Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Literacy Programs topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District attributes reading gains to "science of reading" training; warns some literacy grants are time-limited
Summary
District staff presented multi-year efforts to adopt the "science of reading": dyslexia screening, LETRS training for teachers, DIBBLES assessment, Amplify curriculum, and ORTI participation. Recent DIBBLES charts showed fewer students at-risk, but staff cautioned that some grant funding will sunset and may affect interventions.
District instructional staff told the board that a concerted, multi-year shift to the "science of reading" approach has produced measurable improvements on local assessments.
Staff described the sequence: after state dyslexia-screening law and early trainings in 2019, the district invested Student Success Act and targeted literacy grant dollars to hire literacy specialists (TOSAs), train staff in LETRS/Language Essentials and other intensive modules, adopt materials aligned to the methodology (Amplify CKLA/ELA), and move from EasyCBM to DIBBLES assessment. The district also used ORTI-like structured coaching and built building leadership teams (DILTs) to support implementation.
Using color-coded DIBBLES results presented to the board, staff argued that the proportion of students categorized as "red" (solidly at-risk) has shrunk over the last two years while the green/blue groups (at or above benchmark) grew. Staff said high-dosage tutoring (groups of four or fewer, 30 minutes a day on nine-week cycles), ongoing coaching, and micro-credentialing for teachers were central to those gains.
Board members asked for longitudinal cohort comparisons, and staff agreed to provide cohort-level DIBBLES data in a future report. Staff also warned that some funding sources — notably the competitive comprehensive literacy grant — are time-limited (one to two more years), and that the district will need contingency plans should those funds decline. The district said early literacy grants appear more durable, and summer-school funding is secured for the next three years.
Quotes from the presentation underscored the message: "The red is shrinking and the blue and the green are getting a lot bigger," the instructional presenter said, summarizing end-of-year assessment trends.
