Reading, dropout rates show parallel Keene High School: Poor readers are seen as more likely to drop out

Students who are still having trouble reading after they reach high school are among the most likely to drop out, according to co-acting Superintendent William B. Gurney, and Keene administrators plan to target them with extra effort in coming years.

Following a review by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the district found more than 10 percent of students at Keene High School read at two years behind their grade level.

More-detailed information about high-school students' performance will be available later this week, when the results of the New England Common Assessment Program tests are released.

Keene High School works with struggling 9th- and 10th-graders for up to 90 minutes each day on reading skills, Gurney said.

Students are chosen for the extra help based on their scores on tests at the end of 8th grade, Gurney said. Others are chosen because they had noticeable trouble with reading the previous year, according to Keene High School Principal Alan E. Chmiel.

However, Keene Board of Education Chairman Neil W. Donegan and other board members said at an education committee meeting Tuesday they hope the district can remedy the problem before those students even reach the high school level. "Somebody missed the boat," Donegan said. The solution, he said is "more than us putting a reading a program in place in the high school ... We need to figure out where they're coming from and get the elementary schools to teach them." In the past year, the district has started a comprehensive reading program in the 6th grade, which will be expanded next year to the 7th grade, according to Gurney.

"For years, here in Keene, we didn't teach reading as a subject after the 5th grade. We're gradually adding it in at the middle-school level and, next year, reading will be through 7th grade," Gurney said.