Reading is one of the first things students learn in school, and studies suggest that by the end of third grade, those who fall behind already face a high risk for becoming dropouts.

In Central Falls, about 40 percent of elementary school students were reading below grade level at the start of the school year. That's why reading specialist Heather Clark is working closely with first graders to make sure they catch up. 

"Typically, what we want to do is look for the students who are just below, who just need that little extra push to get them back on track," Clark said.

Clark works for a new program in Central Falls Kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms. It includes regular testing so teachers know how kids are doing and can group them by skill level. Anyone who starts to fall behind spends extra time with a specialist like Clark.

The idea is to catch students before they fall too far behind, and the method has already been tested at the Learning Community, a charter school just around the corner.

This fall, close to 80 percent of their third graders were proficient or better in reading-that's well above average for a high poverty district like Central Falls. Fran Gallo, Central Falls superintendent, says that caught the attention of parents.

"They would look at me and say ‘Oh well Dr. Gallo, I just got the phone call.' And then they're jumping for joy and explaining to the child that they're going to be going to the Learning Community," Gallo said. "And so, I thought, ‘Well, what causes that kind of excitement and why can't we cause that kind of excitement?'"

Gallo was impressed by what she saw, so she arranged for principals and teachers to visit too. Then, she asked school leaders to bring their reading program into her schools.

Christine Wiltshire, an instructional coach, helps Central Falls teachers learn the new method. She runs workshops for Kindergarten teachers, then follows up a few weeks later to watch the teachers in action.

"The lessons that we're giving them, we know we're trying out ourselves," Wiltshire said. "Our teachers are doing it here. So it's not like something that they have to scale back for their kid or scale up for their classroom. It's the same thing our classroom to their classroom."

Jeanne Allen heads the Center for Education Reform, an advocacy group for charter schools. She says she doesn't know of any other place in the country where a charter school is collaborating this closely with regular public schools.

"Traditional school districts are very very threatened, in part, or maybe unaware of what the charter school can do for them," Allen said. "They just don't tend to reach out very much and they don't tend to accept help when offered."

Central Falls Principal Maureen Azar says at first it was hard to take directions from a charter school. Then, she had her staff sit down with the coaches to discuss their concerns.

"Once they were able to sit down and get it open, they aired their feelings and now everybody works great together," Azar said.

Teacher Heather Clark says public schools try new programs so often it can be hard to get excited about yet another initiative. But, overall, she says she likes the new curriculum.

"It's not something boxed that you can buy," Clark said. "It really builds off the sequence of reading and how children develop reading. So instead of a scripted ‘This is what I have to teach today; this is what comes next,' I can really build off of ‘What did I notice them doing today, and how do I want to use that to inform my instruction tomorrow?'"

Some teachers and district officials feel that what works in a charter school may not work for traditional public schools because charters attract more active parents and have more flexibility around things like staffing and budget.

But Learning Community School Head Sarah Friedman says she hopes to bridge that gap.

"Part of our original mission and original charter-we always envisioned having the school as a professional development lab," she said. "And by lab, we mean actively reaching out to the public schools."

Not all charter schools are getting results that traditional schools want to emulate. In fact, recent studies suggest that there are good and bad charter schools, just like there are good and bad district schools.

But at the end of a pilot program in Central Falls last year, 86 percent of students were reading at or above grade level, compared with less than 50 percent before the program.

District officials say they're pleased with these results and they're interested in expanding the partnership.