NORWICH – Building a solid foundation of reading, writing and comprehension is a crucial part of a young child’s education.

Stanford Gibson Principal Dara Lewis stood before the board of education last Tuesday and spoke about the progress her school has made throughout the school year. Instituting the 100-book challenge this year, Lewis said, has helped test scores and her students have shown improvement and growth throughout the year.

Currently Gibson students are at their 30-week assessment mark, and most are either on target or beyond their target in reading, Lewis said. K-2 students participated in the 100-book challenge for the first time this school year. Third graders will have the opportunity to participate next year. Lewis says instituting the reading program has helped to build the home/school relationship and has improved test scores across the board.

The target goal for readers is to reach 80 percent of children who can read at their designated level. Levels for reading are based on the child’s ability to read entire words on a page and recognize words to form sentences. For kindergartners the level to reach is 4, in first grade it is 16, second grade is 28 and in third grade the level to reach is 38. Currently 63 percent of kindergartners are already there, 66 percent of first graders have met their goal, 73 percent of second graders are reaching their target level of 80 percent and 77 percent of third graders are reading at level.