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Boston School staff showcase early-literacy gains as district scales micro-credentialing
Summary
Boston School presenters told the Nelson County Board that targeted literacy strategies — including UFLI, Orton–Gillingham, micro-credentials and a Read-at-Home backpack — have supported growth on district diagnostics and are being expanded across schools.
Boston School teachers and district literacy staff on Nov. 12 told the Nelson County Board of Education that a combination of targeted instruction, teacher micro-credentials and family-facing supports is driving early-literacy progress.
Principal Nikki King said the school showed a 27.2-point increase on KSA measures overall and reported gains across reading, math, writing and social studies. “We do show a tremendous amount of growth, which we are really, really, really excited about, up 27.2 points overall,” King said.
Literacy specialist Angela Culver described districtwide work to align instruction with the science of reading. “As a literacy specialist team, we partnered with families and created this Read-at-Home backpack,” Culver said. The backpacks include short reference cards, QR codes linking to activities, whiteboards and manipulatives intended to let families practice phonemic awareness and phonics at home.
First-grade teacher Amelia Hutchins described classroom practice: “We utilize both Hegarty and UFLI for our explicit and systematic instruction. We use Hegarty for our auditory drills…and UFLI to draw on decoding and encoding,” Hutchins said, explaining how teachers build from consonant-vowel-consonant words to more complex patterns.
Presenters described a district push on micro-credentials and professional learning: about 50 staff across the district are currently working toward literacy micro-credentials (a multi-year process that includes compensation over time). The district also uses STAR and I-Ready diagnostics to track progress and provide individualized progress reports to families after each testing window.
Officials said the district’s approach emphasizes small-group and one-to-one interventions when needed and that family uptake of the Read-at-Home materials has been positive. “A lot of parents really like the QR codes,” Culver said; staff added they planned to send progress reports to families after the next I-Ready administration.
The board did not take formal action on the presentation itself; the session concluded with questions from members and a transition to public comment.
