Elkhart County school earns national award for reading program

CONCORD TOWNSHIP — An Elkhart County school is in the national spotlight for its effort to improve its students reading skills. Later this month, Concord West Elementary will be honored by the International Reading Association for thinking outside the box. The school designed a new program called “Extreme Makeover: Reading Edition” to improve reading skills. They hired a full time reading teacher and three para-professionals to teach reading in small groups, and it paid off. Student reading skills have gone up. “Really, the bottom line is that we want to do what's going to work for kids, what's going to get kids reading, what’s going to help them become successful,” Tressa Decker, an instructional coach. Lashawn McKenzie is in the fourth grade. “It helped me get my reading level up, and its better with me working in a small group, instead of a whole entire class,” she said. The school also developed a new reading program to help students who are learning English as a second language.