Webster schools roll out targeted literacy push using CKLA, diagnostics and 'walk to read' groups

Elementary leaders told the Webster Central School District Board of Education on Oct. 14 that the district is intensifying literacy instruction this year by strengthening Tier 1 CKLA curriculum, increasing diagnostic assessments and creating targeted intervention groups.

"Strengthen our tier 1 implementation of CKLA," principal Mark Schichtel said as he outlined steps to move students beyond proficiency through weekly benchmark and diagnostic work. Schichtel described teachers' recent professional development at a superintendent conference day with "over a 140 different options" and said the district is applying diagnostic data to identify the "lowest skill deficits" for individual children.

Schichtel said teachers organized students into smaller "walk to read" groups built from diagnostic assessments and benchmark data so interventions can focus on specific, measurable deficits. He emphasized keeping student identifiers off displayed charts to concentrate on the data rather than names while teachers plan instruction.

Dr. Brian Powers, a secondary principal who commented on elementary results, said he has seen the literacy work's effects in his own children and in current sixth graders who recently completed the elementary program.

District leaders framed the work as both instructional and cultural: layering CKLA's engagement with systematic assessments (DIBELS and diagnostics) and teacher professional learning communities to ensure interventions are timely and tailored. The presentation covered classroom examples, kindergarten activities tied to nursery rhymes and visual displays used to track individual student needs.

The board voted to accept the instructional report as presented; the presentation will be part of continued oversight as the district implements the literacy interventions through the school year.