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The Early Literacy Team (ELT) has been running a marathon at a sprinter’s pace, said Tom Chang, of Collaborative Educational Services (CES), the group that has been working with the district to right its literacy ship.
“I also wanted to encourage you to think about what ways we could support them, even if it’s just in cheerleading, because they have a big lift over the next few months,” he said.
Chang gave a lengthy update on where CES and the ELT are in regards to a new literacy program. Chang talked about the steps the ELT is taking to whittle down seven potential curriculums to two and what that timeline looks like.
After working through review reports — what Chang called a large volume of sample materials and supports as well as introductory videos — the ELT will undertake site-visits/panel discussions and vendor presentations.
“By the end of that, they’re going to have a really clear picture of which programs are going to work in Winchester, and not just at one school or the other school, but which program is going to fit the whole district,” Chang said.
Chang said that also includes looking at what professional development is offered, how much the trainers charge and other supports and related costs.
He said work would continue through May and then at the ELT’s May meeting, the committee will pick two programs to pilot.
“Then in the background, the steering committee is starting to design the pilot process,” he said.
New School Committee member Stefanie Mnayarji asked if there were any teachers raising their hands asking to pilot the programs.
Chang said he was unaware, but suspected the real problem would be turning educators down because there will be more teachers who want to pilot than there are resources.
“That’s a much better problem,” Mnayarji said.
Chang also pointed out piloting duties were going to be a heavy lift. He added that involves learning two completely new curricula and piloting them both in one year. Piloting both programs allows teachers to compare and contrast, which is the goal, he explained.
Chang said he was also excited to share that the literacy coordinator position has been posted and there are already some promising applicants. He said the process of selecting the coordinator would mirror the culture shift coming out the ELT, which has mirrored Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett’s focus.
“He’s been saying since the beginning, teachers at the table, students at the center,” Chang said.
Chang said he was cognizant the literacy work is taking time.
“I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to find a parent who’s feeling completely overwhelmed by what’s not happening for their kid in reading, right?” he asked.
The problems unearthed by CES’s study haven’t vanished, it’s still an emergency situation of sorts. Change said typically, when a district realizes it has an emergency, the reaction is to simply throw solutions at the problem that ultimately don’t fix the problem, which is why they’re taking their time.
“If I’m that parent, that’s not a lot of consolation for me in the moment,” he said.
But he also said what he and his colleagues have seen are teachers who are not sitting around waiting for a new literacy program. They are doing some great instruction and trying their best, he said.
Some of that instruction involves University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) and Chang said despite teacher concern that UFLI could disappear, there is no nefarious plot underfoot to take it out of the classroom. However, he did say their job is to find the best possible support programs available.
“I think it’s highly possible that UFLI would be the choice to continue to do that phonics work, but we weren’t going to use ‘we’re already doing it’ as a criteria, so I don’t know,” he admitted.
Chang also thanked the School Committee for its ongoing support of the ELT. He said of the work that’s been done thus far, “you know, it’s not magic, it’s not perfect, but I feel like it has a lot of integrity.”
