Volusia launches three‑year Science of Reading rollout for K‑12 teachers, leaders and community partners

Volusia County Schools on July 29 outlined a three‑year Science of Reading implementation plan that district leaders said will train leaders, coaches and teachers and enlist community partners to support literacy improvements from kindergarten through high school.

“I'm Anna Kennedy. I am currently a lecturer at UCF,” the district’s invited literacy expert told the board as she opened the session that the district described as the beginning of a three‑year professional learning rollout. The district said the initiative will combine research‑based instruction, coaching, classroom modeling and community engagement.

District staff described the Science of Reading as a research consensus spanning decades across multiple disciplines; they said the classroom model will pair explicit, systematic phonics instruction with text‑based comprehension practice and aligned gradual release instruction.

Key elements presented by the district and its consultants:

• Leadership and coaching first: Cabinet members and school leaders will receive initial training before broader teacher cohorts so principals and assistant principals can support classroom implementation and coaching.

• Cohort approach: Year‑one cohorts include a mix of schools (elementary, middle, high and combination) grouped by feeder patterns; year‑two and year‑three cohorts will expand the training. The district will pair professional learning with collaborative planning, observation days and targeted support for identified struggling grades (the presentation identified a pilot working with 10 second‑grade schools and two teachers per school).

• Classroom practice: Presenters emphasized explicit, systematic phonics instruction, a defined scope and sequence for decoding, leveled practice and scaffolds for rich texts, and frequent small‑group work aligned to assessment data. The district said instruction will focus on both decoding (word recognition) and language comprehension in tandem rather than sequentially.

• Professional learning design: The plan centers on ongoing, evidence‑based coaching, modeling, feedback cycles and differentiated professional learning for teachers, coaches and administrators. Presenters described a pattern of initial training, formative data reviews (PM and VBA checkpoints cited in the presentation), and refinement toward “highest‑level” small group instruction later in the year.

• Community partnerships and incentives: Superintendent Dr. Carmen Balgobin and staff briefed the board on outreach to local partners (AdventHealth, Jeep and other community organizations named by staff) to support family engagement and student incentives such as book vending machines and media‑center transformations.

Board members asked about parent and family engagement, the link between handwriting and reading, and how the district will measure progress. The presenters said the initiative will include measurable data checks, use established benchmark windows and target schools by need. Several board members urged continued community outreach to counter misinformation and to maintain the multi‑year commitment necessary to produce measurable change.

No formal vote occurred during the workshop; district staff characterized the presentation as an informational rollout of the professional learning plan and an invitation for board and community support.