When Gov. Spencer Cox signed Senate Bill 127 into law in 2022, Utah set a goal: to have 70% of third graders statewide reach proficiency on the state-administered Acadience reading assessment by July 1, 2027.

Sixteen months before the deadline, a study by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute showed the Park City School District was the only school district in the state to meet the goal in 2025, with 70.1% of students proficient. Meanwhile, the Wasatch County School District ranked 30 out of 41 public school districts, with less than 50% of third graders proficient. 

But those statistics are no longer accurate because a new law changes how the state defines reading proficiency. 

When the institute performed the study, the state defined reading on grade level as scoring above the benchmark on the Acadience reading assessment. Therefore, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s data only included “blue” Acadience scores. 

“The way Acadience works is you get a certain score, and then you’re either a blue, which means you’re above grade level; you’re a green, which is on grade level; you’re a yellow, just below grade level; (or) a red, which are the kids we’re really concerned about,” explained Superintendent Garrick Peterson. 

Sixty-nine percent of Wasatch County School District third graders received a blue or green score on the Acadience assessment in 2025, according to Stacey Moore, the district’s chief of staff.

The state’s definition of reading proficiency changed to include both blue and green scores, those above and at grade level, after Cox signed S.B. 241 into law last week.

The law also supplants the old third-grade literacy goal for Utah: instead of 70% of third graders reading on grade level by July 1, 2027, the law shifts the goal to 80% by July 1, 2030. 

Republican Sen. Ann Millner, who represents Davis, Morgan and Weber counties, introduced the bill during the legislative session. 

The third grade is the only grade in which students take two reading assessments: the Acadience reading test, which is administered in kindergarten through grade three, then optionally grades four to six, and the RISE assessment, which stands for Readiness Improvement Success Empowerment, the state-administered test that students take grades three through eight each year.

Acadience focuses on fluency and accuracy, the speed at which students read the text and whether they make mistakes in reading it, while RISE focuses on comprehension, students’ understanding of the text. 

“That RISE test is supposed to mirror what a kid should be able to do if they were college-ready for their grade level,” Peterson explained. 

He said RISE is more rigorous than Acadience, so the district focuses on RISE scores when measuring reading proficiency.

“In our district, we choose, especially after first grade, to really focus on comprehension, … because that’s the end game with reading. Can I read the comprehended text and make sense of it, use it for different purposes?” he added.

The reason for the state’s change in definition for reading proficiency is that S.B. 241 creates a requirement to hold back third graders not reading on grade level, “except in cases of certain good cause exemptions.” In lower grades, retention must be considered but is not required.

Peterson provided examples of good-cause exemptions, including students with learning disabilities, English language learners and students who are making “great growth toward being on grade level.” 

“(The bill) is asking us to really take into account each kid and what’s best for them, and to consider that retention piece as a tool that can be used,” he said.

Peterson said holding a student back can be detrimental socially, but that reading proficiency is an equally important component of a child’s development. 

He added that the decision to hold back a student comes down to both the school and the students’ parents or guardians.

During a school board study session on Feb. 24, before S.B. 241 had passed, board member Brad Ehlert expressed reservations about retention.

“My son was held back in first grade. It was the worst decision we made as parents, and it affected him. He was not an IEP kid, and he became one because of that. That’s a problem,” he said. “The idea that we’re moving the majority of the group forward at the expense of some does not seem to be appropriate. If the goal is to collectively move as many people forward as we can, having a threat over somebody’s head is not how you do that.”

School Board President Kim Dickerson agreed. 

Peterson’s view is that retention will not occur as long as the school district can meet the challenges set by S.B. 241.

“We need to accept responsibility to get that individual reading plan in place and show progress, period. That’s on us. And so, if we do that, then no one should be held back,” he said. “Our principals know where this is. They know the challenges ahead. It is a hefty one. We’d always talk when we do work around this, that we’re messing with kids’ lives. If we can get them on grade level, then all the options of life are opened up to them. We build their confidence.” 

There’s now a flip side to that, Peterson said. 

“If you can’t do that, you could destroy that kid’s life forever.”

S.B. 241 takes effect July 1. Andrea Brandley, senior education analyst with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, noted that the institute will likely release a follow-up publication in the next few months to incorporate the state’s new definition of reading proficiency.

The post Wasatch County School District hopes to prevent retention in wake of new legislative requirement appeared first on Park Record.

Every year since at least the 1970s, the Heber Valley Rotary Club bestowed upon all first graders in the Wasatch County School District a gift they’d always dreamed of: a dictionary. 

“Dictionaries used to be important. You come across a word when you’re reading. You don’t understand it. You’re supposed to look it up. It’s supposed to increase literacy,” said Rotarian David Barrus.

But since looking up anything in an analog fashion is a practice consumed by the maw of the digital age, the Rotary Club realized they’d have to shift gears if they wanted to effectively achieve their goal of promoting literacy. 

So, instead of funneling hundreds of dollars into wordy tomes no child would ever touch, the Rotary Club began purchasing picture books for the school district’s first graders 10 years ago, visiting classrooms to gift the books and read them aloud every month of the school year. 

The change was instantaneous. The kids were actually excited about the program. 

“They listen so much better in that lesson than when they’re listening to some of the other teachers that come in and teach,” said Sally Raff, first-grade teacher at JR Smith Elementary School. “There is something different about the Rotary Club when they come. I think (it’s) knowing that they’re going to get that book that somebody read to them. They don’t get a book when I read it to them.”

And the students aren’t receiving basic books, like Dr. Seuss or Eric Carle. Raff noted that there was only one instance in her four years of teaching at the elementary school in which the Rotary Club gifted the students a picture book she had heard of. 

“The Best Worst Day Ever” by Mark Batterson is one example of a book the Rotary Club gave her class. Afterwards, Raff heard from another teacher that one student had gone home that day to learn his brother was having a bad day. 

“He said, ‘But it can be the best bad day ever,’” Raff recalled. “So, he went home and used that connection to the book. I thought that was really cool.”

It’s not just the students, but the Rotarians who get something out of the read-alongs. Despite being a former librarian of 35 years, Kristen Bowcutt said it’s fellow Rotarian Andy Dahmen whom the kids love most.  

“I went last time because he wasn’t able to go. And they’re like, ‘Where’s your friend? Where’s the boy?’” she laughed. “They adore him. They’ll come up with their book and want his autograph.”

Barrus’ daughter, Marianne, is equally popular. She won Miss Heber Valley in 2023, and her father likes to joke that the first graders would rather have someone prettier than himself reading to them.

“They want a princess,” Barrus said.

In Raff’s eyes, the greatest importance of the reading program is building children’s book collections so they can read a variety of material more often. First graders are only allowed to check out one book from the school library at a time, and how often they visit the public library is at the whim of adults.

“Building their library, they can go back and read it over and over again,” she said. “Maybe they can’t even read all these words, but it’s been read to them already. So, they can pick out, and they can remember what the story is about, and they can try.”

During a presentation about literacy to the Rotary Club, representatives from Wasatch County School District reiterated the reading program’s positive impacts. 

“As a parent, I love the books that you provide the first graders. We read those in our home. My kids are so excited when they come home with a book,” said school board member Breanne Dedrickson.

Superintendent Garrick Peterson shared a chart showing the percentage of the school district’s 10th graders who were proficient in language arts, as measured through the RISE Assessment. This year’s proficiency was 68%, but that proficiency was 32% six years ago, according to Peterson. 

He said the focus of reading in kindergarten and first grade is establishing skills like the alphabet, phonics and phonemic awareness, essential foundations for future proficiency. 

“You go out, and you meet with our kids in first grade, and eventually those first graders move up,” Peterson said. “You can see the culminating effort of the school district, of parents, of the Rotary Club. And trying to get kids to do better? It works.”

The Heber Valley Rotary Club relies on sponsors and donations to fund the program. On Monday, the Heber Valley Railroad will be hosting a “reading railroad” train, with every penny of proceeds going toward the reading program. The train will feature sing-alongs, dance parties and an Old West gunfight before boarding. Cosplaying a favorite book character is highly encouraged.

The reading railroad fundraiser is Monday, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students and available at hebertrain.com.

The post All aboard the reading railroad appeared first on Park Record.

The Park City Library tried out a new program — reading to dogs — on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 15, 2016. Paws To Read offers children time to come to the library and read to a service dog. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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