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Faced with a need to improve literacy skills and overall reading achievement, district leaders from Berkeley Unified School District in California (BUSD) knew that, no matter what they did, results wouldn’t be fast or easy. But only after three years of dedicated systematic change in kindergarten through fifth grade, they have seen improvement in not just student scores but also in teacher confidence in their ability to meet students’ needs.

During the edLeader Panel “Launching a Literacy Improvement Program: How a District Responded to a Community’s Needs,” key figures in the district’s transformation explained their approach to creating a sustainable, successful initiative.

Develop a Literacy Action Plan that supports and is supported by plans at the school and district levels.

While literacy was already at the heart of the district’s mission for all students to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world, it did not have a cohesive approach to literacy education. District leaders developed a Literacy Action Plan with four main areas that aligned with the district’s strategic plan:

1. Improve general education reading achievement
2. Strengthen Tier 2 and 3 intervention systems
3. Ensure fidelity of implementation
4. Improve quality of special education programs and 504 support

They also codified a set of ideal behaviors based on the Theory of Change that each school should exhibit.

Provide teachers with the conditions necessary to do their best work.

Teachers are used to administrators telling them about the next new thing they need to do to improve student outcomes. However, in order to provide the best possible starting point for a new program, the administrators needed to understand the initial changes needed to begin implementation.

At BUSD, they focused on capacity building, their infrastructure, and their instructional resources. The goal here was just to assess what they had, though, and not implement anything yet.

Create a shared language for reading development.

Before any professional development began or materials were purchased, the administrators worked with the community to build a shared mindset about successful reading instruction. Based on the Science of Reading, they worked with teachers, administrators, and families to develop their literacy framework.

According to Christopher Albeck, Director of Curriculum and Instruction (K–12), building alignment before implementation created a shared readiness among everyone. “People protect what they help build,” he said, and one of their biggest successes is having a districtwide common understanding of the need and why it mattered.

Start with professional development.

Instead of buying instructional materials and having teachers learn how to use a specific literacy tool, the district next gave teachers more in-depth professional development. Continuing the idea that teachers would support what they helped create, the goal was for them to internalize the methodology and then look for resources that comply with their shared vision.

Nest the action plan in a consistent framework.

An essential component of the shared instructional approach for BUSD was nesting it in an MTSS framework. While schools throughout BUSD had been using MTSS to varying degrees, to achieve equity, all schools needed to implement the same structure with the same level of fidelity. For example, when they adopted a new assessment program that included screeners, diagnostics, and progress monitoring, the administrators needed to make sure that teachers understood when to use them, how to analyze the results, and what actions to take based on the results.

Balancing the technical and adaptive side of the work meant a lot of structure, including data tools, progress monitoring, and professional learning, explained Dr. Kim Gibbons, Director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) at the University of Minnesota, but it showed how they were helping teachers build capacity and improve student outcomes.

Adopt a supportive accountability model.

The district office issues a public progress report every six months. However, instead of just numbers showing successes and areas where they fall short, the report includes action steps to address any issues and to move to the next steps. Thus, the report becomes a tool that helps teachers and administrators shift their practice rather than something used to admonish them.

While the program is currently still focused on grades K-5, district leaders have started to apply some pieces, such as their approach to assessments, to middle school, and they are building out the assessment infrastructure for high school.

The key to success and being able to adapt pieces of the program has been accountability and understanding where they need to step back and make a change, rather than expecting immediate results. People have to be able to connect, share, learn, and celebrate together, said Jill Hoogendyk, Associate Superintendent. A sustainable program requires a deep understanding and commitment that can survive changes in personnel and instructional materials.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Launching a Literacy Improvement Program: How a District Responded to a Community’s Needs, sponsored by Evidence Advocacy Center & CORE.

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Article by Stacey Pusey, based on this edLeader Panel