Partnerships in Action

As national momentum builds around the science of reading, Baltimore City Public Schools’ partnership with Leading Educators offers a powerful example of what is possible for students when educators have the support to build ongoing expertise in how students learn to read and write.

Students saw double-digit gains in foundational skills on DIBELS 8 after the first year of a multi-pronged partnership focused on professional learning for educators on the science of reading.

Behind the Change

City Schools is partnering with Leading Educators to cultivate teacher expertise in the science of reading so that all students have access to effective foundational skills instruction. The science of reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of research about how proficient reading and writing develop, why some students have difficulty, and how teachers can most effectively assess and teach.

Few teachers are initially trained in scientifically-based reading instruction during their teacher preparation programs, so they unknowingly enter the classroom well-intentioned but inadequately prepared to teach kids to read.

To address this need, Baltimore City  Public Schools initially launched a Science of Reading Fellowship with Leading Educators supporting the scoping, design, and initial facilitation, leveraging a Maryland LEADS grant. Soon heading into a third year, the 40-participant fellowship has two pathways:

1. The first focuses on highly effective small-group instruction in foundational skills using UFLI.
2. The second pathway focuses on leading adult learning during systemic PD. Both pathways require Fellows to demonstrate growth in DIBELS scores by the end of the year. 

Leading Educators also designs and co-facilitates systemic professional development for all K-5 teachers in the district, grounded in the five pillars of reading. Systemic PD for K-3rd grade teachers is focused on language comprehension. The arc of learning for the year starts with maximizing oral language opportunities, moves into vocabulary and discussion of text, and ends with assessing student understanding. This arc was co-designed with our district partners and aims to align with the district’s instructional goals. 

The goal is to build a sustainable learning infrastructure for ongoing improvement through new PD structures, a robust library of relevant and curriculum-based professional learning content, increased coaching capacity, and collective expertise.

The Partnership Journey

Leading Educators first began working with Baltimore City Public Schools in 2019 to enhance professional learning centered on the ELA curriculum, Wit & Wisdom. By 2022, a shift towards foundational literacy emerged.

City Schools identified a need for more systemic support.

• In the first year, fellows and participants responded positively as fellows began table-facilitating systemic professional development (PD) days for literacy educators across the district.
• This led to the trial of another initiative: supporting Fellows in leading ‘extension sessions’ on the recent systemic PD day material at their respective school sites.

Leading Educators designed “extension session” materials and provided coaching to fellows as they prepared for their sessions. The feedback from the 10 fellows who conducted these sessions was once more overwhelmingly positive, underscoring the necessity for City Schools to establish a dedicated district-to-school professional learning and coaching system.

City Schools has established a connected learning trajectory, supported by continuous coaching to ensure systemic professional development translates into enhanced classroom practices. The district’s focus on literacy coaching and its dedication to utilizing top-notch curricular resources reflect a practical and iterative approach to tackling literacy issues.

The work in City Schools offers a powerful model for the state and nation at large. Last January, the Maryland State Education Board unanimously adopted a resolution that would require all schools to have research-backed instruction by the 2024-2025 school year and also set a goal for Maryland to be one of the top 10 states for fourth-grade reading.

It’s not acceptable that we have more than half of our children that aren’t reading-proficient by the end of third grade, so we’ve got to create a sense of urgency about this,” said Carey Wright, the interim state superintendent. “And if we get close, and we may not meet that goal, then think of how many of the children will have benefited by us really doubling down.”

LEADERS TO LEARN FROM

Megan MacFeat, a Science of Reading fellow and district literacy coach, says the transformation is visible.

I was in a classroom recently, and the reading interventionist was commenting on a sound that a student was producing. He was saying how that sound feels in his mouth and whether it’s voiced or unvoiced, and she’s like, ‘Yes, good. You’re paying attention to your articulatory gestures.’

I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he is paying attention to his articulatory gestures!’ These are third graders in a reading intervention group. And so I think I just see [a change] day to day when I’m in those conversations that the teachers are having with the students.”

As data emerges from the 2023-2024 school year, early signs into that these successes have continued and accelerated. We look forward to sharing a deeper dive into changes in student learning, teacher practice, and coach effectiveness this fall.

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