The story below is from our July/August 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
The school system and Blue Ridge Literacy put a heavy emphasis on citizens’ ability to read.
Dan Smith
In 2008, the City of Roanoke was smacked between the eyes with the embarrassing revelation that just 59 percent of its students would graduate. That was more than a wake-up call; it was a shock to the system, one that could not be ignored.
Exacerbating the embarrassment was that the school systems in Salem and Roanoke County had graduation rates more than 30 percent higher, and regardless of the reasons (Roanoke is poorer than either), the gauntlet was on the ground. Today, the city’s graduation rate is 90 percent—one of the highest urban graduation rates in the U.S.—and “literacy” has become a watchword that is inspiring children and adults to learn to read.
The school systems have a variety of approaches and programs to meet their goals (100 percent should read) and Blue Ridge Literacy (see accompanying story) is teaching adults, especially immigrants, to read English in order to function in a complex society.
The road to this point is long and winding, but a visit to an elementary reading class will tell you all you need to know as you watch the enthusiastic faces and the eager hands shooting upward in response to a question.
Here’s a status report:
Roanoke City
Third-grade teacher Caroline Eschenbach of Virginia Heights Elementary School won the Milken Educator Award of $25,000 last year, a citation often called “the Oscars of teaching,” and her reading classes are alive with enthusiasm and eager participation. The award concentrated on her efforts at literacy. “The biggest challenge we face,” she says, “is differentiating instruction for all students. We have a diverse group of learners—backgrounds, incomes, reading levels.
“With literacy, we meet the students where they are, knowing their personal stories well and tailoring to each student.” The response that she calls “extreme enthusiasm” comes from “some of the hardest workers I’ve taught.” Success is partly due to making the lessons “more relevant. We like to relate [the reading materials] to the students.”
Director of Elementary Instruction Greg Johnston talks about “a balanced literacy diet, not one particular program,” though the City has some programs it is proud of. Those include Star City Reads (in cooperation with libraries), Turn the Page (breakfast and a book for children and adults) and RCPS+ (a six-hours-a-day summer program that “prevents summer slide”). The seven elementary schools also have after-school programs in reading and math.
“Our main focus,” says Johnston “has been to change when the standards change and to have consistent instruction throughout the school [system]. We have a lot of children in transition, but they find the same resources at each school.”
Johnston says that when reading levels are achieved, increased graduation levels follow.
Roanoke County
The County has been among the state’s education leaders for years and that’s not by accident. Ben Williams, the Director of Assessment and Remediation, calls it a matter of “consistent curriculum,” but he insists “there is a disconnect between a diploma and literacy, where there is a tangential relationship.”
Joe LeGault, head of English instruction and RCPS Online, emphasizes that reading at grade level, especially in the early years, is critical. “Structures are in place to reach grade levels. Programs, instruction, assessment are in place to match growth.”
“By fifth grade,” says Williams, students should be able “to do most of what’s needed in a literate society.”
Rebecca Eastwood, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, talks about “interventions” that “target exact skills, so [students] can move ahead.”
The County’s Burton Center for Arts and Technology has separate programs (English as a Second Language among them) from the school system where some of those striving to achieve literacy are taught. Jamie Soltis, Director of Secondary Instruction, says the county has its share of poor people. “Thirty percent of our student population qualifies for free or reduced lunches,” he points out. “There are pockets of poverty in the county and sometimes it’s a challenge for us.”
LeGault figures that “the literacy issue is very hard to hide. There is a stigma remaining that drives adults to keep [illiteracy] hidden. It’s an unspoken thing that they just don’t talk about.”
Salem
The Salem City School system puts a lot of emphasis on grades 1 and 2 because, as Jennifer Dean, Director of Instructional Technology and Accountability, puts it, “That’s the sweet spot.”
There is a six-to-eight-week targeted instruction emphasis—rotating four staffers—where “students love going and teachers love teaching,” she says. “Students who don’t read [prior to the instruction] become readers. It’s interactive, fun and they own it. They go to class more confident.”
Teachers meet in groups to address students’ progress with literacy and they work a report card that is detailed and contains a personal narrative. And the curriculum is not unusual. “I like to think this is just part of school, especially elementary school where it’s integrated, and nobody thinks it’s odd.”
Still, “expectations are exponentially higher, and pressure is exponentially higher … We are less likely to miss children’s needs now than ever before.”
Blue Ridge Literacy
Editor’s Note: At time of press, Stephanie Holladay was executive director. The position welcomed new director Ahoo Salem in July 2019.
This group—not part of the school systems, though it works with them—was founded in 1985 and works primarily with adults in reading, writing, speaking, listening and citizenship, according to Executive Director Stephanie Holladay.
Holladay says it’s difficult to find adult literacy rates, so BRL depends more on poverty rates, “which is what we use for grants.” Poverty in the Roanoke Valley, she says, is at 20%, vs. 13% for the state.
She sees the stigma attached to illiteracy in adult American students, but immigrants learning a second—or third, or fourth—language don’t experience that. At BRL, students can have 1-1 tutoring, ESL classes (on various levels) or take citizenship preparation class. Holladay says 89% of last year’s 351 students were immigrants. There are as many as 150-160 volunteers working with those seeking literacy.
Literacy, says Holladay, “is constantly proving to be an urgent and vital need. It’s easy to put on the back burner, so we have to make our case” constantly.
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