蜜桃影视

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

Scotty Matthews took a seat on a small bookshelf and peered at a page of poems held by a third-grader in his southeast Alabama classroom.

Matthews, a former tutoring aide who had just come to Rehobeth Elementary School, was used to working with students who needed some extra help with reading.

He asked the student to read a limerick about a monster-like machine that 鈥渕unches up socks by the pair.鈥�

Tracking along with his finger, the boy kept a steady pace, but paused at a word on the second line.

鈥淢unches,鈥� Matthews prompted. The boy repeated the word, continuing slowly to the end.

Many schools rely on paraprofessionals to give specialized support to teachers. But Rehobeth says trained and experienced aides are key to recent success. The school recently led peer mid- to high-poverty schools in reading scores, and in closing racial and socioeconomic gaps.

Now, as the school, like many around Alabama, wrestles with dips in achievement scores from the pandemic and considers , staff are doubling down on the presence of Title I aides. And they鈥檙e expanding that expertise in developing a team of trained reading educators as they work on afterschool tutoring and community support.

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have a teacher that has a strong background in word work, or how to crack the code of reading, they鈥檙e not going to know how to target specific needs and then support the child in their classroom,鈥� said Rachel Logan, a literacy specialist who consults schools on equitable practices. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l farm them out and say, 鈥楽omething鈥檚 wrong with this kid.鈥欌��

Virtual interventions and extra K-2 supports funded by federal relief money, experts say, can boost proficiency, but only if teachers like Matthews and his fellow support staff are also trained properly and have high-quality materials.

Rehobeth is working on boosting both those aspects. And staff are working around the clock to reteach foundational skills 鈥� such as first-grade phonics — that some students lost during the pandemic.

鈥淚n theory, they should be readers by the time they get here,鈥� Matthews said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not the case for every student.鈥�

Despite pandemic complications, Rehobeth second graders had improved reading scores by 60 points from last fall to spring, according to schoolwide data — something Matthews noted as he worked with his students.

That鈥檚 five points higher than the national average, and a statistic, school leaders say, that shows its strategy is working.

鈥淥ur scores overall have always been good,鈥� said Dusty McKinley, the school鈥檚 principal. 鈥淥ur teachers know what standards they鈥檙e teaching and they know how to meet those babies鈥� needs… But as we look at scores over the state, our reading proficiency levels are not where they should be. So we鈥檝e got to push for that regardless.鈥�

A school-wide approach

Most Alabama districts have some experience with Title I aides and paraprofessionals, but successful implementation of interventions can sometimes be a challenge.

Matthews鈥� instruction is just one part of Rehobeth鈥檚 team approach to teaching literacy.

The school uses three tiers of reading instruction: There鈥檚 Matthews鈥� core class, where students are getting the bulk of their reading lessons. From there, he might work with smaller groups of students on specific skills in the classroom, or literacy coaches will designate some students for outside tutoring 鈥� or both.

Throughout the week, different groups of students are pulled for additional support from Title I and bilingual aides. For students who need the most support, the school uses SPIRE materials, which are research-based and aim to help students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities.

鈥淥ur Title I teachers are key here,鈥� said McKinley, a Rehobeth graduate who previously taught special education. 鈥淢ost of them have been here for several, several years… They know our school, they know our community, and our kids know them.鈥�

, tutoring aides are key for schools developing a variety of interventions. The Center recommends a well-developed plan to identify struggling students and track their responses to regularly-scheduled interventions.

That鈥檚 where Hannah Chancey, also a Rehobeth graduate, and Gaby Olea, a new bilingual aide who grew up in nearby Enterprise, come in. They coach small groups of students with whiteboards, binders and sometimes playdough in hand.

Words and sentences are like code, experts say, and reading proficiency is built through specific skills work.

鈥淲hen done to fidelity, kids make great progress,鈥� said Sonya Yates, a dyslexia specialist who has served on statewide reading committees.

McKinley said the school had just hired three more tutors trained in SPIRE, to add to the two that had been teaching the materials for several years.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important that we put the majority of our resources in K-2 because that鈥檚 where they鈥檙e getting their foundation,鈥� said Barbara Greathouse, the school鈥檚 literacy coach. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to make sure that they鈥檝e mastered the foundational skills in K-2 so that they鈥檒l be successful in the higher grades.鈥�

A recent  found that funding additional instructional supports, like teaching assistants, can boost achievement outcomes most in reading — and can play 鈥渁 key role鈥� in helping students close to passing reach proficiency levels. Kymyona Burk, a national reading expert who pioneered a retention initiative in Mississippi similar to Alabama鈥檚, also believes investing in core classroom teachers is critical.

鈥淚nvest in people,鈥� she said during a recent panel discussion. 鈥淚nvest in your teachers. Build their knowledge. Empower your teachers to stand in front of children every day and know that they are skilled enough to address the different needs, the different deficiencies or challenges that students might bring into those classrooms.鈥�

McKinley said that effectively using  will require listening to core classroom teachers, who are most attuned to student鈥檚 needs.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a blessing,鈥� McKinley said, of the money. 鈥淚t takes the burden off of us for having to provide that funding. So we can use it for technology, for parental involvement, for instructional materials in our classrooms, that otherwise we wouldn鈥檛 normally be able to do because we were funding those tutors.鈥�

鈥楢 million different things鈥�

As the school reviews its latest internal test scores, it鈥檚 seeing some growth. Greathouse said some of that is likely due to the tutoring push, but classroom teachers are going to continue to play a crucial role moving forward.

鈥淭he teachers knew they had a larger job to do because of COVID, and they got it done,鈥� Greathouse said.

Experts agree that good teachers are important, but also recommend specific training, called LETRS, which is grounded in decades worth of research on how students learn to read.

Additionally, core curriculum in early grades should focus on explicit phonics instruction, but most vendors, , which Rehobeth uses, tend to focus more on 鈥渂alanced literacy,鈥� which spreads out concepts rather than drilling down on certain skills.

Rehobeth is working to get more teachers trained in effective reading instruction and improve its ability to track students鈥� progress. The district also will switch to a new reading curriculum next year.

The school still has a ways to go to get back to its former proficiency rates. Recent ACAP scores show that eight of Matthews鈥� students — a little less than half of the class — scored below benchmarks in language arts. Schoolwide, students scored lowest on reading and literacy questions.

鈥淲e鈥檙e really hammering these to try to get them up,鈥� he said, pointing to the low scorers at the bottom of the list, who he is now working with as third-graders.

Like the rest of the state, Rehobeth鈥檚 Black and Hispanic students scored lower on state benchmark testing than their peers, with a significant slide during the pandemic — though experts say it鈥檚 tough to compare 2019 and 2021 scores, since the state switched standardized tests.

Reading instruction also can be impacted by disparities outside of the classroom 鈥� like discipline, attendance and staff turnover 鈥� that can limit engagement.

鈥淲hen schools are seeing academic inequities, we point them to also look at other things that are happening around that,鈥� said Marceline Dubose of the Equity Literacy Institute, such as ways to increase instructional time and make sure every student is engaged with material.

Matthews explained that a handful of his students were teachers鈥� kids and might have benefited from extra instruction at home during the pandemic. And while the school was face-to-face last year, shortened instruction in first grade in the spring of 2020 could have significantly impacted students who were learning English as a second language, or those who didn鈥檛 have the resources at home to bolster phonics skills.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a million different things,鈥� Matthews said. 鈥淐onfidence is a big thing, but they鈥檙e struggling, and by now they know they鈥檙e struggling.鈥�

鈥業ntense every day鈥�

As the rest of his third-graders focused on individual work, Matthews read to a small group of students as they traced the words of a worksheet with their fingers.

When it was their turn to read, he encouraged students to circle words they stumbled on — a technique he learned from recent Alabama Reading Initiative training, which taught him the importance of 鈥渉oning in on those little things,鈥� he said.

For the week ahead, Matthews will go over the same poems and rehash concepts he wasn鈥檛 able to spend as much time on, like teaching students how to identify point of view. He鈥檒l work more with small, targeted groups of students and make time for phonics games.

With extra attention to those instructional methods and help from school-wide interventions, Matthews is hopeful his students will get back on track.

鈥淭heir resilience has been amazing,鈥� he said, also praising the efforts from their previous teachers and tutors.

But he knows he鈥檚 got a long road ahead of him.

鈥淚 feel like there鈥檚 no days off,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 intense every day, because I don鈥檛 want a student to not pass due to my instruction.鈥�

This article originally appeared and is published in partnership with .听

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.