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"As many as a third of Ohio third-graders scored below a new literacy target in fall reading tests.The results were released Friday. The tests are meant to provide the first view of how many may be at risk of failing a grade this year.Watch this storyUnder the state's new Third Grade Reading Guarantee, students can be held back if they don't meet tough new reading targets.State results posted Friday showed 32,905 students, or 26.2 percent of those who took the fall reading test, showed limited proficiency, which misses the new mark. About half of the 21,177 students who showed basic proficiency also will fall below what's been dubbed the \"cut score\" for passing third grade, officials said.Cincinnati Public Schools officials said they were not concerned about the state exam results. It said it expects results to be better when students retake the tests in May or over the summer.That puts more than 34 percent of the roughly 125,000 third-graders who participated at risk.One in three students at CPS, about 742, failed to reach the state's standard.State officials had anticipated that many students would not have met the targets by the time they took tests in October, near the start of the school year. Students will be tested again in six months.State Superintendent Richard Ross urged families socked with seemingly bad news to take the long view.\"My message really is what happens later? What happens in real life if they aren't able to read?\" he told reporters in a Thursday briefing on the coming results.Officials say students who lag behind new reading standards at year's end will have the chance to retake the reading test in the summer. Those still lagging after completing summer programs could advance to fourth grade in the middle of the year once targets are met.\"As we've stated, this is really looking at readiness and competency and moving our students forward when they demonstrate that they are on track and on target for success,\" said Sasheen Phillips, senior executive director for the state's Center for Curriculum and Assessment.\"Promoting a child in an area when they are not ready does not put them at an advantage,\" she said.Phillips said the state will use the results to identify students who could benefit from early intervention and other support.CPS Assistant Superintendent Bill Miles said adjustments would be made to accommodate students who did not pass the test.\"That's going to be something new for all of us in the state of Ohio,\" said Miles. \"We are planning right now to look at resources of how we might do that.\"Kilgour School Principal Angela Cook Frazier said all but a half dozen third-graders at her school are above the reading test cutoff.The Ohio Department of Education has posted a host of online literacy resources for families and educators. Those include INFOhio's BookFLIX, which pairs classic video storybooks with related nonfiction e-books, interactive reading games and tips for teaching reading through everyday activities.CPS says urban school districts shoulder a heavier load of students from non-English speaking backgrounds.\"You have many families who come in speaking two and three different languages and they have experience with the language, but not to the level of what they're being assessed on,\" said Cook Frazier.Ohio was among 10 states to enact education law revisions last year to look at early literacy development and early reading success as benchmarks to judge long-term state educational achievement, according to the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.CPS data shows 85 percent of students who start in preschool and advance uninterrupted are proficient on the third-grade test.Some suspect the test is more rigorous, but nevertheless, Cincinnati Public Schools believes data gleaned from October's results will mean improvements in May.In Hamilton County, the highest failure rate is in Lockland at 45.7 percent; Winton Woods at 41.3 percent; Mount Healthy at 36.3 percent and Northwest at 33.1 percent.\u00A0State lawmakers revised the law this spring to make more teachers temporarily eligible to participate in helping students meet the new standards after educators raised concerns they didn't have adequate staff to meet requirements."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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