September 1, 2025
Improved reading scores for K-3 students are possible! The K-3 Proficiency Project (K-3PP) in several Sonoma County schools is exceeding expectations with their early-literacy initiative. K-3 Innovation (K-3i), a local nonprofit, has been able to help schools with their K-3PP professional development model.
What started as a successful study at Sonoma Charter School in 2017 now includes Twin Hills Union School District in Sebastopol.
Expansion plans for 2025 include four new school districts: Bennett Valley, Cinnabar, Dunham, and Two Rock school districts will be implementing the K-3PP program in September 2025.
“Our expansion in 2025 will help more schools improve reading for all K-3 students,” said Marc Elin, past principal and current K-3i Executive Director. “K-3PP can be a real game-changer for a school. As a principal, I saw how K-3PP literally turned around the reading performance for all the students. Our student scores improved from 30% to 86% of students being proficient in reading by third grade after K-3PP was implemented.”
With only 44% of Sonoma County students meeting standards in English Language Arts, the K-3PP expansion is urgently needed. The privately funded professional development for teaching staff is critically important. Schools today are trying to improve reading scores with significantly fewer resources. There are no longer post-pandemic federal funds and local budget cuts are affecting programs and staff.
K-3PP implementation takes place over an entire school year and includes weekly classroom-based coaching for teachers throughout the school year; regular use of adaptive online reading skills program with the support from an instructional assistant; and strategic use of performance/assessment data that creates targeted plans that address reading skill gaps for every student.
The success of K-3PP has been studied and the data verified by WestEd, a leading independent educational research firm that concluded: “A study of the K-3PP program in 2023 showed consistent and strong promise for having positive impacts on student reading outcomes.”
Results from the K-3PP model also generated support of our educational leaders.
“The K-3PP model is essential to helping schools ensure all students reach reading proficiency by the end of third grade. I’m excited about helping expand the program to more county schools,” said Amie Carter, Superintendent of Sonoma County Schools.
She added, “Show me a third grader who’s reading at grade level, and I’ll show you a high school graduate.”
Expansion of K-3PP has wide support from the non-profit community.
Óscar Chávez, President and CEO of the Community Foundation Sonoma County, spoke in support of K-3PP: “There is no better investment than ensuring that our young students are reading at grade level, setting them up for success for the rest of their lives. The K-3PP is a successful early-literacy program designed to support that goal,” said Chávez.
The Sonoma County Vintners Foundation raised over $500,000 in September 2024
to support the expansion of K-3PP. “The Foundation was familiar with K-3PP having followed their successful results with multiple schools since providing a starting grant years ago. With K-3PP already thriving in several Sonoma County schools, we are excited to see the program expand across the county” explained Michael Haney, Executive Director for Sonoma County Vintners.
Widespread support for expanding K-3PP has come from a variety of sources including the KHR Family Fund, the Paul and Sheila Leach Fund, the Alan and Susan Seidenfeld Charitable Trust, Chuck and Cathy Williamson, Bank of Marin, and US Capital Wealth.
West Ed will expand their research/assessment study during the 2025-26 school year.
“The 2025-26 expansion study will provide data and assessment results that measure the success and impact for teachers and students across six different school settings in Sonoma County,” explained WestEd Senior Research Associate, Dennis Ciancio, Ph.D.
Gary Nelson, Founder of K-3i, said, “K-3PP will continue our fundraising initiative in order to support expansion to more schools in 2026/2027.”
For more information contact:
Marc Elin melin@k3innovation.org
Gary Nelson gnelson@nelsonhr.com