Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Norfolk presentation outlines how Virginia Literacy Act is being implemented in local schools
Loading...
Summary
Division staff told the board the Virginia Literacy Act requires approved screeners, evidence‑based interventions and Student Reading Plans that follow students; presenters named programs in use, outlined progress monitoring, and answered questions about IEP/ELL alignment and family involvement.
Norfolk Public Schools staff provided the Board with a refresher on the Virginia Literacy Act — the 2022 law designed to address statewide literacy shortfalls — and described how the division is putting the law’s requirements into day‑to‑day practice.
Lisa Nash, senior coordinator for elementary English and language arts, said the VLA requires evidence‑based core instruction, approved screeners and aligned interventions and that any K–8 student who demonstrates a substantial reading deficiency must receive intervention documented in a Student Reading Plan (SRP). Nash and Jeremy Clark, senior coordinator of secondary English, demonstrated the screening approach by having board members sound out sample and pseudo‑words to illustrate how phonics and decoding are measured.
Clark explained that the division uses subtest reporting (phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, word recognition, fluency and comprehension) to pinpoint skill gaps and design individualized SRPs with measurable goals and instructional targets. The presenters named programs the division is using to provide approved interventions, including SIPs and Lexia, and described progress‑monitoring cadence: short‑cycle checks (every 2–4 weeks or lesson‑based checks) plus midyear and spring screener windows for apples‑to‑apples comparison.
Board members asked how families are involved in SRP development; presenters said parents are invited to participate (in person, by phone, Zoom or in writing) and that a packet with a one‑page explanation and the student’s SRP is provided. The presenters also said SRPs are intended to follow students across grades to support longitudinal tracking and to allow administrative teams to examine how earlier interventions performed.
On special populations, presenters said SRP goals are reviewed against a student’s IEP when applicable and that decoding goals can count toward IEP goals when aligned. For ELL students, presenters said the screener assesses English reading skills, noted a Spanish version exists for specific diagnostic uses and that translations or interpreter use require approval. Presenters emphasized the role of reading specialists and data teams in overseeing SRP implementation and making adjustments when progress is inadequate.
Administration told the board it has already seen reductions in the number of required reading plans in K–3 since adopting the screener this second year, and said the division will reflect SRP outcomes in future board data monitoring and budget requests (for example, to continue reading specialist positions and approved programs).
