Examples of Literacy Technical Assistance

Examples of Literacy Technical Assistance: State Level

As part of its work with the Mid-Atlantic Comprehensive Center, CEEE staff worked in June 2006 with the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center to develop an adolescent literacy webcast. This Webcast was designed to help SEAs identify critical issues related to adolescent literacy and develop specific plans for improving literacy levels.

As part of its work with the R3CC, CEEE staff have provided assistance to the Ohio Department of Education in creating the Ohio Literacy Initiative: A Basic Framework for Literacy Development, which became a critical component of the state's successful Reading Excellence Act (REA) proposal.

R3CC also provided extensive assistance to the Pennsylvania Department of Education in the creation of its successful REA proposal and then provided additional support in the implementation of REA by assisting state staff in planning and conducting a series of workshops for eligible districts on REA, applying for REA funds, and local evaluation requirements. To ensure the evaluation was closely linked to implementation, R3CC assisted the state in creating the PA REA Evaluation Team and provided ongoing support to this team as it planned and conducted the evaluation of REA in Pennsylvania.

Examples of Literacy Technical Assistance: District Level

One of R3CC's major literacy improvement activities at the district and school level is the Reading Success Network (RSN), a K-3 literacy professional development initiative designed to increase classroom teachers' use of diagnostic assessment to design instruction to meet student needs through the support of peer coaching and a regional network. The Reading Success Network is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Comprehensive Centers' Network and is used by schools across the nation. R3CC began its implementation of RSN in November 1998 and since then has worked with over forty schools, in seven school districts across four states.

Three districts have made particularly strong commitments to the RSN process and have worked with R3CC for the past four years.

• Reading School District, Reading, Pennsylvania. Since 1998, the Reading School District in Pennsylvania has invited six of its elementary schools to participate in RSN to support the district's school improvement process. R3CC provided customized training for teachers and coaches at each participating elementary school. When teams of teachers were able to meet regularly throughout the school year they observed improvements in student literacy achievement as measured on district literacy performance tasks.
  
  
• Chillicothe City Schools, Chillicothe, Ohio. Chillicothe City Schools, a small urban district with Title I schools in need of improvement, has also participated in RSN for four years. Over this time the role of RSN coaches has changed from initially providing professional development on reading research and effective literacy practices to a current focus on analyzing data from diagnostic assessments to create instructional plans and groupings to meet student needs. Student literacy achievement, as measured by the state's fourth grade reading proficiency test, has increased over the last four years and in 2002 the district had the highest fourth grade reading test scores in the county.
  
  
• Lorain City Schools, Lorain, Ohio. Lorain City Schools in Ohio, a high-poverty low-performing urban district, began its implementation of RSN by hiring full and part time literacy coaches. R3CC assisted the district in its successful REA application and the district was then able to use its REA funds to provide full-time RSN coaches for every elementary school. R3CC provided training and ongoing support to coaches who focused on helping teachers use diagnostic assessment, flexible grouping and the Ohio State University Balanced Literacy Framework to improve literacy instruction. Student literacy achievement has improved in the district, and during the 2001-02 school year, the third year of RSN implementation, the number of students passing the state fourth grade reading proficiency test increased significantly from 34% to 61%.

Examples of Literacy Technical Assistance: School Level

• Pennsylvania Department of Education Reading First Team: The Center provided assistance to the state Reading First team by providing initial and follow-up training to school-based coaches on effective coaching strategies and data-analysis, and is also providing ongoing support to the state's Reading First technical assistants.
  
  
• Jersey City Public Schools, Jersey City NJ: The Center provided ongoing training to the district's Reading First coaches in effective coaching strategies, data analysis, and the implementation of research based strategies in literacy instruction.

As part of its work with R3CC, CEEE has also provides technical assistance at the school level. R3CC assists in the professional development activities of the Pennsylvania Big Cities Consortium in order to provide literacy assistance to school level teams. For the last three years R3CC has provided a two-day literacy seminar at the Big Cities Consortium Summer Retreat.

These seminars have focused on the following topics:

• Ohio State University Balanced Literacy Framework, with examples of instruction provided by practitioners (2000);
• Reading Academy for School Improvement Teams, which allowed participants to examine their schools' data, generate explanations for strengths and weaknesses in student achievement, and create a plan to improve student performance (2001);
• Examination of the findings of the National Reading Panel report, focusing on how the instructional practices currently used by participants fit with the research findings, and adding motivation as a critical instructional component (2002).

R3CC also has assisted the Big Cities Consortium in providing a seminar on the findings of the full National Reading Panel and its specific implications for classroom practice. R3CC prepared a resource document, Practitioner's Guide for Discussing the Findings of the National Reading Panel Report, to both guide participants in reading the full report prior to the seminar and in discussing its finding with their colleagues.

R3CC also provides literacy technical assistance to schools through its school improvement work as it assists high-need schools in preparing Schoolwide Program plans and Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) proposals. R3CC assisted the Riverside Elementary School in the Reading School District in creating a successful CSR proposal that built on the literacy improvement efforts the school was undertaking through its participation in the Reading Success Network. R3CC then provided customized literacy technical assistance and professional development to support the school in implementing its CSR plan. R3CC was able to build on the knowledge and experience it gained in working with the schools and districts participating in the Reading Success Network to create customized technical assistance to meet the specific needs of Riverside Elementary School.