A couple of weeks ago, I attended Creating Clarity for Success, a workshop presented by Kent ISD consultants. Kirsten Myers, Special Education director for Kent ISD, set the tone for the day when she said, “This is a collaboration between general educators and special educators that is meant to break barriers. We are all in this together and we hope that this collaboration can open doors for conversation that will make us all ‘just educators’.”

Research shows that students who fall behind in reading are much more likely to struggle academically in later grades. With this in mind the goal of Creating Clarity for Success was to gain clarity around literacy data and collaborate with other educators to develop support systems for success.

Data Profile Review

Sunil Joy, Data Researcher for Kent ISD, asked the curriculum directors and special education directors in attendance “What does your district statewide assessment and eligibility data profile say about the current state of reading achievement in your district?” He then shared four local data sets relating literacy achievement for the group to explore.

• M-STEP results in grade 3 English Language Arts for the state of Michigan.
• Reading Now Network (RNN) Data Tool This tool creates a peer group comparison of M-STEP data. Sunil specifically showed ELA Scores from M-STEP and compared them with At-Risk Factors.
• Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) This tool is designed to measure physical, social, and academic readiness for incoming kindergarten students in four domains. We specifically looked at the Language and Literacy Domain.
• Specific Learning Disabilities Data (SLD) primary qualifiers.

Educators in the room analyzed data from their districts, as well as, data from the state as a whole. They discussed where they might focus their collaborative efforts and systematic planning to improve literacy for all students in their district. They looked for correlations, created assumptions, and generated a broader literacy data story.

Systems For Success

Kent ISD’s Literacy and MTSS team (Katie Momber, Sarah Shoemaker, Kirsten Rice, Stacy Crowell, and Mark Raffler) reviewed key resources. As a group the participants looked at current research-based resources and discussed how differing philosophies impact systems and support. Then they asked “Do they hinder literacy curriculum and literacy?”

• Data: to support decision making
• Practices: to support student learning
• Systems: for staff implementation

The days focus was around data and systems with the intent to work on practices in the future. All of these need to be firmly in place in order for all students to achieve full potential.

The teams shared two tools (a system lens) to help support implementation.

• Essential School Wide & Center Wide Practices in Literacy: A tool to identify current level of implementation of the literacy essential, prioritize areas of improvement, and track growth overtime.
• Reading Tier Fidelity Inventory (R-TFI): The R-TFI is designed to be a road map for school teams as they work to install and successfully use the reading components of an MTSS model. Its focus on data, systems, and some practices/programs align with MTSS core features and compliment the behavioral components of an MTSS model.

Each of the educators in the room were given opportunities to compare and contrast these tools and discuss how they can support each other and how they might support their current work.

Action Planning

At the end of the day, the educators convened with their district colleagues to create a couple of action items that would support and/or develop current systems to strengthen literacy outcomes for all students.

After attending, educators shared with us:

“Based on discussion with our team there is concern about the rigor of instruction in the resource programs. Our next steps will be to gain a greater understanding of the impact of current instruction in the resource program.”

“The data review was an eye opener for me. We need to develop a plan to improve!”

Join Our Next Meeting
Click here to register to attend Creating Clarity for Success on March 20, 2020.

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