Literacy in DC Public Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

Not surprised. Program changes but no training, poor implementation, no follow thru, etc….

Sure if your kid picks up testing fast or you read to your kids and have books at home, etc.. they will learn to read anywhere. Also anecdotal.

But majority of kids in DCPS don’t fit above and struggle to read. It’s obvious whatever program they have is not working well with such abysmally low proficiency stats. Social promotion instead of more support doesn’t help either and the kids get further behind.

Because of equity, there are no required reading list in middle school. We can’t have that because some kids won’t do it so no kid needs to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m more concerned with the middle school curriculum which is absolutely terrible.

What MS curriculum do they use? What books do they read? What makes it so bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

My school sends 3-4 teachers per year for training, so it’s basically all relevant K-3 teachers + the 2 instructional coaches at this stage. Size of school may matter on this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

My school sends 3-4 teachers per year for training, so it’s basically all relevant K-3 teachers + the 2 instructional coaches at this stage. Size of school may matter on this point.

Is this training through Wilson - or DCPS?
If it is DCPS - you get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

OP was criticizing the DCPS curricula from a science of reading/phonics perspective, which is nonsensical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

My school sends 3-4 teachers per year for training, so it’s basically all relevant K-3 teachers + the 2 instructional coaches at this stage. Size of school may matter on this point.

Is this training paid for by the PTA? Or DCPS/School budget?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

My school sends 3-4 teachers per year for training, so it’s basically all relevant K-3 teachers + the 2 instructional coaches at this stage. Size of school may matter on this point.

Is this training through Wilson - or DCPS?
If it is DCPS - you get what you pay for.

Training is run by Wilson. There’s also an OG training that a couple of teachers (usually 1st or 2nd grade) attend each year. The 4th grade writing teacher also did a special writing training for 6 weeks last summer. There’s actually a ton of PD money floating around from DCPS right now. If your school isn’t sending people, they’re choosing not to or teachers are resisting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

My school sends 3-4 teachers per year for training, so it’s basically all relevant K-3 teachers + the 2 instructional coaches at this stage. Size of school may matter on this point.

Is this training paid for by the PTA? Or DCPS/School budget?

The ESSR $$ can be used for these trainings. Not sure if it finally runs out next year, but schools were flush with PD cash this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know the solution to the poor PARCC schools but my kid is in 1st at a DCPS and the reading instruction has been phenomenal -- DC is reading short chapter books before even starting 1st grade. And yes, there is some natural aptitude there (I think DC was going to be an early-ish reader no matter what) but I'd also say the instruction has been excellent. Phonics instruction was the focus of K and was comprehensive -- I was very happy with Fundations and Heggerty. We also had a great classroom teacher who supplemented beyond this for the more advanced students in class.

So I guess for me there's no outrage because our experience has been good. And I don't know enough about reading pedagogy to tell you why it's not working for more students in DC.

This. My kid learned to read just fine in a Title I DCPS preschool with Fundations. She loved it. Yes, she would have learned to read with any number of curriculum choices, but it really seemed fine to me, for all the kids. So that's why I'm not outraged.

There are so many reasons for DCPS' low performance. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that one curriculum rather than another will fix it. Research changes over time, trends in education come and go. DC parents are often insisting that we have to do whatever Maryland does. But it's not like Maryland schools are really that great either, outside of wealthy areas of MoCo.

MoCo schools are a mess. I remember when we were considering moving to Bethesda, one look at their then Math 2.0 curriculum convinced me to stay in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are your thoughts on DC Public Schools reading curriculum? They use a DCPS created curriculum called Units of Study for content and in grades K-3 Fundations and Heggerty for phonics instruction. I'm curious why DCPS refuses to adopt High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) when many neighboring districts have made this a priority. Our literacy rate is abysmal and nobody seems to care enough to change course at a pace that matters. 31% of students were reading at or above grade level according to PARCC data. Where is the outrage? Research tells us that 95% of students CAN read with high quality evidence aligned instruction. Do we not think our students can achieve this? I feel frustrated and I want to do something about it. Listen to Sold a Story and The Knowledge Matters podcast if you haven't already!

OP, first things first. That problem with the PARCC scores is the PARCC test, not the teaching or students. Just about every state has dropped it because it's so bad. Only DC and LA are still using it.

DCPS has been using Fundations for years and years now, with fidelity. K-3rd in DCPS is excellent, every UMC student learns to read and is in good shape when they go somewhere else. It's the other 80% of the students that are not fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m more concerned with the middle school curriculum which is absolutely terrible.

What MS curriculum do they use? What books do they read? What makes it so bad?

DCPS has developed its own curriculum for Middle School. For each year in grades 6-8 students read 4 anchor texts, in 6th grade it's, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred Taylor), Tuck Everlasting (Natalie Babbitt), Inside Out and Back Again (Thanhha Lai), Beowulf: A New Telling (Robert Nye). In addition, students read short stories, poetry, and some literary nonfiction. Most of the writing assignments are designed to train students to answer the PARCC essay questions. My major objection is that this is rather thin and a lot of my students had either already read these books in elementary school or would read the entire anchor text in a day or two. So there isn't much challenge. Additionally, because there is no "textbook", teachers are forced to develop their own materials to teach what is traditionally known as language arts. So students are deluged with a sea of handouts, now mainly delivered online. It's pretty thin gruel, but probably not much worse than any other public middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Yes - but no one is certified in it.

The school may have purchased the program - but not the next step of getting teachers certified in the program. They send 1 or 2 people from each school to a DCPS training session that is for 2 days - and those people are supposed to train all the other teachers.

My school sends 3-4 teachers per year for training, so it’s basically all relevant K-3 teachers + the 2 instructional coaches at this stage. Size of school may matter on this point.

Is this training through Wilson - or DCPS?
If it is DCPS - you get what you pay for.

Training is run by Wilson. There’s also an OG training that a couple of teachers (usually 1st or 2nd grade) attend each year. The 4th grade writing teacher also did a special writing training for 6 weeks last summer. There’s actually a ton of PD money floating around from DCPS right now. If your school isn’t sending people, they’re choosing not to or teachers are resisting.

This shouldn’t be left up to individual schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fundations is a Science of Reading-aligned curriculum that the Sold a Story podcast would support, FYI. It is explicit phonics instruction intended to be used on a whole class basis — exactly the sort of thing the podcast talks about going on in the Florida classroom she fawns over.

Fundations may be "aligned" with science of reading, but it is not considered HQIM. It gets a "partially meets" rating from EdReports. It doesn't have decodable texts linked to spelling concepts which should be a key component to any phonics program. Great Minds released Geodes which are decodables aligned with Fundations scope and sequence. Sounds great, but DCPS didn't buy them. They created their own decodables in true DCPS fashion. The DCPS decodables are beautiful and reflect content from the units as well as local DC information. Also great, but there was no professional development on how to best use them. Some literacy coaches never even distributed them to the teachers.

There are better programs than Fundations. Not only that, Fundations has been used by DCPS for years right along with guided reading. When have scores been respectable? Maybe the kids of people on this forum are doing alright, but the majority are not benefitting from this program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are your thoughts on DC Public Schools reading curriculum? They use a DCPS created curriculum called Units of Study for content and in grades K-3 Fundations and Heggerty for phonics instruction. I'm curious why DCPS refuses to adopt High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) when many neighboring districts have made this a priority. Our literacy rate is abysmal and nobody seems to care enough to change course at a pace that matters. 31% of students were reading at or above grade level according to PARCC data. Where is the outrage? Research tells us that 95% of students CAN read with high quality evidence aligned instruction. Do we not think our students can achieve this? I feel frustrated and I want to do something about it. Listen to Sold a Story and The Knowledge Matters podcast if you haven't already!

OP, first things first. That problem with the PARCC scores is the PARCC test, not the teaching or students. Just about every state has dropped it because it's so bad. Only DC and LA are still using it.

DCPS has been using Fundations for years and years now, with fidelity. K-3rd in DCPS is excellent, every UMC student learns to read and is in good shape when they go somewhere else. It's the other 80% of the students that are not fine.

K-3 data does not reflect excellence. With fidelity according to whom? If it's an excellent program implemented as it should be, then why aren't more students reading proficiently? Who are UMC students?