Lodi School staff outline literacy, classroom expectations and staff-engagement plans as referrals fall

Teachers and staff from the Lodi School District presented a package of literacy strategies, a new classroom teaching matrix and staff-engagement activities at a district meeting, and cited a drop in referrals this year from 335 to 209.

District presenters described classroom-level literacy work across grades — including timed oral-reading fluency practice for kindergarteners, explicitly teaching three to four high-value "tier 2" vocabulary words before reading, and sentence-structure activities to build syntactic awareness. "Fluency is the bridge connecting word recognition and comprehension," one presenter said, explaining grade-level timed targets and classroom routines meant to build automaticity and prosody.

The meeting highlighted routines teachers said parents can use at home. Staff reported sending weekly fluency practice materials and age-appropriate homework guidance to families, and recommended that families pause work that causes frustration and contact the classroom teacher for support.

On behavior, a middle-school presenter described the district's adoption of a teaching matrix — a posted set of common expectations and routines for classrooms, hallways and cafeterias — and tied it to a reduction in office referrals. "Every single one of our classrooms has a classroom matrix now as well as our hallways and our cafeterias," the presenter said, noting the district recorded 335 referrals between September and January in the 2023–24 school year and 209 referrals in the current comparable period, a 40.5% reduction.

Staff also outlined professional-development and morale-building activities under a "pillar 4" focus on staff engagement: a plant-share during a professional day, themed lunches and an Appreciation Week organized with the PTO. Presenters said the district has used social media to communicate these efforts, reporting about 112 posts on the district Facebook page so far this school year.

Why it matters: Presenters framed the combined literacy and behavior strategies as part of multi-year work to align instruction across grade levels and to make classrooms safer and more predictable for learning. Staff said the matrix and routines are intended to make expectations explicit for students and substitutes and to reduce disruptions that pull certified staff away from collaboration time.

What they did not specify: The presenters credited the referral decline to the matrix but acknowledged multiple possible causes and did not provide a formal evaluation attributing the decrease solely to the intervention. Funding amounts for staff events and whether the district will expand the practices to other buildings were not specified.

Next steps: Staff said teachers will continue to share take-home materials with families, refine the vocabulary and syntax lessons, and monitor referral trends as implementation continues.