At 10, Paige is already working on her first book. Whenever she gets a free moment, she pulls out her notebook and writes one or two more lines of her story. She loves writing about fairies and dragons and reading fantasy books like Harry Potter.

You might not guess that this enthusiastic reader and budding writer was getting reading help at school until very recently. After 3 years, she is now reading at grade level and has phased out of needing reading intervention. 

“I had a little trouble at first,” she says. “But I’ve gotten way better by practicing a lot and reading a bunch of different kinds of books.” She says her homework every night is reading for 20 minutes, but she often surpasses this requirement and always reads on the weekends. 

Her principal beams as Paige talks about learning how to identify the hook or the main point in a story and stealing away free moments to write.  

Paige, a fifth grader at Vernonia Elementary, has blossomed in her reading skills after initially struggling in earlier grades. After years of teacher professional development in explicit literacy instruction and a heavy focus on reading interventions, Vernonia’s reading scores are starting to tick up. Photos by Tracey Goldner. 

At this elementary school in Vernonia, Paige is one of many students who are now thriving after receiving the type of reading instruction scientists say matches up with how the brain learns to read. This type of instruction has been dubbed the science of reading and has been gaining ground in recent years as the most effective approach. As of this past spring, all 197 Oregon districts in the state must adopt a core reading curriculum that follows the science of reading. 

Vernonia Principal Michelle Eagleson says the district is all in. No one can remember the exact year, but the elementary teachers agree it was about a decade ago the shift started to happen. 

Javon, David, Paige and Elijah, fourth and fifth graders at Vernonia Elementary, have all received reading interventions. Literacy coach and Title I director Kendra Schlegel says about 30% of Vernonia’s 190 elementary students are getting reading interventions. Even though that is more than the 20% the multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) model suggests, the data shows that over-serving students early on benefits them in later grades. 

The older curriculums that weren’t based on the science of reading weren’t working for students. A new kindergarten teacher named Kendra Schlegel had arrived from Hillsboro, and she was using some very explicit literacy techniques to teach reading. 

This type of instruction -- known as enhanced core reading instruction or ECRI for short -- is very fast-paced and gives every student a chance to practice their sounds and words dozens of times in just a minute. 

Third grade teacher Allison McLeod has been using this instruction for the past several years and loves it. 

“It has a really perky pace,” she says. “It’s not boring and has really changed the way I teach.” 

Carsyn practices reading the word stretch aloud with the rest of her class. All elementary students receive about 15 minutes of this direct literacy instruction every day with their teacher.

Literacy support is all over her classroom. Every student has their own dictionary, and there’s a mini-library that also doubles as the calm-down corner. The shelf by the door features seasonal picks like the “Halloween Tree” and “Nat Geo’s Weird But True” Halloween edition. There’s even a student of the month. 

Cole poses by the October books in his classroom’s mini-library. He says he loves “The Halloween Tree,” a humorous story about a tree that refuses to tow the line and instead forges his own path. 

A white plastic bin by the windows is brimming with beanie babies that Allison passes out to students who up their words/minute by at least 10 words over the course of a week. Addelynn, October’s student of the month, was proud to report that she recently upped her word count by 36.  

Educators at the school are thrilled to see their efforts reflected in rising test scores. After years of flat or declining scores, Vernonia is now seeing scores rise. Last year, third graders jumped more than 10 percentage points. 

That means three students out of ten rather than two are reading at grade level. For Vernonia, that’s 20 more students who are caught up and reading at or above grade level. Twenty students just like Paige. 

One of Vernonia’s biggest staffing challenges is turnover. Competing with larger districts and the larger salaries they can pay is tough, Michelle says. The district has focused on hiring from within and training people from the community to become teachers. Third grade teacher Heidi Rice is a longtime Vernonia resident who is currently working toward her master’s degree in teaching from Western Oregon.  

Michelle says they are only beginning. Their 5-year plan is to get more than 70% of students reading at grade level. For context, the statewide average this past year was 46%. They have also set big goals for improving math proficiency to 70% and getting attendance up to 90%. 

Michelle says Vernonia has been lucky to have so much support from regional partners.

About 7 years ago, the district received an Oregon Response to Instruction and Intervention grant -- a statewide opportunity open to any district in the state -- operated by NWRESD.

Kendra says the grant has been beneficial in many ways. They can now more easily identify students who need more support, use data to personalize their learning and set goals and track progress.  

Lisa Bates, a NWRESD teacher on special assignment who has worked with Vernonia educators on the grant for the past several years, says everyone in the district has been dedicated to the work, especially Michelle and Kendra. 

She says they have learned how to use multi-tiered systems of support and then put those systems of support in place so educators can implement these practices. “This has made a difference for students,” she says.

Vernonia has also benefited from the Small Rural Schools Network. Other successful rural school districts have also invited them to come to their schools to shadow administrators and teachers and learn. 

Vernonia principal Michelle Eagleson and literacy coach and Title I director Kendra Schlegel pose for a photo in front of student writing samples. Seeing their work posted in the hallway of their school is very motivating for students, they say.

 

NWRESD also started offering a training on how to teach literacy called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS for short, to administrators and educators throughout the four-county region. Nearly 130 people are participating, including 9 from Neah-Kah-Nie. 

Climate and Culture Feeds Culture of Learning

Like Vernonia, Neah-Kah-Nie is working hard to create a reading culture. The district adopted a new core reading curriculum last year and six educators participated in a two-day Anita Archer training. 

Their efforts are paying off. In 2018, 35% of third graders met the state benchmarks. Last year, that number had jumped to nearly 60%. 

Nehalem principal Kristi Mills says her district has worked incredibly hard in recent years to improve reading proficiency but credits a wider focus on mental health, attendance, self-regulation and opportunities for more physical activity as the reason behind any of the academic gains students are making. 

“It’s not just work in reading,” she says. “Our whole system as a school and as a district looks really different.” 

The district uses positive behavior interventions and supports -- known as PBIS -- which helps students and teachers understand and manage their emotions and behaviors. Educators have many professional learning opportunities, including in literacy, attendance and social-emotional learning. Students get outside at least twice a day and most elementary students take swimming lessons, an important skill for anyone growing up on the Oregon coast. 

Students in Vernonia receive PBIS Logger cards when they exhibit safe, responsible, respectful and kind behavior. These cards entice and reward students for following directions and choosing safe behaviors. Several districts in the region including Neah-Kah-Nie and Vernonia use the intervention and support system.

Fourth and fifth graders in teacher Mat McCoy’s class at Nehalem Elementary write summaries about a Wit and Wisdom book they read during their English language arts block. Photo by Mat McCoy. 

“When I see teachers in the classroom, it’s like cardio,” she jokes. “It’s a perky pace. It’s fun. It’s oral, and the kids can speak in depth about the English language. It’s cool to like words in Neah-Kah-Nie,” she says. 

In terms of staffing, Kristi says she’s been pleased to see many new teachers coming out of school with a stronger grasp on the science of reading. But she says the district is careful with hiring and looks for educators who have a growth mindset, especially when it comes to learning new approaches. 

A total of 14 teachers from Neah-Kah-Nie, including eight from Nehalem are in LETRS cohorts this year. Kristi believes LETRS is the best training right now for getting teachers skilled at explicit literacy instruction. The two-year long course covers how language and literacy skills develop in children and best practices for teaching them to read. 

A kindergarten classroom at Nehalem Elementary school shows students how their mouths should look when pronouncing consonants -- the consonant sound wall -- and vowels -- vowel valley. The materials are part of the Fundations reading curriculum. Photo courtesy of Kristi Mills. 

She says the training has changed the way all of her teachers teach, and the best part is that they come back from the training with new, exciting ideas and teach everyone around them. 

Prioritizing Reading in Every Grade

The focus at the state-level has been on early literacy, but students who were in the upper elementary grades when the pandemic started are now in middle school. Those are students who need more support now. 

Neah-Kah-Nie Middle School principal Lori Dilbeck has been hard at work closing that gap. Last year, Lori restructured the schedule so that all students would get two literacy blocks instead of one. She acknowledged there was some protest, but she worked to make sure those electives were still an option. 

“We saw issues with reading,” she says. So that was her priority, and her efforts were rewarded with higher reading scores. For example, sixth grade scores rose to 60% proficiency from 50% the year before. 

She and her team carefully track the data and make sure every student who needs more support is getting it. She knows that when students can’t read well in middle school they are more likely to drop out of high school, so she is laser-focused on getting every student up to grade level by eighth grade. 

“We use data to drive our decision-making and change our instruction,” she says. They follow the curriculum carefully and meet weekly with the instructional coach to go over progress. All of the staff, not just teachers, are aware of how students are doing. 

“For example, our librarian just emailed today asking the teachers to send some of the struggling students down to the library because she had picked out some books for them,” she says. 

Librarians and media specialists are important partners with teachers in literacy work. Vernonia technology/K-5 media specialist Glenda Delemos, pictured here with Pete the Cat, spends time carefully displaying books of interest to students. 

Tracking the Data

Laurel Fischer, a literacy coach with NWRESD, says she’s been excited to see the progress districts are making. This is the first year that educators from nearly every district in our four-county region are coming to us for professional development, mentoring and coaching.

This year, about 425 educators have attended our workshops so far and an additional 130 educators and administrators are participating in LETRS. 

More than 80 teachers from 11 districts participated in a Science of Reading workshop on Oct. 29 at our Washington Service Center in Hillsboro. Teachers spent the first half of the day using their school’s reading data to diagnose literacy needs, create small groups and get coaching on which tools to use in their small group rotations in class. The other half of the day, the teachers had the opportunity to learn about various instructional strategies and watch them being modeled. The same workshop will be offered on Nov. 20 at the Tigard-Tualatin training center because this training had such a long waitlist. Photo by Ryan Blasquez.

But she advises districts to remember that though you can have one fantastic teacher providing great instruction, the only way to get all of the students in the school on track is to put a literacy system in place like Vernonia and Neah-Kah-Nie have done. 

Laurel says using data has been the most powerful factor for getting districts and teachers to change their practices. 

 

Ryan Blasquez, an instructional services director at NWRESD, ran a small group instruction demo table at the early literacy and Oregon Response to Instruction and Intervention training day on Oct. 29. He modeled how to teach the target sound /er/ by breaking down the sounds in the word sister before running a small group decodable reading routine using a decodable book from the University of Florida Literacy Institute. Decodable books contain only words that can children can sound out using the skills they have been taught. It does not have any irregular words -- words children cannot sound out. Video by Matthew Kishlock.

Banks Elementary School principal Marjorie Salter experienced this firsthand when her kindergarten and first grade teachers started using ECRI last year. After just one year, the data were clear. The explicit literacy instruction worked. 

At the end of the school year, 85% of her kindergartners and 71% of first graders were meeting their English Language Arts benchmarks. She says it was the first time they reached such a high percentage. 

Additionally, only 12% of students needed intensive support at the end of the year compared to the nearly 55% who needed it at the beginning. 

Now in her second year with Oregon Response to Instruction and Intervention, Marjorie says that “early intervention is key.” She added that using a universal screener and then creating intervention plans plus providing professional development to teachers and administrators is crucial. 

After doing literacy work for 17 years, including two as the literacy team lead at NWRESD, Laurel acknowledges that it can be frustrating to see educators working so hard but not yet seeing results. For districts with newer literacy systems, she advises them to stay the course and follow the data. For districts who do not yet have a literacy system in place, she says she and our other literacy coaches and Oregon Response to Instruction and Intervention team are ready to help.  

Read more the early literacy support our agency provides districts in our region. If you are interested in coaching, mentoring or participating in professional learning, please email Laurel Fischer, literacy coach.