The literacy light is focused so brightly on students in Hamilton County's Opportunity Zone schools, one might think they're under a microscope.
In a way, they are.
The school district this year, in an effort to ensure more students are reading on grade level, has implemented the Reading Intervention for Student Express (R.I.S.E.) model in its 12 lowest performing schools, the schools now under the closely monitored Opportunity Zone.
The R.I.S.E. model provides students selected by assessment in grades kindergarten through fifth grade with 45 minutes of daily guided reading instruction and strengthening of vocabulary, comprehension and phonics skills as they rotate through three 15-minute small groups led by reading specialists or interventionists.
The model was piloted locally in Hardy Elementary School last summer, and officials say some students in the program for eight weeks already have caught up half a year's worth of skills.
As television commercials warn us, though, "your results may vary."
But the necessity of reading improvement in these schools has not escaped many. Without reading skills, after all, skills in other subject areas fall by the wayside. And data shows that students not reading on grade level by third grade are at greater risk of falling further behind.
The R.I.S.E. model is an example of the various targeted supports Hamilton County Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson believes can be streamlined across the Opportunity Zone schools in order to help them turn the corner on standardized test scores.
In the most recent State Report Card, after all, only 31.5 percent of Hamilton County students in grades 3 through 8 scored at or above grade level on English/language arts assessments.
Johnson also has sought additional curriculum and interventionist specialists and community school coordinators for the Opportunity Zone schools.
Since early-grades literacy is so vital, administration, school and school board leaders on Wednesday celebrated an increase of 8 percent in the number of first-grade students reading at or above grade level at Orchard Knob Elementary School, one of the targeted schools, by using the R.I.S.E. model.
First-graders may not understand how critical it is to master literacy at a young age, what exactly the R.I.S.E. model is or how their improvement now might lead to a living wage job 15 years down the line, but they do understand getting a sticker because of their performance, signing a banner signifying their improvement and being feted by adults.
And that pat on the back for a job well done - especially for those who might never receive one at home - might go a long way in motivating students to mimic that success through the rest of their educational careers.