In education, we talk a lot about achievement gaps, but especially since COVID we’ve also seen instructional gaps. As a Purple Heart District where all 26 of our schools are considered “military-friendly,” we also manage a high volume of transient students who move in and out a lot. We also have a steadily increasing ESL student population.

These and other realities pushed us to get out there and find a platform that could help fill the skill gaps and increase our students’ end-of-grade reading scores.

Picking the right literacy platform

When I joined the district six years ago, one of our schools was using Lexia Core5 Reading, an adaptive blended learning program that accelerates the development of literacy skills for students of all abilities. I liked what I saw in the program and felt like the entire district would benefit from using it. We talked to the vendor and then had one of our instructional coaches share the platform with all of our elementary schools.

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From there, we pushed the platform up to the secondary level with PowerUp Literacy, which accelerates literacy gains for students in grades 6–12 who are at risk of not meeting college- and career-ready standards. The first school to test out that platform is no longer low-performing by North Carolina standards. Our literacy platform definitely played a role in that school’s success and now we’re seeing similar results at other schools.

6 Steps to success

We took some deliberate steps when rolling out and using our new literacy platforms. Here are six that we recommend to other districts that are taking a tech-driven approach to boosting literacy rates:

1. Start training on day one. We’ve been very intentional with our literacy platform and the professional development that goes along with it. We have district elementary coaches, so anytime we have new teachers—whether it’s a beginner or someone new to Craven County—the coaches support the onboarding process. We ensure that when teachers are learning the ropes on day one, they’re also being trained to use our online literacy platform. We also do ongoing training throughout the year. We vary the training each year to ensure the teachers are not just hearing the same things over and over again.
2. Get buy-in from district administrators and train them, too. When we initially rolled out the platform across the district, we laid out a plan that started with our administrators and included training them on it to ensure buy-in. This included assistant principals, instructional coaches, MTSS professionals and other stakeholders.
3. Leverage the power of your data. At first, we were mostly focused on usage. Once we determined how many minutes each student should spend on the platform, we started looking at specific skills across grade levels and the district as a whole. Our schools even scoreboard their data from the literacy platforms by sharing their weekly usage of minutes or units earned. They share that information in a weekly “Staff in the Know” email. I then scoreboard that information and report it out to our superintendent’s cabinet on a quarterly basis. That way, everybody from the central office to the schools to the families sees this data.
4. Encourage teacher collaboration. Teachers look at the results in their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and discuss common trends if they’re seeing certain levels where kids are struggling. They also have conversations about, “What are you doing differently instruction wise so that kids are getting these particular skills?” Most of that’s done in PLCs but some of it takes place during the afternoons. We’ve worked very closely with our vendor partner on the training, and they meet with our administrators regularly to take that data and share it with the teachers.
5. Make it part of your district DNA. All North Carolina schools must have literacy intervention plans in place. For districts trying to get a similar initiative off the ground, it’s important to have that plan so your teachers don’t see this as just “one more thing” that they’re expected to do. To avoid this problem, we tie our literacy initiative to everything we do. It’s in our literacy intervention plan, which ties to scoreboarding that information weekly at the school and district levels. It’s part of our everyday business and we monitor every aspect of the program.
6. Reward student success. We incorporate other things in the buildings with our literacy programs. We have at least one vending machine in probably half of our 15 elementary schools and we’re using that as an incentive with our students. When students level up, they get their certificate and coins to use at the vending machine, which they love. One school has books on a cart and every Friday the principal pushes the cart from class to class while playing music and says, “All right, I’ve got these students who leveled up this week” and they get to pick out a book. We’re always encouraging students to read and we’re also rewarding them for their efforts.

Seeing how far they can go

We’ve made some remarkable progress with student literacy outcomes over the last five years. Nearly 80% of our students are using the program with fidelity and according to our district’s data, 90% of students who met usage targets were reading at or above grade level last year. One of our schools boosted that number to 92%.

Our district has also made up for the learning losses that happened during the COVID years. According to a recent North Carolina Department of Instruction report, our county has returned back to its pre-COVID numbers—something not all districts can say yet. I think our literacy program played a role in making that happen. It helps us meet students “where they are” and see how far they can go.

The post 6 ways a tech-driven approach will boost literacy rates appeared first on District Administration.

Date & Time: Thursday, June 6th at 2 pm ET

Newcomer students—those born outside the U.S. and who have recently arrived in the country—come from a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures and educational settings, and often speak different languages. These students bring with them a wealth of experiences and perspectives that can enrich our communities if we create spaces for them to thrive.

In this 20-minute DA Ed Talk, two bilingual education experts will outline some practical, evidence-based strategies for building inclusive, supportive learning environments where these students will succeed academically and socially in schools.

Topics will include:

• The most common characteristics of newcomer students
• Trends and challenges in the newcomer student landscape
• Practical strategies to support newcomers academically and socially

Presenters

Soraya Sotto, Bilingual Professional Learning Consultant, Istation

Neida Mastanduno, Bilingual Professional Learning Consultant, Istation

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“This a community that is not represented and here’s this data that tells you if you engage this community, it’s going to help you on your student learning outcomes and also, this mine of talent is a lot deeper,” asserts Siddiqi, the former Virginia Secretary of Education whose nonprofit is now working to diversify the workforce and boost early learning and literacy.

Grow-your-own programs, in which districts begin training high school students to work in education, are key to developing more teachers—and eventually, leaders—of color. When districts promote more leaders of color, they will recruit and retain teachers from underrepresented groups.

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Preschool—a rare issue that enjoys support from Democrats and Republicans—is one area where the nation has made tremendous progress over the last 10 years, he notes. The Hunt Institute has been educating lawmakers on the huge benefits of investing in early childhood education—particularly by expanding access to the students who most need help preparing for kindergarten and first grade.

“I feel much better today than I did a few years ago,” Siddiqi says of the state of early learning. “I see a let loss partisan nonsense in this investment area, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Siddiqi also discusses the impacts of school choice and how his organization is helping schools integrate the science of learning You can listen to this episode anytime on Apple, Spotify, Podbean or by clicking below.

The post ‘Talking Out of School’ podcast: Fixing shortages and academics at the same time appeared first on District Administration.

Date & Time: Tuesday, May 28th at 2 pm ET

The literacy crisis facing K-12 educators today is staggering; 66% of fourth graders failed to meet proficiency on the NAEP’s most recent national reading assessment. Improving literacy in school districts quickly and effectively will require a sense of urgency, transformative leadership, and a reliance on proven, research-based strategies.  

In this webinar, a roundtable of district leaders from around the country will discuss the strategies they are using today that have made significant and measurable strides in literacy scores—sustainably, consistently, and equitably. 

Presenters

Mike Chaix, Ed.D., Superintendent, Cucamonga School District (Calif.) 

Gil Diaz, M.Ed., Assistant Superintendent, Cucamonga School District 

Robin Poynter, M.Ed., Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Assessment, Hancock County Public Schools (Ky.) 

Corinne Hayes, M.Ed., Assistant Superintendent, Southwest Local Schools (Ohio)

Moderator: Robin Zikmund, Dyslexia Advocate and Community Engagement Manager, IMSE and Founder and President, Decoding Dyslexia Idaho

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Those numbers mean book bans, which are taking place in both red and blue districts, are “soaring to a record level,” PEN America says in its latest report, “Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis.”

“Book bans are targeting narratives about race and sexual identities and sexual content writ large, and they show no sign of stopping,” said Sabrina Baêta, Freedom to Read program manager at PEN America and a lead author of the report.

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“The bans we’re seeing are broad, harsh and pernicious–and they’re undermining the education of millions of students across the country.”

The latest report focuses on books about women, sexual violence and rape that are being challenged based on obscenity. It also found that titles on race and racism, LGBTQ+ and transgender identities remain frequent targets of censors.

PEN America has tracked over 10,000 removals between July 2021 to December 2023, with Florida tallying the most bans at 3,135 across 11 school districts. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill this week that limits residents without children in a particular school system to one book challenge per month. Parents can still contest as many books as they want at their children’s schools.

Meanwhile, according to PEN America’s research, censorship activity is accelerating in other states:

• Wisconsin: 481 bans across three school districts, including 444 books challenged by just one parent
• Iowa: 142 bans in three school districts
• Texas: 141 bans at four school districts
• Kentucky: One district, Boyle County Schools, removed 106 books
• Virginia: Three school districts banned 100 titles.

Pushback on book bans

The good news, the report asserts, is that students are taking action. Students are protesting, forming after-school banned book clubs and “working with teachers to distribute books under the radar,” the report points out.

“Students are at the epicenter of the book-banning movement, and they’re fearlessly spearheading the fight against this insidious encroachment into what they can read and learn across the country,” said Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America. “By suppressing these stories, censors seek to delegitimize experiences that resonate deeply with young people.”

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“Sea Lab has never stopped in its mission to put students into roles as scientists,” says Kate O’Donoghue, the district’s curriculum, data and assessment manager for science. “It puts students right in the middle of local flora and fauna and lets them see how science works when they can get into it with their hands.”

On a recent spring day, fourth- and fifth-graders were doing a “beach profile” and identifying the different plants and animals living there. They also dissected quahogs and compared the mollusk to a human’s biological characteristics, says Simone Bourgeois, the teacher facilitator of Sea Lab.

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Another key to the mission at Sea Lab, which opened in 1968, is for students to work across disciplines. In other recent projects, for example, students have grown lettuce in a hydroponic aquarium and composed music based on the sinking of military ships.

Another class transformed their classroom into a pirate ship to study “the good and the bad” of piracy. While not promoting piracy, students did learn about the extensive mapmaking and navigation skills of these notorious seafarers, who they worked for and how and where they buried treasure, Bourgeois pointed out.

Because some of Sea Lab’s activities occur on a boat or under the water, the program also teaches students to swim. And while the Sea Lab follows state standards, Bourgeois says teachers also stretch the curriculum into some non-traditional and unique subjects, such as assessing whether Bigfoot or UFOs are real. That study of the supernatural has included learning debating skills, she added.

“There’s a little bit of whimsy science thrown in,” Bourgeois explains. “We do everything from meteorology to zoology to any content science a student might approach either in high school or college.”

While the district, which serves many immigrant families, has intensified its focus on English and math, O’Donoghue, Bourgeois and other educators have been working to expand the time teachers spend on hands-on and inquiry-based science, using new curricula such as Discovery Education’s Mystery Science.

Climate and the human impact on climate change are key elements at every level of Sea Lab’s curriculum and learning activities. Bourgeois was recently told by a parent that their student now only lets them buy biodegradable paper products. “We have prepared children to dictate to their parents what we need to do to protect what we have,” she says. “We have a bevy of young women and men going forward as environmentalists.”

The post How one district is transforming learning by connecting kids to the ocean—and Bigfoot appeared first on District Administration.

Date & Time: Wednesday, May 15th at 2 pm ET

District leaders know literacy initiatives are vitally important today—the recent NAEP scores speak for themselves. However, a key component to successful implementation is building an effective literacy team—and it’s too often a component that gets overlooked. Perhaps you’ve got your literacy plan, but are your people ready, and is the plan sustainable?

In this 20-minute DA Ed Talk, the Supervisor of Literacy and Learning Services from the Columbus City Schools will dive into the best practices for successful literacy plan implementation, focusing on how to build capacity and empower your team toward literacy transformation.

Presenter

Ebone N. Johnson, Supervisor, Literacy and Learning Services, Columbus City Schools

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Date & Time: Thursday, May 9th at 2 pm ET

The number of K-12 districts providing dual language and bilingual education programs has significantly increased over the past decade, as biliteracy education has been shown to increase overall academic achievement and student success. 

In this 20-minute DA Ed Talk, an experienced bilingual educator and district leader will outline some evidence-based strategies for developing a successful biliteracy program in any district, and how to evaluate tools and instructional approaches for effectiveness.

Topics will include: 

• Benefits of dual language and bilingual programs  
• Essentials for building biliteracy from the earliest grades 
• How to evaluate Spanish literacy tools and instruction for effectiveness  

Presenter

Carlos Gutierrez, M.Ed., Biliteracy Educational Advocate, Istation

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The post Developing a Bilingual Program: Evidence-Based Strategies for Success appeared first on District Administration.

Date & Time: Tuesday, May 7th at 2 pm ET

With post-pandemic reading scores at the lowest level in decades, boosting literacy quickly has become a priority for district leaders. An established body of research suggests that providing students with more reading choices is a highly effective way to help them rapidly become engaged, enthusiastic readers.  

Digital books and audiobooks can play a key role, empowering middle and high school learners with more choices of texts that match their interests, preferences, and reading levels.

In this 20-minute DA Ed Talk, the District Instructional Librarian for St. Vrain Valley Schools will share some actionable strategies for incorporating digital books and audiobooks into curriculum, elevating student choice, agency and voice, and quickly accelerating literacy across a school or district.

Topics will include: 

• How providing students with more choices creates more engaged readers 
• Curating a collection of diverse, age-appropriate digital books 
• Strategies to incorporate digital books and audiobooks into curriculum 
• Keys to rapidly accelerating literacy skills in students  

Presenters

Helen Robbins, District Instructional Librarian, St. Vrain Valley Schools (Colo.)

Jenny Seiler, Secondary Language Arts Coordinator, St. Vrain Valley Schools

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Date & Time: Thursday, April 18th at 2 pm ET

Literacy is essential for students’ success but is often viewed as the sole responsibility of elementary and English language arts teachers. Integrating literacy across the entire curriculum is crucial to ensure students develop the skills necessary for success in both academics and life. 

Join us for a 20-minute DA Ed Talk, where NoRedInk’s professional learning specialist—boasting extensive experience in classroom teaching and district-level implementation—will share clear, actionable strategies to enhance existing literacy programs and foster a culture of literacy across the curriculum.   

Topics will include: 

• Strategies to integrate literacy across subjects 
• Ensuring writing instruction is consistent 
• Real-world impacts of cross-content literacy initiatives 
• Overall best practices for literacy programs  

Presenter

Taylor Brock, Professional Learning Specialist, NoRedInk 

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The post Write to Learn: Creating a Culture of Literacy Districtwide appeared first on District Administration.