Case Studies

The Challenge

State standardized assessment performance data for at-risk students was deemed below the basic thresholds for literacy skills acquisition rate that supported continued school accreditation requirements. With an overview of the school-wide literacy goals for improvement, I was charged with creating a program that supported increased literacy performance of both at-risk and general student populations, as a means of supporting retention of accreditation.

The administrators and stakeholders needed a solution that would:

• Improve learner outcomes on formative and summative state assessments.
• Create a program of learning for staff that would improve student literacy learning outcomes through more strategic literacy instruction across ELA and content courses.
• Use knowledge of adult-learning theory to develop “buy-in” from staff to change behavior and pedagogical practice across all grade level ELA departments.

The Opportunity

• Design and develop a standardized pilot program of literacy learning that would become the standard program of literacy instruction for the school in future years.
• Conduct needs-assessment to determine where the instructional needs were as a focus for bi-weekly instructional workshops for teachers.
• Group and individual coaching of teachers to provide further support on pedagogical skills practices introduced in workshops and data collection.

My Approach

• Customized Tools Development: Developed skills-based data reporting charts, standards-based skills assessments, and resources for reading specialists and general education instructors to reinforce standards-based instruction and student skills progress monitoring.
• Content Development: Created all training materials, coaching guides, and session assets—grounded in focused instructional needs.
• Delivery & Facilitation: Led bi-weekly workshop sessions on instructional strategies best practices based on needs assessments. Facilitated grade-level data driven Collaborative Learning Team (CLT) meetings to progress monitor, support, and collaborate on instructional strategy use and progress.
• Ongoing Support: Measured impact through end of year review with administration staff and stakeholders to maintain program initiative next steps for future years.

The Results

School wide growth in literacy outcomes that spanned over a 10 percent increase overall in standardized assessment scores.

Key Outcomes

• Cultural Shift. Post training surveys showed significant gains in staff and administrative confidence in the instructional programming and application.
• Scalable Model. The program was retained and continued across multiple years as the foundations of the program were sought to be applied to math instruction to have math instructional coaches improve school-wide math scores in a similar manner.
• Improved Employee Engagement. Instructors felt more supported and expressed a sense of satisfaction with their professional growth along with the performance growth of their students.