Literacy Survey February 2018

Pre-K-5

• Current efforts in literacy are positively impacting students at your grade band.

• Teachers and classroom professional staff have the knowledge and strategies to increase students’ literacy achievement at your grade level.

• There is a purposeful implementation of literacy strategies across all content areas at your grade level.

Strongly Agree

5

6

4

Agree

20

38

29

Neutral

14

6

11

Disagree

12

4

8

Strongly Disagree

2

0

1

Active solicitation in the communities for classroom volunteers to read with students and work 1-on-1 with our most struggling learners. Training support staff (including lunch aids and cleaning crew) on easy, impromptu ways to "quiz" students so entire buildings feel invested in student success.

An after school "reading club" would be a great way to boost students' reading skills. Also, summer reading programs would be beneficial for reading intervention and enrichment.

CC Standards successfully identify necessary learning for our students. However our students learn and retain information best when it is interest and project based. I believe that this type of learning is critical to the success of our students. It takes the responsibility away from teachers and allows students to be actively involved. There is so much research that supports this concept but it is almost impossible to adapt the current work day to resemble this work.

Educating the teachers would be a GREAT use for the grant money. Or, hire a reading coach, as Solon does, to visit all the elementary classrooms and instruct writing. There are a lot of different expectations and methods floating out there for teaching writing.

Foundations tutoring would support current curriculum. Ideally the Kindergarten literacy program would be removed and a more authentic curriculum chosen.
A rotating Literacy Teacher would be helpful and help support reading interventions. This person could spend an hour in each Kindergarten classroom in the morning and then support first graders in the afternoon.

Head phones or ear buds for students to listen to devices as it reads in the classroom

I always have 5 or 6 students who are below grade level in reading.  These students would benefit most from pull out programs that focuses on their needs at their level/pace.  Our reading specialists can only take 1 or 2 students per classroom which is not enough.  Could grant money be used to hire another literacy specialist or perhaps an after school reading program?

I believe we need better reading instructors especially at the elementary level.  Students continue to struggle with reading and writing skills.  I believe this problem can be addressed with additional reading instructors in the classroom.

I think there should be more structure and strategy in the Title 1 reading program.

Instead of putting blind faith in a curriculum program, train teachers in phonics instruction - what it is, how to do it. Develop the knowledge of the teachers instead of putting a band aid on our literacy issues. Provide books to families to keep at home.

Making kits for families to work at home with their student on blending.

Literacy support person for kindergarten at all  buildings

mini-libraries for families (milk crates with books) one per family (One district-one book could be a yearly addition to grow collection)

More current books in our library.

More programs to reach young students prior to kindergarten.  More supports in the building for interventions.

More technology, more title services

Our youngest children come in so far behind. We need ways to fill in the gaps and need time to do that.  Purposeful after school or summer programming is needed.

Parent education for birth-5 (teaching them strategies on how they can best prepare their children for K.  Even if you can't afford a quality preschool...there is so much a parent can do to help their child)
ON THAT NOTE _ FREE PRE K (that might be a stretch)
books in the hands of the same families
books in the hands and in the homes of ALL families

Parents are always asking for after school tutoring provided by the district.

Parents must know how to extend the skills at home. Repetition is the key to learning.

persons able to run intervention groups

professional development in research based strategies and interventions, not just specific curriculum

Providing leveled books for students to take home either on a borrowing basis or to keep

Return to 1.5-2 hours of daily intensive small group instruction for students who are not on grade level.
These classes should be taught by reading specialists.

Students would most benefit from a systematic approach.  The district would identify cutoff criteria, use benchmark and progress monitoring data to identify students that need additional support, and the students would be ensured to receive high quality Tier II interventions, their progress monitored, and the system would allow for fluid student movement in/out of intervention as needed. The district would determine how to reallocate resources in order to provide the high quality Tier II intervention, and how to have all students receiving these interventions to be progress monitored every two weeks.

Superkids does not work! We have said this repeatedly to the ED Services team. Our children need take home books K-2 that are a normal component of a regular reading resource but that are not a part of the Superkids' program. Each child should be receiving at least two take home books a week from reading. Additionally, our children need  additional time. We used to have after school tutoring. All children who are below benchmarks in reading should be offered in addition to Title some type of extra tutoring.

Teacher professional development focus on the target and resources support.

The reason that I answered as I did is because our elementary series have so many deficits.
Superkids is great for phonics but VERY weak in comprehension.  In 3rd grade, Ready Gen is mostly comprehension and very little phonics.  There is a disconnect at 3rd grade which affects the Third Grade Guarantee.  In addition, The Ready gen series does not address all of the standards and has assessments that do not assess what has been taught.  In our district, we use a writing rubric which is standards based but is severely lacking in many skills.  Using it, our kids can be proficient when a sentence does not make sense and has no capitals or periods.  The state has a rubric.  That is what we should be using.  In addition, our district should e providing us with mock tests so teachers do not have to make them.

There is an overwhelming part of the population that doesn't have anyway to provide tutoring services for their children and this year we aren't offering any after school tutoring.  There also needs to be enrichment possibilities in the summer or after school (for example:  to finish the reading and math series when units aren't covered, to learn strategies to solve word problems, etc...)

Training for reading and writing across the curriculum.

Tutors or extra practice after school

Writing resources and strategies for scaffolding writing in the classroom.

Years ago we used grant money to set up a book lending program in our preschool classrooms. We were able to purchase multiple copies of our weekly books and every child took a copy home to read with family that week. At the start of the program, parents were asked to sign an agreement form to accept responsibility for the books. Then a book was sent home each week (same book we were reading in class that week), and parents were asked to fill out a little checklist and return it with the book at the end of the week. The checklist just asked whether they had a chance to read it with their child, and if so, how often. They were also asked a few questions about their child's engagement with the book, their comprehension, (e.g., was your child able to
- point to pictures named?
- identify main characters?
- make predictions about what might happen?
 -retell the story?
and so on.
It was a wonderful preschool - family literacy partnership, but over the years the books became worn out, lost, etc. We would love to replace the books and reintroduce this valuable program. If you'd like more info about this, please contact Erin Goldberg, Preschool Intervention Specialist at Gearity School:
e_goldberg@chuh.org
216-320-4517

You have 2 strongly disagree answers in the question: There is a purposeful implementation of literacy strategies across all content....

The district should spend the money creating smaller elementary classes where the teacher could have ONE on ONE time and individualize attention. The question is not whether the teachers have the knowledge and strategies, is whether the teacher has the TIME to spend and teach individual students. When the district has students who start WELL BELOW grade level, and they are put in a class of 20-24 students, you either slow down the whole class and move on with the class and do your best with the students who need individualized attention. Unfortunately you can't do both. If the district would invest on more teachers for a small class per grade, where students would be able to move up to level the whole district and students would benefit.

As my suggestions imply kindergarten readiness is the KEY to positively impacting literacy for our kids.  If our district had the means to invest in the CRITICAL years from birth to K with outreach programs than our students would not be entering Kindergarten already behind.

District interpretation of the kindergarten standards is not an accurate reflection of the standards as they are written. The district should reevaluate grade level expectations for K and 1.

How can a summative test be used formatively?  Our curriculum director thinks it can.  This makes NO sense to teachers since we use a pacing chart that makes re-teaching impossible!

Parents need to have a "real" conversation with school administration about the outlook for their child that doesn't "sugar coat" things. When teachers try to do this, many parents are on the defense so nothing actually gets accomplished for the child.

Superkids - the program goes very fast and very hard for students below grade level

Teachers need professional liberties to teach their classes how they see fit. Beginning, middle end of year data would show the impact they are making with their classes

Teachers need to be able to have additional materials to pull from for interventions (not just rely on what is provided through SuperKids or Ready Gen).  Because of these programs, leveled book rooms are going underused.  How can we get them back in use and improved with more literature?

The new reading series is great but we need more training. I do not feel teachers are familiar with all of the parts of the program. I would like more training on how to effectively teach the writing portions. And all parts should be taught with fidelity NOT changed by random groups of teachers.

We are currently using a horrible curricular resource in K-2, Superkids. The district is well aware that most teachers, especially teachers in first and second grades, do not like this resource. The teachers are great teachers but the resource is terrible! Trying to fix a broken resource should not fall on teacher's backs! THE PROGRAM DOES NOT WORK! It is not a standards-based resource and teachers are struggling to supplement this resource with actual standards-based resources. How many times does the district have to hear this before they will listen and help us stop the bleeding? Our children are losing out as people who are not elementary teachers mandate assessments that are poorly written and that are not aligned with our instruction! Do what is in the best interest of our children and help build a wealth of books to help teachers actually teach the standards.

When we were able to group students by reading ability, I saw the most growth in students overall reading level with all students.  The Superkids program teaches to the middle.  My higher ability students are not being challenged enough with this program.  The program is too difficult for my lowest group.

Your survey offers strongly disagree twice for each question but does not offer strongly agree on any.

Grades
6-8

• Current efforts in literacy are positively impacting students at your grade band.

• Teachers and classroom professional staff have the knowledge and strategies to increase students’ literacy achievement at your grade level.

• There is a purposeful implementation of literacy strategies across all content areas at your grade level.

Strongly Agree

0

3

3

Agree

5

9

6

Neutral

3

2

1

Disagree

3

0

1

Strongly Disagree

1

0

2

After school program or summer school for those students who scored below normal on the NWEA test

Literacy Task Force per school building
District Literacy Initiatives "auto" listed on the TBT forms
Designated Balanced Literacy Framework established and given to each content area teacher
Building Wide "Read-in" days
Reading mentors that meet to read monthly

One of the bigger issues deals with those students entering our district from other places. Often, these students need serious intervention. Even pullout help cannot be enough due to how far behind the child has been. Intense phonic instruction is needed for those few if they are going to be successful. We have one student that has really insightful answers, but only when a passage is read to him. Phonics instruction is helping. But he really needs more individual instruction than he has now

I use some cool sites for reading lexile such as newsela and there is another my coworkers use.

Shorten periods and EXCESSIVE TESTING plus the 5 NEARPOD lessons take away from instructional time. In a time where the ODE states we should do less testing we have increased our testing. For example, Map testing takes 2 to 3 days to complete, TBT pre and post test take time, benchmark testing takes  3 days to complete.  Deadlines dates approach before we can complete the content that the test includes. This is not a true representation of what the students have been taught or learned. During our TBT time ELA is spending time adjusting the benchmark test to accommodate the pacing guide. We should not have to do this during our TBT time this takes away from really focusing on our TBT's and strategies to benefit our students.   If I'm not mistaken we have increased staffing for our curriculum department, however teaches are taking on their work this leaves no time for staff to collaborate.

The building literacy focus still continues to carry the bulk of the load in ELA classes.

The change in schedule taking away the blocked class period for ELA from an 87 minute class to the current 42 minute class has greatly limited the time for teachers to focus on writing strategies, grammar, and specific standards skill practice.

The middle school schedule for the 2017-2018 school year does not benefit literacy efforts. We have less time for ELA and less time to teach the curriculum to our students. Last year we had 84 minutes of ELA five times a week. This year we have 42 minutes 5 times a week and extra 42 min for some students 2 times a week and others 3 times a week depending on the even/ odd calendar day. The constant transitions lessen the time to 40 min or less per class. The reduction in time is impacting our students and their progress/ growth in reading.

Grades
 9-12

• Current efforts in literacy are positively impacting students at your grade band.

• Teachers and classroom professional staff have the knowledge and strategies to increase students’ literacy achievement at your grade level.

• There is a purposeful implementation of literacy strategies across all content areas at your grade level.

Strongly Agree

3

3

2

Agree

5

10

7

Neutral

6

5

8

Disagree

12

7

8

Strongly Disagree

1

1

2

Bring back required reading courses.

basic grammar,  (subject/verb) agreement, prepositional phrases, etc. needs to be emphasized

Class sets of books, summer reading, professional development for staff regarding strategies to increase student literacy.

Increased time on task as opposed to pressure to teach to the test.

It would be wonderful to include a Science "Literacy" night--- similar to elementary literacy nights but using Science activities that highlight or use Science vocabulary, and other ways of promoting "doing Science" not just in the classroom, but in homes as well.

Mandatory before or after school reading/literacy sessions for needy students.

Professional development around best practice strategies FOR ALL.  Develop common language and research process model FOR ALL

Reading a book by grade level and have the author come in as a speaker for that grade level.  All student's that read that book attend the assembly

Reading class for students who cannot read at grade level.

Teaching strategies in other content areas for literacy. A building-wide focus on literacy.

The push for literacy has declined within the district in the last several years.
Required reading needs to be suited to the students' ability/reading levels. Strategies need to be a part of every classroom.
Courses need to be offered to improve skills for students who are reading below grade level.

We have too many students participating in English classes with material that they can't comprehend or understand and there needs to be something done with the students who are struggling

Writing has been shown to improve reading skills for secondary students. Our students would benefit from having small group instruction for writing, which can be modeled after what works in colleges and universities - either a writing center or small class.

Re-evaluate testing

Students at the high school level often tell me they have never read an entire book. I think we need to do something to make more palatable choices available to students. I also think high school students need to have time to read during the school day.