In Yakima – where more than 70 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, more than 50 percent of students are Hispanic and, for many, English is a second language – demographics bring unique challenges to boosting reading achievement levels. But the challenges are being met head-on and reading levels are rising. In addition to adopting a scientifically-based K-5 Houghton-Mifflin reading program and placing reading coaches in every elementary school, the district purchased a new reading intervention program and added reading coaches to every middle and high school to support teachers with its implementation. Now, middle school students in the program spend 90 minutes a day in reading instruction; high school students get 110 minutes a day.

The goal of the secondary literacy program is to help students gain at least two grade levels of reading in one school year. Initial results have been promising and show that in the first year of the middle school program, 7th-grade WASL reading scores rose an average of 17 percentage points at Yakima’s four middle schools. English language learners who complete the intervention program are placed in a transition English class, which helps bridge their successful entrance back into mainstream courses taught in English.