Grant will help Bloomfield Elementary students

Bloomfield Elementary School will soon amp up its Waterford Literacy Lab thanks to a $45,821 grant.

Superintendent Dan Sichting explained, "The Indiana Department of Education recently awarded an Indiana Early Intervention Grant to the Bloomfield School District ... the grant proceeds will be used to expand the Waterford Early Intervention Reading Program providing additional computers for kindergarten through second at Bloomfield Elementary School."

In addition to the upgraded computer lab, the Bloomfield elementary staff will begin to use individual student reading data to increase reading comprehension and improve the language arts curriculum to further students' reading development for kindergarten through second graders, Sichting noted.

"Mrs. Susie Goodman, Title I Coordinator, was responsible for writing the grant," Sichting explained. "Under her leadership, the Waterford Lab will provide reading instruction, remediation and enrichment opportunities for over 230 students."

Goodman explained, "I'm excited. We're going to expand. We're adding 10 more (computer) stations for a total of 25. What we're going to do is service all kindergarten and all first grade and selective second graders."

Last year, BES did a Waterford pilot program with a first-grade class, Goodman explained. The results were very positive.

"We're seeing a lot of children coming in (to school) without preschool experience ... with the academic standards we are required to use we have a lot of work to do," Goodman stressed. "Waterford has all five main components of reading that the national reading panel has determined to be important."

Waterford also helps close learning gaps, she explained.

"As teachers, our day gets scrunched ... this closes the gaps. Children learn in different ways. Waterford is another means to address that," Goodman explained. "We're seeing that it's (Waterford) effective with our students and we found out (through the pilot program) that the children who would not have qualified for Waterford, even those children made great gains..."

With Waterford, students move at their own pace, she noted. Waterford checks a student's error patterns.

With the grant, the school is also upgrading its current Waterford program, she said.

The Bloomfield School Corporation matched the early intervention grant with $20,000, Goodman said.

"I'm very excited about it," she added. "We're placing the order today (Friday) We look forward to having them (computer stations) within the next three weeks."