Building on this week’s article, 5 Emerging Themes in Improving Early Literacy, Sprig Learning is thrilled to present 5 more of such themes for success in early literacy.

Hopefully, this series has been useful in getting ideas and inspiration for taking on initiatives to improve the quality of early literacy programs in your classrooms and schools. 

There are more stories corroborating these themes, or exploring new themes that may be just as useful in rethinking existing literacy initiatives at your school.

Please subscribe to Root to Fruit, our twice-a-month newsletter on all things early learning, that thoroughly covers all such news items pertaining to early literacy improvement.

Without further ado, here are 5 more emerging themes in improving early literacy. Let’s nurture a generation of confident and enthusiastic readers together! 

Theme 1: Principal’s Role in Literacy Improvement

In early childhood education, the elementary school principal wields significant influence over school administration. Their guidance is pivotal in making informed decisions about early literacy, from implementing evidence-based instruction and assessments to adopting new curriculums and managing funds effectively. Hiring the right principal with ample experience is essential for success.

• Jill Bjorge is the new principal of Riverside Elementary School in Brainerd, Minnesota. Drawing experience from her background as a classroom teacher and literacy coach for many years in the school district, she wishes to provide every child a fun, safe and loving learning environment. Jill is a strong advocate of early childhood literacy, having previously developed a reading curriculum for Grade 3 that allowed her to meet the needs of a diverse classroom. 

• Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board will add a system-wide school principal to support principals with learning recovery initiatives at all schools. Additionally, a special assignment teacher will be added to provide system support to English language classes. Funding for this move will come from the $3 million that is left of the COVID-19 learning recovery fund. 

• For the past 5 years at Denver Public Schools (DPS), the percentage of K to 3 students scoring significantly below grade level has hovered around 22%. In 2021, DPS performed worse than all other big school districts in Colorado, whereas previously it fared at the top of this list. Inexperienced principals is cited as a major reason for this plummeting of scores. Henry Roman, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, wants more hires with a “strong background in curriculum and instruction”.

• The Frank Defino Central Elementary School,of Marlboro K-8 School District in New Jersey, has been awarded a national Blue Ribbon award, in recognition of high student achievement for 2022. School principal David Stratuik cited the school’s Teacher Passion Projects as a highlight of the school and commended the staff’s efforts in going above and beyond for students and their families. 

• Last year, just 27.3% of Grade 3 students at Jefferson Township Schools in Ohio achieved reading proficiency. As an example of a response, Blairwood Elementary Principal Anne Watson said the district is using a state-recommended curriculum, assessing students multiple times a year to monitor progress, and intervening to help families of those students identified as needing more support. 

Theme 2: Curriculum Reforms

Schools are widely introducing new curriculums that align with the latest research, scientifically proven to enhance literacy and numeracy. Such a move was inevitable, and it set in motion the need  for effective professional development for the new content areas, seamless integration of new lessons, and their accurate assessments—all stemming from a well-crafted curriculum update.

• As Alberta prepares to introduce its new K to 3 language and math curriculum, schools are adopting varied measures to prepare. Wolf Creek Public Schools in Ponoka were able to get three full days of professional development ready for all elementary teachers. Edmonton Catholic Schools grew its contingent of curriculum consultants to get teachers ready. Teachers from Black Gold School Division in Leduc are engaging more in teacher-collaboration. 

• The Ministry of Education in Ontario will be investing $109 million in 2023-24 to improve young students’ reading skills, introducing new early reading screening requirements and a standardized screening tool for students in Year 2 of Kindergarten to Grade 2. The funding will support additional specialist teachers, nearly 700 educators, and an overhauled language curriculum with a focus on mastering basic literacy from an early age.

• Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) is using a new curriculum with a greater focus on phonics and professional development. It’s a departure from long-used leveled literacy interventions. Chief Academic Officer Marcey Sorensen says that the research shows “that leveling kids’ texts and not exposing them to grade-level text” can be harmful. FWISD is also partnering with organizations this summer that focus heavily on reading, but also address the whole child. 

• Spring results from K-12 comprehensive tests were released in the state of Washington. In a pattern noticed in most school districts,language and math scores increased compared to last fall, but are still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels. This is especially true for math scores, which faced a sharper decline compared to language proficiency scores in the last two years in the state. In response, Central Valley School District in Spokane, have begun implementing a new math curriculum this year. 

• Joshua Elementary School, in Lancaster, California, has adopted a new curriculum and is implementing more professional development for teachers to improve literacy scores for its students. After focusing on word recognition last year, as a part of its 3 year phonics program, the number of students not reading at grade level  dropped from 65% to 15%. In the current school year, the school has introduced a second new curriculum that focuses on language comprehension. 

Theme 3: Regular and Comprehensive Assessments

The demand for frequent and holistic assessments is evident across North American schools. With the increased diversity of students in classrooms, in both ability and cultural and linguistic backgrounds,  teachers require a deeper understanding of each student’s unique educational circumstances. Regular monitoring ensures their comprehension of taught concepts. 

• The Southern Berkshire Regional School District in Sheffield, Massachusetts, has seen a 38% increase in math skills for its Kindergarten to Grade 8 students. Superintendent Beth Regulbuto is happy with a new system of regular assessments that monitor student progress in real-time, instead of just assessing once a year. She attributes the improvement in math skills to the instant identification of skill gaps, which results in a greater individualized learning experience.

• The Algoma District School Board (ADSB) welcomed 68 multilingual students speaking 16 languages for the new school year. ADSB has a student registration process which includes a family interview. It allows them to get information about each child’s prior educational experiences, language profile and interests. As multilingual learners increase in enrollment, ADSB strives to provide a welcoming learning environment to all.

Theme 4: Small Group Instruction

There is overwhelming evidence that supports the idea of differentiated instruction. Small group instruction is efficient at improving learning outcomes, and also effective to administer for schools, because the same lesson can be delivered to more than one student. As such, the shift towards scheduled small group instruction models for things such as interventions and summer programs is widely observed.

• In Chelmsford Valley District Composite School’s daily practice, there are more than 40 small reading groups and multiple targeted reading interventions. Reading Stars are rewarded to recognize an increase in reading level and are used to celebrate both individual and school success. The Ontario-based school was recently selected to participate in the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation’s annual fundraising program. Donations will be used to purchase library books.

• The Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board ran their summer learning program in July. The program focused on students sustaining or making gains in literacy and numeracy skills. Students used engaging resources, games, and hands-on learning activities in small groups, to develop  effective strategies in reading, writing and math. They also had a chance to experience Indigenous stories, arts and songs. 

• Carson City School District’s literacy plan for K-3 students has been a success in improving early reading interventions. Cheryl Macy, director of equity in curriculum and instruction, says that “schools have scheduled time for differentiated instruction to target specific student needs.” But administrators believe that more professional development for teachers is needed to keep fourth and fifth-grade students on course to reading mastery.

Theme 5: Special Tools and Resources to Support Curriculum

Amidst curricular reforms, as stated in theme number 2, the need for supplementary and complementary tools has emerged. Trained personnel and proper oversight are crucial in introducing and managing these new curricula, but the right learning tools and resources are equally vital when it comes to addressing areas such as instruction, assessment and intervention. Schools are witnessing positive results by embracing these tools to enrich the new curricula.

• The Woodland Park School District in Colorado performed very well in the Colorado Department of Education’s (CDE) District and School Performance Framework. The CDE assesses district performance based on both student achievement and student growth. Tina Cassens, Director of Student Success, says that there was an “incredible gain in all scores” for kindergarten through Grade 3. One of the reasons stated for this is the implementation of the newly adopted K-5 literacy program.

• Brewbaker Primary School (BPS) in Montgomery Alabama raised their percentage of proficient readers at Grade 2 from 18% in 2019 to 62% in 2022. BPS has a 98% minority student population. Principal Jaclyn Brown believes that their school culture and adoption of a computer-based reading assistant were the two main drivers of this success. The latter is based on the Science of Reading. It listens to students read and applies customized interventions, saving teachers time spent on diagnostic work.

• New Chief Education Officer of Chicago Public Schools, Bogdana Chkoumbova, was asked about the post-pandemic academic status of students and the efforts which have yielded best results thus far. Acknowledging that there is a lot of catching up to do, she emphasized strong classroom instruction and student support as being two major difference makers. She praised the schools that were “looking for quality curriculum resources”.

Achieve Early Literacy Success with These Themes

In conclusion, these 5 themes offer valuable insights for achieving early literacy success. Consider how these ideas can inform your strategies and actions in your schools. If you found these themes helpful, don’t miss part 1 of this article that was mentioned in the intro. Also, do explore 46 Stories of Improving Early Literacy Achievement in Schools, which was the original article to create themes out of stories such as these.

In December of last year, Sprig Learning published 46 Stories of Improving Early Literacy Achievement in Schools. If you haven’t had the chance to read it yet, it is highly recommended. It features 46 amazing stories that offer valuable insights and inspiration for improving literacy in schools and preschools.

Out of the 46 stories, 7 were showcased in the early learning centers/preschool section, while the remaining 39 were highlighted in the school/school districts/school boards section.

These 39 cases revealed several common themes that are worth noting, summarized as follows:

• Effective Implementation of Full-Day Kindergarten

• Appropriate Utilization of Learning Recovery Funds

• Personalized Learning through One-on-One Tutoring

• Ample Professional Learning Opportunities for Educators

• Facilitating Teacher Collaboration

• Focusing on Biliteracy

• Creating New Schools and Gradually Adding Grade Levels

• Providing Summer Learning Opportunities

In total, these themes add up to 8 key themes for promoting literacy excellence.

Sprig compiled these stories from its newsletter, Root to Fruit, and there’s more to explore! 

Additional stories from past editions of the newsletter have been organized into 5 more themes, each offering valuable insights for early literacy achievement.

The 5 themes are as follows…

Theme 1: Increasing Access to Early Childhood Education Centers and Programs.

In the quest to provide high-quality early childhood education, schools, non-profit organizations, and universities are all opening preschool programs and early learning centers. Additionally, some states have official initiatives, like transitional kindergarten, aiming to enhance ECE accessibility universally. The crucial link between preschool attendance and kindergarten readiness has prompted various institutions to proactively establish such programs, either independently or through collaborative partnerships.

• Reading Area Community College (RAAC) in Reading, PA, is planning to build a $33 million state-of-the-art childcare center on its campus,which will provide early childhood education for more than 150 children. Many educational institutions operate similar early learning centers, which provide an education for the community, and serve as a training ground for educators. It’s a tried and tested model to advance early education.

• The Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning is a nonprofit organization that will be launching 6 early learning centers to provide free high-quality education to children from low-income families. The project will cost $350 million.

• In Indiana, the On My Way Pre-K program serves 14,000 preschoolers. Over 300,000 preschool-eligible children, however, remain unserved. Non-profit organizations like Early Learning Indiana have to step in to provide programs to cover the demand. Maureen Weber, CEO of Early Learning Indiana, says: “We know that access to high-quality early learning services is really foundational to children’s success.” 

• Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is expanding its transitional kindergarten (TK) facilities, expecting a large increase in enrollment in the following two years. OUSD will be adding 5 new TK classes and adopting a TK curriculum for the first time. California will make TK universal by the 2025-2026 school year. Thus, many school districts are taking appropriate steps to welcome new students. 

• To replace Evergreen Elementary School, Marion County Public Schools in Ocala, Florida, will reopen the building as Fordham Early Learning Academy. The goal for the academy is to boost early literacy. It will admit pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, and add Grade 1 and 2 in successive years. 

• In its 2020 strategic plan, the Yakima School District (YSD) in Washington, wanted to increase kindergarten readiness for its preschool students from 20% to 95% by 2026. Recently, the school district was successfully able to consolidate many of the early learning services in the district. YSD Early Learning Principal, Jamie Johnson, says that “consolidating preschool services makes it easier for teachers to collaborate as they focus on their students’ burgeoning social and academic skills”. 

• Harrisburg School District in South Dakota passed a $30 million bond to build a new elementary school. When the new yet-to-be named school will be completed, it will house the elementary grades, and the current elementary school will be converted into an early learning center, housing Pre-K, Head Start, Kindergarten and possibly Grade 1 programs. The project is set to finish in the fall of 2024. 

• After undergoing a $27.7 million renovation, the Marygrove Elementary School opened in Detroit, welcoming K-2 students on campus. The opening of the school is a part of the P-20 partnership in the community, which opened an early learning institution last year, called the Marygrove Early Education Center. It plans to add grades 3, 4  and 5 in the next three years to become a full K-5 institution. 

Theme 2: Supporting Teachers With Specialist Positions.

In a bid to help teachers provide the best possible educational experience for their students, many specialist positions in both literacy and numeracy are being hired in schools. Given that teachers have such busy schedules, it helps to have a larger literacy team that can work together for the benefit of every young student. 

• Anderson Community Schools in Indiana is employing six literacy instructional coaches to collaborate with teachers to implement areas of emphasis from the Science of Reading. This hiring is being funded by the Indian Department of Education’s two-year grant to provide coaching to teachers in research-based instruction in reading, or science, technology, engineering and math subjects. 

• Olentangy Schools in Ohio, has added a math specialist position at each of the district’s 16 elementary schools for the new school year. Dr. Jack Fette, the district’s chief academic officer, says that the new specialists will “support teachers in their instruction of math in the classroom and improve consistency in math curriculum and instruction throughout the district”.

• Rainbow District School Board in Northern Ontario has approved its budget for 2022-2023. The $225.8 million budget is an increase from last year, and it allows the board to achieve the priorities in its Strategic Directions 2022-2027 plan. Student Success and Achievement, and Literacy and Numeracy are two priorities listed in the plan. Two new literacy coaches are being hired and additional funding has been allocated for assistive technology in special education.

Theme 3: Focusing On Evidence-based Literacy Improvement Initiatives for the Foundational Years

The growing recognition of the critical early schooling years is driving schools to adopt evidence-based instruction focused on foundational reading skills, particularly phonics and phonological awareness, which previously did not receive adequate explicit instruction. Schools are now dedicating more time to teach and assess these skills, but  in a fun and engaging manner, ensuring that students remain enthusiastic about their reading journey.

• Holly Prine is a Grade 1 teacher at Clear Fork Elementary School in Lockhart, Texas. She says how a year of virtual kindergarten is creating behavioral and social difficulties for students attending school for the first time in Grade 1. Students are not able to fully master foundational reading and writing skills, and Holly is spending extra time with students teaching these skills. 

• Dr. Monifa McKnight, Superintendent of Montgomery County Schools, identified impacts on students’ academic performance that needed to be addressed post-pandemic. In particular, one of the realizations was that Grade 2 and Grade 3 students, whose learning was interrupted in their foundational school years of kindergarten and Grade 1, require literacy support. Among other things, she calls for a return to “equitable teaching and learning”.

• Longview Schools in Washington is trying several research-based teaching strategies to help address the lower state testing scores. According to Brian Mitchell, principal of Mint Valley Elementary School, students are learning phonics and multiplication using more engaging techniques where they take the lead during classes. They are expected to actively participate in the lessons and ask questions.

• The Grass Valley School District (GVSD) district and school site teams have discovered that their youngest students require more educational and behavioral help to succeed in school. The Preschool through Third Grade Coherence Collaboration has been introduced, which aims to better align the preschool services to the early grades. As a part of the program, the district has created new phonics reading assessments and daily phonics-focused instructional lessons.

• In Massachusetts, Grade 1 teacher Lisa Hannifan found great success by focusing on phonemic awareness. She works on early literacy by picking those reading materials that use phonics patterns and represent her community of students. Additionally, she has her students sound out high-frequency words phonetically.

Theme 4: Comprehensive Summer Learning For All Student Situations

Summer learning programs have always been offered by schools, but now they are becoming essential to address the learning disruptions caused by the pandemic. These programs are utilized to provide instruction for students at risk of retention, offer one-on-one tutoring and group classes for targeted interventions, and even offer enrichment programs for students looking to prepare for the next grade.

• Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) is combining traditional classes with enrichment programs in its new summer program. IPS says that it has made huge academic gains in 2021-2022 and wants to continue that by not just repeating classes, but also offering more intense one-on-one instruction. It is also offering an online resource for after-school programming, where parents can stay updated on all extracurricular options and get access to enrichment programming at no cost. 

• The District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) has approximately 5,000 K-4 students participating in its DSBN Summer HEAT program, to work on their literacy and numeracy skills. Leanne Smith, DSBN Superintendent of Secondary School Curriculum and Student Achievement, says that summer school has something for every student, whether it is learning recovery or preparing for the next grade. 

• Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) says that 56% of Grade 2 students are at risk of being retained because of a new policy aimed at increasing literacy skills. Most of these students are attending classes this summer. The policy requires them to attend 90% of summer school in order to progress to Grade 3. Jaron Carson, Chief Academic Office of MSCS says that after-school tutoring was offered during the school year and now additional interventions are offered via summer learning.

• The Waterloo Region District School Board will nearly double the number of students in its summer learning program this year, from 620 to almost 1,200. The focus will be on early literacy intervention for Grades K-2 and early numeracy intervention for Grades 3-5. The program includes opportunities for group learning and even individualized learning where necessary, as well as speech and language support.

Theme 5: Long-Term Strategic Initiatives for Lasting Impact

At a time when reading proficiency rates are not up to par across North America, school districts are taking a proactive approach to improve early literacy by considering new learning approaches, expanding schools, and acquiring valuable literacy resources. They are formulating long-term strategic plans that consider fresh perspectives capable of significantly raising the bar for reading proficiency.

• Hillsborough County school district in Florida is working on improving reading and math scores for grades 3, 4, and 5. The 2021-2022 school improvement plan aimed to address teacher vacancies, lack of learning intentions, lack of understanding learning outcomes, and the lack of grade-appropriate rigorous educational materials in the 14 lowest performing schools.

• Boston Public Schools (BPS) has reached an agreement with the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education, whereby BPS will receive $10 million in the next 3 years to address long-standing deficiencies in language instruction, among other things. It’s a systemic improvement plan that seeks to eliminate systemic barriers to educational opportunities.

• Polly Smith, Kindergarten Teacher at Pilgrim Lutheran School (PLS) in Chicago, is in favor of a holistic approach to teaching in early childhood education. She says that at PLS, the teachers look out for basic literacy and numerical skills but recognize that all children progress differently. A whole-child approach meets each child where they are in terms of academic social-emotional development and focuses on the cognitive growth of each child by teaching important concepts.

• Allentown School District in Columbus Ohio, has submitted their district comprehensive plan to the Department of Education. It states the goal to increase the percentage of Kindergarten and Grade 3 students reading at grade level by 21.2% and 30% respectively, by 2025. Furthermore, in the next three years, the district wants to increase its number of schools meeting the statewide average in English language growth and attainment from 50% to 80%.

• The Warrensville Heights City School District and Cleveland Metro School Districts have been devoting additional resources, such as extra staff, and providing instructional time to students, to improve early literacy. Early literacy is one of the five performance measures in state school district report cards released by the Ohio Department of Education. The other four are achievement, progress, gap closing, and graduation.

Need More Ideas to Improve Early Literacy Education?

If these stories have been helpful in inspiring action for your school or confirming existing ideas, there’s more in store for you! 

Stay tuned for our next article, which will feature 5 more themes!

At Sprig Learning, we are committed to supporting teachers and school leaders in the realm of early education, with a special emphasis on early literacy. Through our articles, we aim to shed light on the current landscape of early literacy in Pre-K to Grade 3.

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