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ERIC Number: EJ1034748
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Jun
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0276-928X
EISSN: N/A
4 Schools, 1 Goal: University-District Partnership Nets Results for Struggling Readers
Taylor, Rosemarye T.; Gordon, William R., II
Journal of Staff Development, v35 n3 p16-18, 20 Jun 2014
High school students who are not proficient readers struggle in content classes and often do not graduate from high school. However, they have promise to do so with well-designed and implemented reading curriculum and effective instruction. Without it, they may have difficulty competing in the global workplace (Gordon & Oliva, 2012). One solution is to form university and school district partnerships that provide aligned, job-embedded professional learning. An example of this is Florida's East Learning Community High School Reading Initiative. The East Learning Community, in central Florida, is a division of a larger public school district that serves 187,000 K-12 students. The learning community supports 38 school sites, including 25 elementary schools, one K-8 school, seven middle schools, four high schools, and one 9th-grade center. As the community's area executive director and the university partner, the authors worked together to design and implement professional learning that would serve as a model of continuous improvement. Their focus was the lack of growth in student reading in the four high schools. Unacceptable learning gains from 2007-08 through 2009-10 on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) across the four high schools pointed to a need for systematic and continuous change to improve reading intervention instruction. In this article the authors describe how the overall goal was achieved. They aimed to create common language, knowledge, and skills among intensive reading teachers, literacy coaches, and assistant principals -- all responsible for reading achievement in the high schools. Collaborative, ongoing professional learning was accompanied by continuous walk-throughs by school and district administrators to provide feedback and implementation accountability. To achieve learning gains, they identified trends in instructional practices and developed teachers' expertise through the use of a super professional learning community comprised of a team from each of the four high schools that included all reading teachers, literacy coaches, and the assistant principals responsible for reading.
Learning Forward. 504 South Locust Street, Oxford, OH 45056. Tel: 513-523-6029; Fax: 513-523-0638; e-mail: NSDCoffice@nsdc.org; Web site: http://www.learningforward.org/news/jsd/index.cfm
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Florida
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A