February 19, 2015
JACKSON, Miss. – More than 10,400 Kindergarten through 3rd grade teachers and elementary school principals across the state will receive training on the essential elements of reading instruction, according to a report from the Mississippi Department of Education staff to the Mississippi Board of Education on Thursday.
A statewide system of support to engage school administrators, teachers, parents and communities was developed after the passage of the 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which focuses on grade-level reading from Kindergarten through 3rd grade. Under the law, beginning this school year, a student scoring at the lowest achievement level on the 3rd grade reading assessment will not be promoted to 4th grade, unless the student meets the good cause exemptions for promotion as specified in the law.
Nathan Oakley, executive director of the Office of Elementary Education and Reading at MDE, outlined the agency’s work over the last 18 months since the law was enacted. He said MDE has provided professional development for teachers in early childhood education through literacy training and regional conferences targeting early childhood and kindergarten teachers. Teachers in 1st through 3rd grade around the state also have received intensive training through regional conferences. Regional literacy coach trainings, statewide conferences, and webinars have also been a part of the MDE’s training efforts.
In addition, MDE has worked with the state Institutions of Higher Learning by including faculty at the colleges of education in trainings to strengthen the teacher preparation programs.
“We wanted to take a multi-pronged approach to building the capacity of our teachers and school leaders,” Oakley said. “Because classroom teachers have the greatest impact on student achievement and school leaders have the responsibility of leading instruction at the school level, we focused efforts on a statewide professional development system to strengthen classroom instruction. In addition to offering sessions to the 10,000 elementary teachers across Mississippi, we have also offered training to pre-service teachers who will be entering elementary classrooms in the immediate future.”
Kevin Smith with the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast at Florida State University, has been working with MDE on professional development for teachers and the criteria for literacy coaches. Smith is the former deputy and acting director of the Just Read, Florida! office at the Florida Department of Education, where he provided extensive technical support to schools and districts across the state.
“The goal is to train every teacher in your state on foundational reading skills to help make sure the type of reading instruction provided is sound and consistent for students around your state,” he said.
The Mississippi Reading Panel has helped to guide the work of the MDE. Dr. Angela Rutherford, panel member and former teacher and reading specialist, said it is important for schools to take advantage of the professional development opportunities.
“MDE can provide the support, but ultimately, the schools are responsible for impacting children,” she said.
As part of continuing efforts to support school districts in reading instruction, MDE awarded $1.4 million in grants to school districts in January to assist them in various interventions, including reading materials, summer literacy programs, and support for local literacy coaches and interventionists to work directly with teachers and students.
MDE has hired 53 literacy staff members who work in 87 schools with the lowest reading scores, based on recent data from statewide 3rd grade reading assessments. They work with the schools’ K-3 teachers on best practices in reading instruction. MDE is currently recruiting additional coaches.
Some school districts have their own literacy coaches or reading interventionists, and they have been provided the same professional development opportunities as the elementary teachers, Oakley said.
Smith said REL-Southeast provided MDE research-based strategies for hiring of reading coaches. “MDE came up with a very well thought-out and well-planned system for hiring their coaches. They set the criteria very high. They wanted to make sure they had quality people in place to support teachers in the classroom,” he said.
According to the Florida-based Foundation for Excellence in Education, the State of Florida has never fully-funded reading coaches in every school. Just like the State of Mississippi, the State of Florida has pushed to prioritize schools with the greatest needs.
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