in May 2028.
The AKSTAR is the test (summative) students take towards the end of the school year and is one measure of a student’s academic success. You can find all about the AKSTAR here (https://education.alaska.gov/assessments/akstar).
And the Alaska Reads Act, passed in 2022 by the legislature, ensured that our students were taught using the Science of Reading. Both the AKSTAR and the Reads Act should have help ensure our students were being at least taught how to read.
Unfortunately, the AKSTAR scores for ASD 3rd grade students have gone down since 2023 and the trend doesn’t look good.
Here are the data presented by the ASD administration:
Note that each year has a different cohort (group) of 3rd grade students.
These data pretty much speak for themselves. But why are ASD students becoming less literate as the Reads Act is implemented? Are these students less prepared to learn to read when entering school?
Let’s look at the student demographics to see if we can discern what is happening in the various student groups. Here is a chart showing the demographics and AKSTAR scores of the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 3rd grade students:
Just focus on the columns that are in dark blue-they show the percentage of students at/above grade level in reading for years 2024 and 2025.
The most significant numbers show that both Asian and White students losing ground while Black and Pacific Islander students gain ground. Could this be the result of the implementation of Equity programs in the district where resources (teachers) are moved from one class/school to another?
Or is the decline of AKSTAR scores in the White and Asian students due to those parents removing their students from the district?
Whatever the reason this is not good news for the district and worse news for the students. And it is a virtual impossibility for the district to reach its goal of 46.4% of students being proficient in reading in 2028. Why can’t the district teach even half of our students to read by the 3rd grade?
Let’s look at the other Big 5 school districts, Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai, and the MatSu. How are their students doing on the AKSTAR? Glad you asked!
AKSTAR Scores, 2023-2025:
| DISTRICT | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| KENAI | 29.2 | 30.6 | 34.3 |
| MATSU | 33.4 | 36.3 | 37.6 |
| FAIRBANKS | 24.9 | 30.7 | 34.4 |
| JUNEAU | 27.2 | 26.9 | 30.1 |
| ANCHORAGE | 32.4 | 31.3 | 29.2 |
Here is a bar chart where one can see the trends in teaching our kids how to read. Note that the only district with a downward trend is the Anchorage School District.
Four of the Big 5 school districts are improving in teaching their students how to read using the AKSTAR as the metric.
Only the Anchorage School District is failing to teach more of its students how to read in successive years using the same metric. The trend line is downward.
What is going on? Are the Anchorage students not as smart? Are the Anchorage teachers not as adept at teaching? Is Anchorage leadership not as engaged in teaching its students how to read? Is the Alaska Reads Act being implemented with fidelity?
We must teach children how to read so they can “read to learn” in the later years. Students that cannot read at grade level have a much higher chance of dropping out during their teen years.
Illiterate students are stolen futures.
There may be many reasons why the ASD is not moving forward in its goals to teach kids how to read. Money is not one of them. Four of the Big 5 districts seem to be able to teach their children how to read with current funding.
Let’s reward those districts that are successful at teaching their students how to read. Reward success; not failure.
That’s the least we can do for our children.
David Boyle is an education writer for The Alaska Story.
9 thoughts on “David Boyle: Anchorage School District goes wrong direction in reading proficiency”
To be honest while I was growing up I Hated it when my teacher announced “this week was the IOWA standardized test”. It didn’t help I was already behind but I was also bright and had potential I could had aced the standardized tests if got what was needed. When there are tests I always get more answers wrong than I would had if I went with my first guess. Probably because of my childhood I was influenced to second guess myself. I think this is common with most Alaskans.then there is the hurry whether it’s timed or not because going into another room when you are one of the few last just makes you fill in as many bubbles just to go join the group playing outside.
How I know I likely got more answers wrong on a standardized test Because when I got classroom tests or quizzes back I’d get wrong questions where I second guessed. Had I written out my first answer then my test/quiz score will had been higher.
You know the Greatest thing about homeschooling your child,
“No standardized tests for those of us who HATED it growing up”
That is incorrect, Tina.
Most homeschoolers I knew had their kids take standardized tests. There are states in the union, who require homeschool students to test and many colleges require the ACT/SAT for admission. To my knowledge AK requires standardized testing starting in 3rd grade for homeschoolers, but that may have changed.
So(???), nearly 50% of our property taxes are allocated to ASD … correct? AND(!!!), falling reading proficiency is what we have to show for this investment? Given this sub-standard performance, why should we continue? Would you do so if your financial advisor was performing in such a manner?
The beautiful thing how God made our brains is a child who didn’t get the best education from K12 or “ illiterate adults with stolen futures”. They don’t have to stay that way. Every adult gets to a certain age which is usually after their 25th birthday when “the lightbulb 💡 “ goes on in their head about they may have had a crappy beginning that was out of their control when they were a child. But they can finish their life well.”
Earlier this week I was encouraging a young woman who was a graduate of the AKclass of 2018 that she needs to complete something as the US Career Institute in electrician or plumbing certificate to break the cycle of quitting when something gets hard because like me she and I both didn’t really finish high school because it got too hard and we just continued the cycle. She kind of finished HS by going into RavenHomeschooling in her senior year which she saw in RaVen it wasn’t really good, and she is right. None of the State of Alaska homeschools are good (IDEA, Frontier, RaVen). If you want your child to have a better chance at an education you have to use outside sources.
Illiterate students still do have a future where they can break cycles that began in childhood. God gave us brains that can make new nureological pathways/connections giving us a “new brain”
When judgement day comes to each of us when we stand before God, he’s not going to listen to any of our excuses. Our excuses won’t work work to manipulate God. when we always had the power within each of us to fulfill our calling.
It is tough and perhaps cruel to say, but Anchorage is a failing community: Less industry and commerce, fewer high-skill and high-income jobs, dirty and crumbling streets, more poor people, a seriously dying downtown. And, it must be mentioned – a Mayor, Assembly and School Board with the wrong priorities. A focus on equity and socialism will ensure that everyone is below average. Absent a change in Anchorage’s economic and philosophical trajectory, these test scores will continue to decline. Another great victory for the Left.
You rather much nailed it. Los Anchorage is in a death spiral. Dumb down each successive generation, inculcate them with failed leftist propaganda, and encourage them to vote. There are not enough critical thinkers remaining to stop what is an accelerating decline into ‘dark days’ for L.A.
Except, there are members of the Anchorage community quietly homeschooling and private schooling the next generation, teaching students to read with proficiency and think critically. These students are also learning the fundamentals of local, state, and federal governance, along with the wisdom of our Founding Fathers which reminds us that the structure of our government was designed for a virtuous citizenry. All is not lost!
When a fire burns out a forest, it takes a darn long time to replace the trees to maturity, but only a season before the grass and shrubs begin to appear green and flourishing. There is a quiet undercurrent of virtuous citizens being formed in this city, despite all of the appearances of total decay.