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Youngstown elementary school earns an “A” in reading
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
If you walk into a reading class at Paul C. Bunn Elementary School, you’ll probably see something completely different from when you were in school.
The teacher likely will be seated at a round table reading with three or four students, while the rest of the class works in pairs on related reading and writing lessons.
It’s part of the Literacy Collaborative Framework from Ohio State University – and it’s working.
The school, part of the city district, is one of only three Mahoning Valley schools to earn an A on kindergarten through third-grade literacy measure on the latest state report card.
The district as a whole got a C on the K-3 Literacy measure, narrowly missing a B.
Besides the framework itself, Bunn Principal William Baun credits teachers’ and literacy coaches’ implementation of and faithfulness to it for the high marks.
“Teachers work individually with students to determine their levels of reading,” Baun said.
The other Valley schools that earned A’s are Boardman’s Stadium Drive Elementary School and Bloomfield-Mesopotamia in Trumbull County.
Assessments at Bunn are done at the beginning of the school year, at about the half-way point and again in the spring to gauge students’ progress, he said.
That allows teachers to determine each student’s reading level and plan accordingly.
First-graders assessed well below grade level in reading get extra help through a program called Reading Recovery. They’re teamed up with instructors to help them catch up.
Students who may be below level but don’t need as much help go through Level Literacy Intervention. For 30 minutes per day, groups of three to four students work with a teacher.
In shared reading, the teacher reads along with students, noting words or concepts with which they may struggle. That enables educators to gear instruction to what a student needs.
Teacher-based teams meet regularly to share what they’ve learned and discuss what they think is working and what might not be.
Timothy Filipovich, the district’s executive director of teaching and learning, said it’s a completely different pedagogy than what many long-time educators and some parents are accustomed to.
It teaches children where they are.
“It’s a shift in how many have taught literacy in the past,” Filipovich said.
The program has been implemented districtwide in kindergarten through sixth grade, with seventh and eighth grades added this year.
It started several years ago, though, at Bunn. Baun said it was initiated at the school by former principal Maria Pappas.
Baun said the program has worked at Bunn despite the former academic distress commission. He said the district’s former director of teaching and learning and deputy superintendent for academic affairs – both of whom now work at the Mahoning County Educational Service Center – were committed to the Literacy Collaborative and to providing teachers with the professional development and support to work the program.
That’s important because over the past several years, the district has implemented several strategies to address the problem of students’ low test scores. But when those strategies didn’t produce results right away, they were abandoned.
Sandy Monroe, a primary literacy coach, works with kindergarten through second-grade teachers, helping them to provide the best instruction using the collaborative.
She’s a believer in the program.
“You can’t argue with data,” Monroe said.
Baun stresses the importance of Monroe being a veteran teacher. That provides a comfort level for the teachers with whom she works. They know that she knows about the struggles they face and that she’s been in their shoes.
Many other Valley elementary schools, including those in Poland, Canfield, Jackson-Milton, Lowellville, Springfield, Maplewood, Lakeview, Hubbard and Maplewood, weren’t graded in K-3 literacy because of a high number of strong readers.
Schools with fewer than 5 percent of kindergartners reading below grade level during the 2014-15 school year received no K-3 literacy grade.