Literacy Now

Although all educators acknowledge the critical importance of literacy for student success, schools have a long way to go in implementing sustained, high-quality literacy programs. According to Education Dive, one common barrier is that principals do not have the content area expertise to become literacy leaders. Another is that they do not have leadership skills to guide a schoolwide literacy improvement effort.

Teachers are only as strong as the school’s leadership—without adequate scaffolding and support, even the most competent and ambitious educators will find it difficult—if not impossible—to bring about meaningful change.

The House spending proposal for education for the next budget year would cut $2.4 billion in funding for the Supporting Effective Instruction grant program, also known as Title II—which provides federal funds to recruit, retain, and train high-quality teachers, principals, and school leaders. 

Last Wednesday, the International Literacy Association (ILA) and the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) cosponsored a briefing titled “Improving Student Literacy: Leadership Needed at Every Level” in Washington, DC. The briefing brought together a group of literacy leaders, policymakers, advocates, and educators who spoke to Congressional staffers from key Senate and House education committees about the critical importance of effective leadership at all levels.

Empowering teachers to become real leaders

Dan Mangan, ILA’s director of public affairs, welcomed guests and introduced Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), who set the stage with remarks touting the importance of teacher leadership. He attributed high teacher turnover rates to a lack of administrative support, professional learning opportunities, and decision-making input.

“We have to find better ways for teachers to become real leaders,” said Coons. “How many of our students struggle in school where they don’t have the teaching resources they deserve and where teachers struggle to find leadership and growth opportunities for themselves?”

For most teachers, said Coons, the only pathway to advancement is by becoming an administrator. He believes that teachers need opportunities to become leaders without having to leave the classroom.

Coons also cited the Teachers Are Leaders Act, a bipartisan bill he introduced with Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Jack Reed (D-RI). If passed, the act would leverage the expertise of teacher preparation programs to design and implement new teacher leader roles.

“We’re making sure we invest in the teachers who instruct, train, and are critical role models to our children,” said Coons. “Research shows that when we empower teachers to lead, our schools and our students are stronger.”

Behind every effective teacher is an effective principal

Kelly Pollitt, chief advocacy officer of the National School Boards Association, opened the panel presentation in her role as moderator.  She introduced the three key speakers—a district superintendent, a middle school principal, and a principal educator—who would collectively impart the “magic ingredients” of successful literacy leadership.

Pollitt prefaced with an urgent reminder that now, more than ever, school leadership can affect student achievement. She said it’s critically important that literacy continues to be a national priority.

“We know that the first and most important school-based factor that influences student learning is the teacher,” she said. “Behind every effective teacher is an effective principal.”

Literacy = the vaccine for poverty

Pollitt first introduced ILA Board member Stephen Peters, the CEO of The Peters Group and founder of the Gentlemen’s and Ladies Club programs, which provide mentorship opportunities for at-risk and honor students throughout the United States

When Peters was a child, his father always told him that “literacy is the vaccine for poverty.” Peters continues to embrace this phrase today in his role as superintendent of Laurens County 55 School District.

Peters shared some secrets to his success in cultivating a schoolwide culture of literacy, such as increasing classroom reading time, mandating take-home reading, and implementing regular professional development.

Family and community engagement is another key feature of his approach—on the first day of school each year, faculty from Laurens County 55 School District go door-to-door into local neighborhoods, introducing themselves to parents and students.

For teachers to teach at their best and for students to learn at the highest level, principals need to define and promote high expectations, according to Peters. He believes superintendents play a critical role in cultivating leadership skills among all teachers and faculty.

Breaking the cycle

Doris Lee, founder and principal of Village Academy, an New York City middle school in Far Rockaway that’s part of a major program called the Middle School Quality Initiative (MSQI), has also focused her efforts on professional learning. Teachers at Village Academy collaborate in their respective subject areas and grade teams to develop instructional plans, to engage in professional learning communities, and to address the diverse social and emotional needs of students.

“As our student population changes, the learning has to continue,” said Lee. “We need ongoing support to ensure that we can meet the needs of every single child.”

Lee said this model has been proven to improve student learning outcomes; from 2016 to 2017, Village Academy saw a 19% increase in performance on state standardized English language arts test scores and, more important, a sustained baseline over a measure period when the New York City average declined significantly.

Moreover, Lee has succeeded in closing achievement gaps—an accomplishment that would have been impossible without strong teacher education, she said.

“Poverty is cyclical, and literacy can break the cycle,” said Lee. “But educators need training to be effective.”

Preparing principals to close achievement gaps

ILA’s William Teale, professor in the Literacy, Language & Culture Program and University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), presented on Stanford University’s recently published study, which demonstrates the outperformance of Chicago Public Schools against the national average.

Another local study shows that percentages of freshman on-track, annual achievement gains, attendance and graduation rates were significantly higher in schools whose principals were graduates of UIC’s principal preparation program, which include a course on literacy leadership.

Teale pointed to this research as evidence that greater success is achieved when teachers are backed by strong leaders.

“You are never going to learn to be a good principal by sitting in a classroom and reading,” said Teale. “You need to get out there and do things in schools.”

The key to schoolwide success

JoAnn Bartoletti, executive director of NASSP, closed with a call to action, reiterating the critical importance of restoring Title II funding under the Every Student Succeeds Act. 

She said that the key to schoolwide success is common ownership over a shared vision and set of goals. She believes that every educator has a stake in—and a responsibility to—support literacy education, as every learning opportunity relies on literacy skills.

“Literacy is the great gateway to the critical and creative thinking that has always been the hallmark of our nation’s progress.”

Alina O'Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.

The use of standardized test scores to measure reading proficiency is a long-standing source of debate in education reform. Although these scores provide useful information that may contribute to students’ reading growth, they are often considered the “coin of the realm”—silencing other valuable indicators and assessments while disproportionately influencing important educational decisions. Furthermore, low test scores can have cascading, negative impacts on students, schools and their surrounding communities—leading to poor student morale, high staff turnover, lower real estate prices and more.

According to ILA’s recent brief, the dominance of standardized reading tests “stems from an insufficient understanding of their limitations.” Without endorsing or negating their value, the brief explores the roles, uses and caveats of standardized reading tests to assess student achievement, compare students, evaluate programs, create educational policy and determine accountability.

ILA advocates for a different weighting of standardized reading tests as well as a more thorough understanding of reading development that recognizes “an array of formative classroom-based assessments.” The brief ends with five salient considerations that teachers and administrators can use to inform internal decision making:

• There is no research that supports a correlation between increased standardized testing and increased reading achievement.
• Standardized reading tests do not fully reflect students’ reading achievement and development.
• Standardized reading tests can impede the development of students’ self-efficacy and motivation.
• Standardized reading tests confine reading curriculum and can undermine high-quality teaching.
• Standardized reading tests are time-consuming and expensive—demanding resources that could be used to support students’ reading achievement in other ways.

To read more, visit the brief here.

Alina O'Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.

Wilkie, principal at McVey Elementary in Newark, DE, is the first recipient of ILA’s inaugural Corwin Literacy Leader Award, which honors a district or school administrative literacy leader who has worked to increase student literacy achievement by advancing professional development, instructional resources support, and the development of literacy programs. To learn about 2018 award and grant opportunities, visit our Awards & Grants page.

At McVey Elementary School, books are everywhere. They are hidden under desks as students read surreptitiously during class, displayed on decorative bulletin boards in the hallways, tumbling out of lockers, and even strewn throughout the cafeteria, having strayed from the “borrow and return” pile.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

“We knew that we had to change what literacy looked like at McVey. Our students did not show a love of reading and writing—they saw it more as a chore. A lot of reading instruction was being done in the classroom, but there wasn’t a lot of reading being done by the students,” says principal David Wilkie.

McVey’s literacy transformation began in April 2016 when ILA received a grant from an anonymous donor as part of the Delaware Community Foundation’s Fund for Children’s Literacy. The grant was to be used at a public elementary school in Delaware to build a culture of literacy through professional learning opportunities for staff, schoolwide reading programs, and family engagement.

ILA chose to use the funds at McVey on the basis of the school’s history of high staff retention and strong leadership. In its first year, ILA decided to focus on professional development; the grant covered the cost of Wilkie and seven other staff members and teachers to attend the ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits in Boston, MA.

“Most of us had never attended an ILA conference before. We didn’t really know what we were walking into,” says Wilkie. “We were reenergized; we came with so many ideas. We met as a team every night at dinner. Our dinners were about two to three hours long because we were sharing information and talking about what we could do at McVey.”

At one of their dinners, the group decided that the theme of the school’s literacy makeover would be “wonder.”

“We felt that our students had lost that sense of wonder at an early age,” says Wilkie. “They were all about asking questions in the early years, but by third grade, they start losing that.”

The once-plain walls at McVey are now vibrant “wonder walls,” covered in questions—some content related, some general—written by students. Every “Wonder Wednesday,” the questions are read aloud and answered by teachers, students, or Wilkie himself during morning announcements. Wilkie says plans for “wonder centers” and “wonder windows” are in the works.

Over the past year, ILA and McVey have collaborated on a series of initiatives to help build a culture of literacy at the school. The grant also covered support from Carrice Cummins, professor at Louisiana Tech University, who is working with Wilkie to identify the school’s main challenges and to establish a long-term plan. With her assistance, McVey has set up four professional development experiences related to interactive read-aloud training.

Wilkie believes that everyone at McVey—from the cafeteria servers to the P.E. teachers—needs to be involved in the project, excited by the mission, and committed to a set of shared goals.

“A big part of this is shifting the mind-sets of teachers from teaching stories to teaching a love of reading and the importance of reading,” he says.

Cummins helped to implement interactive read-aloud, independent reading time, and schoolwide and gradewide author and book studies. Last year, all the fifth graders read Bridge to Terabithia (HarperCollins), which culminated in a Skype session with author Katherine Paterson.

Wilkie says his approach to literacy education is grounded in choice; he wants the students to feel a sense of ownership over their reading habits.

“One class took a survey about what they enjoyed this year that they hadn’t in the past, and the majority made comments like ‘Thank you for giving us more time to read books and to choose books we like to read,’” he says.

This year, 23 teachers and staff members attended the ILA 2017 Conference & Exhibits in Orlando, FL.

When asked about next steps, Wilkie says they are looking to get parents and the community more involved. Since starting the project, he says several parents have noticed a shift in their child’s attitude toward reading. One even said it’s a challenge to get her child to stop reading long enough to hold a conversation over dinner.  

 “He was always a reader but he wasn’t always this passionate about reading,” says Wilkie. “But now, he can’t put the books down.”

Alina O'Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.

I spend my days oscillating between two versions of myself.

The first is Lindsay, the mother. My two daughters are seven and one, and they are willful, brilliant, demanding little tyrants. As a stay-at-home mom, much of my time every day is spent with my daughters, feeding them, dressing them, teaching them, and generally making sure they are happy and healthy.

No small task.

Most nights I collapse into bed, desperate for a few hours’ rest before the morning breaks and the exhausting, isolating task of caretaking begins again. I have always known I wanted to be a mother, but oh, I was not prepared for how hard it can be to give and give and give, and wonder if it will ever be enough.

But this is the experience of being a mother.

The second is Lindsay, the writer. I am a daydreamer, a silly heart, a creator of worlds and places and characters as dear to me as if they were real. As a child, I hoped that I would one day be a published author, and when I saw my debut book, Hour of the Bees, on shelves in bookstores, a new fire was lit—to tell every story I have inside me. To write, to be fearless with my pen, to illuminate with my words, to bring honesty and beauty and searing, sparkling magic to readers, and to stop only when I am dead.

No small task.

Most nights I fall asleep immediately, already plotting what sentences I will write when I wake—sometimes the words tease me out of sleep when it is still dark, whispering to me across the shadows. I have always known I wanted to be a writer, but oh, I was not prepared for how it feels to give and give and give, and wonder if it will ever be enough.

But this is the experience of being a writer.

And on most days these two versions of myself feel at odds—they battle for my attention, for my energy. They fight to be the defining Lindsay, but every once in a while I have a day where the two of them melt into one.

The day when I opened the email telling me I was an ILA Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award winner in the category of intermediate fiction? That was one of those days.

I looked up from my notebook, up at my sweet girls, and the connection was forged—the immense privilege I have of writing for children, of shaping their world, of opening a window of magic into their lives—that is celebrated with this award, which I share with the teachers who work with young children in classrooms and encourage their imaginations through literacy.

There is a Lindsay who gets to mother my darling girls, and a Lindsay who gets to write books that children read with their teachers, books that hopefully develop a lifelong love of reading and learning for these minds. I am so, so grateful to the International Literacy Association for highlighting Hour of the Bees. This is such a great honor, to be recognized by an organization that looks at stories for children, every day, and to be seen as enough. I am delighted that my second novel, Race to the Bottom of the Sea, was released this month—it affirms that not only does writer Lindsay belong in this world, she thrives.

Lindsay Eagar won the ILA 2017 Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award for Intermediate Fiction for Hour of the Bees.

Northrop, assistant professor of literacy education at Cleveland State University, Ohio, is the recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award, honoring an exceptional dissertation completed in the field of reading or literacy. To learn about 2018 award and grant opportunities, visit our Awards & Grants page.

Laura Northrop brings a former journalist’s mind-set to the field of literacy research, where she approaches each challenge like a news story, seeking a deeply contextualized understanding of the reader’s world.

After a brief stint in journalism, Northrop decided she wanted to go into education. Her first teaching job was in the Chicago public school district. Although she taught grades 6–8, most of her students were reading below a middle school level. During this time, she became increasingly interested in struggling readers, particularly in the middle school context, and she decided to pursue a PhD in education policy analysis from the University of Pittsburgh.

“I wanted to know, what’s the difference between children who enter kindergarten with low-level literacy skills, and go on to have average achievement, and those who enter with low literacy skills and continue to struggle?” Northrop recalls. She explored this question in her dissertation “Breaking the Cycle: Cumulative Disadvantage in Literacy.”

Northrop’s research focuses on teacher attrition, instructional practices, and cumulative disadvantage in literacy. She believes literacy success lies at the intersection of choice, parenting behaviors, and instructional intervention.

“It really is an alignment of child, home, and school factors. The child has to be motivated to want to be a better reader, the parents have to be on board, and teachers have to be knowledgeable enough to provide the right interventions at the right time,” says Northrop.

Alina O’Donnell is the editor of ILA’s blog, Literacy Daily.