Lee Schools target reading proficiency
‘Transitional change’ initiatives will work toward having more students on grade level by the third grade
The School District of Lee County is redefining its processes and changing curriculum to help students read by the third grade.
The school board listened to a presentation regarding academic initiatives during its Tuesday afternoon meeting, which included the third grade reading goal as well as algebra support.
Reading proficiency by third grade has long been a state and district goal.
“The reason all the other goals have failed is because we have had leadership turnover. Any transitional change requires a minimal of three years to see the full impact,” said Board member Cathleen Morgan at Tuesday’s School Board of Lee County meeting. “If we are going to have transformational changes in this district. If we are going to move the needle, this board has to acknowledge its responsibility to ensure that the leadership that has made effectively the promise to you is here to see it through. If they are not, it’s not their problem, it’s our problem and we have failed the kids and not the leadership. I am so gratified to see the level of leadership we have brought into this district.
“We have a real opportunity to step into the real world as a large school district in our laps. It is here and it is on us to see that it happens. They will be able to do the job if we create the conditions for them to be successful.”
The presentation as included “high school cohort talking” and principal supervisor professional development.
“We needed to refine our processes and reestablish clear expectations for teaching and learning,” Academic Services Deputy Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Cupid-McCoy said. “What’s different? We narrowed our focus to teaching the benchmarks at appropriate rigor, clear expectations around instruction to our school leaders and monitor those expectations for fidelity of expectations.”
Reading by Grade 3
Cupid-McCoy said although it is an obtainable goal — having students reading by grade 3 — it requires transformational work in the organization.
That work begins before students enter kindergarten, which dives into expanding the district’s reach and collaboration with external partners for early childhood learning, such as the Early Learning Coalition.
Cupid-McCoy said the collaboration is an exciting venture as this is their pipeline to have really productive conversations with the leadership at Early Learning Coalition.
“We have discussed bringing together their coaches and talking about the experiences here at our kindergarten sites and provide opportunities to come in and interact with our kindergarten teachers,” she said. “The more information we can share, the better position our students are to be ready for kindergarten.”
In addition, Chief Academic Officer Dr. Jeff Spiro said another undertaking for the district, which they consider their legacy work, is doing a kindergarten, first and second grade audit, as well as redesigning curriculum.
The district has engaged a consulting group to do the K-2 audit of curriculum. This will include working with stakeholders to look at resources, instructional guides, curriculum maps and scope and sequence, he said.
“What is different when doing an audit and redesign — the teacher feedback,” Spiro said, adding that they are inviting teachers to be part of the process, so they can develop the work with them.
The district is also engaging with the University of Florida for professional development for teachers, coaches, and administration for Science of Reading.
Cupid-McCoy said the research has always supported the strategies and techniques taught through the Science of Reading. Teachers will be provided with the tools they need, as well as support given to administrators, so they, too, can recognize good reading instruction to provide tools necessary to coach teachers.
“The focus of professional development from the Lastinger Center will be on small group instruction,” Cupid-McCoy said. “We want to be very strategic, and emphasis is on small group instruction — anywhere from four to six students with a teacher working on specific skills as it relates to training for the Science of Reading.”
The purposeful small group instruction will focus on reading fluency, targeted assessment, explicit word instruction, reading for meaning and connecting reading and writing.
“Ideally it would be great to have all elementary teachers trained, but it’s not a viable option for us right now,” she said, adding that there are 200 K-2 teachers who will participate in the training, which will use Flamingo Literacy Playbook. “We took a look at PM3 English language arts results and that was the basis for the selection. Fifteen schools were identified, and the training dates predetermined.”
Those elementary schools include All Park, Bonita Elementary Colonial Elementary, Edgewood Academy, Franklin Park, G. Weaver Hipps, Hancock Creek, Harns Marsh, James Stephens, Lehigh, Manatee, Orange River, River Hall, Sunshine and Tice.
“Literacy, while we often think about it in terms of English Language Arts, is a skill that expands all content areas,” Cupid-McCoy said.
High school cohort talking
This year all high schools implemented a freshman orientation that focused on goal setting and accountability, Naviance tour, how to calculate grade point averages, student services and social media etiquette.
There are interventions set up, Back on Track Credit Recovery and Connect with Lee.
Spiro said they will work with students who have a D or an F. Staff connects with those students, as well as parents, to provide guided options for the student.
“Students would be assigned with Connect with Lee and schools provide a support person to monitor — a teacher, mentor, or counselor — to make sure students are connecting and determine if the intervention was working,” Spiro said. “If the intervention is working, continue with Connect with Lee. If it’s not working, try another intervention because we want to have early intervention.”
This process will occur on Sept. 13, at the end of the quarter, interim report in November, at the semester and again at the third quarter.
Spiro said there is a monitoring component at the school and district level.
Algebra support
“If a student has matriculated through the system and taken algebra 1 in ninth grade, we really need a different approach in instruction to allow that student to be successful,” Cupid-McCoy said. “Part of what we are doing is considered transformational work. It’s an absolute necessity if we intend to achieve different outcomes.”
The difference is students will engage in the use of manipulatives to help them understand the concepts of algebra.
“Students need a variety of avenues to understand the concepts to become successful,” Cupid-McCoy said.
With significant gaps in students’ understanding, this past summer 50 of the district’s teachers attended a state conference for Florida Best Benchmarks for mathematics, which included algebra tiles.
“Students learn and utilize array models to understand and perform multiplication starting in third grade,” she said. “Using algebra tiles allows students to make connections to foundational understanding of operations and numbers.”
Principal supervisor professional development
The district began working with the Wallace Foundation two years ago.
“The goal is to make sure we are consistent with what research says around principal supervisors, focus on practice and focus on application,” Spiro said. “The model that the Wallace Foundation uses is a model of standards — clear and concise indicators to help us move forward.”
The theory of action is if each principal supervisor increases the positive impact on quality of instruction that is happening in the classroom, it will ultimately improve student achievement as well, Spiro said.
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