The Learning Community and Central Falls School District: building strong readers
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| Christine Wiltshire teaches a demonstration reading lesson in a classroom at Robertson Elementary School in Central Falls. | “E” is the letter of the week in Katlyn Fox’s kindergarten classroom at Captain Hunt School in Central Falls. The young teacher patiently helps two special education students in her classroom to trace the letter. “Start at the top and go down,” she instructs the two boys. As the lesson continues, Miss Fox reads, “Emily the elephant helps Erin the eagle clean up the earth,” encouraging the boys to point to each word as she slowly says them.
It’s just another day in kindergarten, except for the woman sitting off to the side, carefully taking notes as Miss Fox teaches the lesson. The “guest” is Laurie Sena, a kindergarten teacher at The Learning Community, who is providing classroom coaching for Miss Fox through the Growing Readers Initiative.
The Initiative is a partnership between The Learning Community and the Central Falls School District to improve reading performance district-wide.
"As far as we know, this is the only place in the nation where charter and traditional school teachers are working together in the classroom to improve instruction,” states Meg O’Leary, co-director of The Learning Community. “Professional development is nothing new, but the need for high-quality, high-impact professional development that reflects the challenges urban schools face has never been greater. The Growing Readers Initiative invests in Central Falls’ dedicated teachers and specialists – giving them the tools and support to increase their effectiveness in teaching reading.”
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| Cheryl Thurber, a teacher at Robertson Elementary School, debriefs with Christine Wiltshire following a demonstration lesson Christine taught in Cheryl’s English-as-second-language classroom. |
The Initiative, referred to as “a ground breaking approach to professional development” by program leaders, has shown impressive early results. The Initiative’s pilot included four classrooms at Captain Hunt School, beginning in August 2008; within six months...
86% of participating students were reading at or above the national benchmark in reading, a 39 point gain.
The program expanded the following school year to include all K-2 classrooms in every elementary school in Central Falls. Performance gains continued with students’ reading scores increasing 30 points, a 54% gain. In 2011 the Initiative will expand again, serving all K-5 classrooms in Central Falls and reaching more than 1,400 students.
So what makes the Initiative work? “It’s about building relationships. It takes a lot of care and a lot of listening for all partners,” explains Kath Connolly, director of partnerships at The Learning Community.
The Initiative consists of four main areas of collaborative work:
- Reading workshop trainings in which teachers meet in grade level groups to use the Reading Workshop approach and plan units and lessons;
- Reading safety net system through which reading specialists and literary assistants are trained on creating and strengthening a system for students who need additional support outside the classroom;
- Quarterly assessment support to analyze student performance; and
- Classroom and guided reading coaching that involves Learning Community teachers providing in-class demonstrations, modeling, observing, and debriefing support to help their public school colleagues increase the effectiveness of their work.
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| Christine Wiltshire plans with Learning Community first grade teacher Lynn Lotierzo. Lynn is part of a cadre of Learning Community teachers who are sharing practices with classroom teachers and specialists in Central Falls public schools. | The Initiative, stresses Christine Wiltshire, director of external professional development at The Learning Community, “is not evaluative, it’s coaching. The teachers need to know, ‘She (the Learning Community teacher) is on your side. She is here to offer support, and she wants your students to succeed.’
“A lot of the Central Falls teachers are at the place where they know it’s going to help. They’re saying, ‘Bring it on,’” shares Wiltshire, who has led the program since its planning stages.
In an article in the spring 2010 issue of Voices in Urban Education, published by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, co-authors Connolly, Wiltshire, and Frances Gallo, superintendent of the Central Falls School District, note, “The partnership embodies the original promise of the charter school movement – to spur innovation in the larger system of public education…Growing Readers is a successful, working example of truly targeted, collective practice…By building strong readers in early grades across an entire district, the Growing Readers partnership helps prepare students to succeed for the rest of their school careers – through high school and beyond.”
“This program is an excellent example of how our investment in a charter school can result in best practices being learned and shared, in this case with an entire public school district. It also addresses professional development and peer support in a unique – and successful – way,” states Denise M. Jenkins, the Foundation’s grant programs officer for education. “The best part, though, is the success students are having through their participation in the Initiative. Early reading ability is critical to a student’s success, not only in school, but also in life.”
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