On her 101st day in third grade, 8-year-old Valeria Morales settled beside her teacher for a reading assessment.
Her brown hair in a ponytail, Valeria softly read aloud from a list of words that children two years younger would be expected to know.
Although she had no trouble recognizing many of the first-grade level words, including run, mapâ and âsing,â she stumbled over others.
âOh, no,â she sighed. It s OK, instructional coach Christine Linden assured her, keeping track of words she missed. This just helps me to know what I need to teach you.
It was early February 2020 at Lafayette Elementary School, where educators knew time was running out to get students ready for a battery of high-stakes tests Pennsylvania requires public schools to administer in reading, math and science.