San Mateo-Foster City trustees hear staff report strong early gains after three-year rollout of structured literacy program

Pam Barkfield, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, told the San Mateo-Foster City School District Board of Trustees on March 13 that the district’s multi-year rollout of a structured-literacy program (often described in the presentation as the science of reading or Path) is showing measurable benefits in early grades.

Barkfield said the district began a concentrated effort in 2022 that included providing Orton–Gillingham training through the Institute for Multisensory Education and paying for summer training that about 100 teachers attended. She described the work as grounded in “settled research” and emphasized that the approach is not “phonics-only” but combines decoding and language comprehension so students both decode words and understand meaning.

The district described a model that emphasizes Tier 1 instruction in the classroom, supported by 22 language-and-literacy TOSAs (teachers on special assignment) who coach, co-teach and push in with classroom teachers. Barkfield said that keeping students in class for as much of core instruction as possible is a priority and that targeted…