Meeting Students Where They Are

By Becky Salato, Superintendent, Konocti Unified School District

Our public education system achieves some incredible feats. It also has plenty of room for improvement. At Konocti Unified, we’ve been looking at how our systems might better support student learning, and last year we created a pilot program to test a new way of approaching English language arts. We know the ability to read affects all academic subjects (yes, even math!), so it seemed like the right place to begin.

At East Lake Elementary School, our forward-looking principal, Jessica Taliaferro, enthusiastically volunteered to take the doors off the schoolhouse, as I like to say. That is, she and her staff were willing to move away from practices that were comfortable and familiar to try something new.

In traditional educational models, California students are provided with grade-level material, and then measured against grade-level standards. Said another way, fourth graders are provided with book that fourth graders should be able to read and understand–then tested on their progress toward mastering certain skills. 

But what if they can’t read or understand that book? Imagine how frustrating it would be to start the year behind your peers with material that makes it hard to catch up?

At East Lake, rather than holding students in age-based groups, we assessed their English language skills and grouped them accordingly. Suddenly, all students had access to material they could understand with instruction that pulled them toward their grade-level standards. I know it seems like common sense, but this is not how it’s done in most public schools. 

We started this pilot program at East Lake last year and the test results are already showing success beyond our expectations. Preliminary English and math test scores at East Lake jumped by more than 10 percent. (We usually get excited when scores increase by a percent or two.) If you’re wondering why math scores improved so much based on a new approach to English, it’s because when students improve their ability to read, they can better understand information and instructions regardless of the subject, from history and language arts to math and science. 

I want to recognize the enormous amount of work that went into making this initial shift, and the ongoing work to refine it. In partnership with East Lake Elementary’s administrator and educators, the district’s Educational Services folks spent much of their summer creating new materials and assessments, and training East Lake teachers how to use them. 

Our assistant superintendent of education services, Shellie Perry, and our district’s instructional coaches–Nicole Lyndall, Shannon Billeci, and Lisa Guerrero–built scope and sequences that support teachers teaching students across grade levels. Scope refers to breadth of content covered in a course of study, outlining the topics and skills that are taught. Sequence refers to the order in which the content is presented, ensuring that learning progresses logically and systematically. Together scope and sequence make sure the curriculum is structured and coherent.

The instructional coaches also created lesson outlines to support teachers across grade-level standards, along with ways to communicate progress on report cards. Finally, they offered teachers opportunities for professional development to discuss and model how to effectively work across grade levels. On an ongoing basis, they provide coaching and support to talk through issues and help teachers when they are struggling.

Most of us resist change, even good change. We naturally gravitate toward what’s familiar. Yet, this team of educators at the school and district were willing to be “new” again, to be “inexperienced” again. As adults, it’s hard to risk being a beginner when we feel like we should be experts. But, if you aren’t willing to make a mistake, then you cannot learn anything new. We tell students all the time that mistakes are how we grow and develop. That’s not just true for children. It’s true for all of us. I’m so proud of our students and the team that helped them achieve beyond expectations.