Rea students garner national reading award

Marisa O’Neil

Rea Elementary School was one of five schools nationwide to receive

an award last week recognizing their reading program.

Students at the school, principal Kurt Suhr said, have become more

motivated to read on their own time since they started the program

five years ago. The school won the Renaissance Solutions Award at a

national conference in Orlando, Fla., for the program’s manufacturer.

“To receive this award is huge,” said Jenny Burks, the Renaissance

Learning facilitator for the school. “The success goes to our

teachers for implementing the program and to our students for being

successful in the program.”

Representatives of Rea, including Burks and Suhr, flew to Florida

for the conference and to receive the award. Nationwide, Suhr said,

500 schools applied for it.

“We look at how well a school has improved over the past two years

and look how they’ve done beyond that, overall,” Renaissance Learning

Inc. spokesman Jonas Berberich said of the award.

Rea uses the Accelerated Reader and Accelerated Math software and

materials to help students at the school, which serves fourth, fifth

and sixth graders.

The school receives federal Title I funds for low-income students.

Though a majority of its students are English learners, Suhr said,

many are avid readers.

“After truly implementing the program, our circulation in the

library has gone from 350 books a day to 760 books a day,” Suhr said.

“There’s really a positive environment for reading at our school.

Students want to read before school, on recess, at lunch, after

school.”

Students at Rea have a mandatory 60 minutes of reading a day and

another 30 for homework, Suhr said. The Accelerated Reader program

helps keep them accountable, he said.

Teachers and students monitor progress with detailed data and

reports, Suhr said. Seeing improvement in their skills helps keep the

students motivated, he said.