Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here. I am I have been with Racine for this is my sixteenth year. I started out as a reading specialist at an elementary school working with our most struggling readers in k through five. And then I did become the district reading specialist about eight years ago. As a assistant director of curriculum and instruction. And now as my role as deputy chief, I'm still overseeing all things literacy, whether that be early literacy that we're going to be talking about today, all the way up into high school English, courses, as well as our MLSS or our RTI systems, so any of our interventions and gifted programs as well. Wow. And so, I mean, aside from being loyal to Racine, you know, what, like, kinda got you involved in literacy and how did you start putting attention towards science reading? I think it really did start with my teacher training program. I know in the news and in the media, we are reading that one of the things that really needs to change is the way that we how teaching reading is taught in pre prep programs. But I was fortunate I went to Cardinal Church University for my teaching certification, and they really did focus. On science of reading back then. So, I was already exposed to all of these teachings. That is my foundation of knowledge. And when I got my first teaching job, it was not anything what I learned in school. And there wasn't a ton of direction for me either. And I recognized I was working with, you know, students who were three, four years behind, fifth graders that were still reading at a first grade level, and am I prepared? How what are the supports that I need in order to, you know, grow my students to where they needed to be to be successful. And that wasn't really there. So I didn't want anybody to feel the way I felt. So, even as a teacher, I started kind of, you know, talking to others and finding out if they were in the same boat as me, and I found that a lot were. And the more we talked and we had commonalities and what supports we felt we needed in order to reach our students, we just started creating things on our own. We started writing grants. We started reading books we started having professional book clubs, and we always had supportive principals that would, you know, encourage others to join us. And to support kind of our movement. And the more results we got, of course, the more interest we got from other folks, and it kinda grew from there. Yeah. I mean, it's great to be in a situation where if you professionally get excited about something, then the leadership allows you to continue to pursue that and kinda see the fruits of that labor. But I think in the, you know, conversations you and I have had and the materials you sent over, one of the most interesting things about the work and preparation you're doing is really thinking carefully about how to engage the community in this work, but also how to coach parents in preparing kids to be taught, you know, reading in schools. And so maybe can you talk a little bit about how that came about and why you see that being such an important component of preparing for the implementation of science reading as part of the instructional strategy. I think it mainly came about because this is such a heated topic in the media. So we knew that we had a lot of informed families that were already contacting us and saying, you know, I heard about this, Are you doing damage to my students, things like that? Because some of this is very sensationalized that, you know, we're very doing a lot of harm. By not using these practices. So we knew we had to move quickly, and we can't move quickly without having a partnership with the stakeholders involved. So we did take an all hands on deck approach and any communication that we were going to be giving to our our staff, we knew we had to put in non teachers speak and connect with the community, the families, as well as other community partners, as the reason why we were changing so quickly. Because we had just previously adopted, maybe three years prior. So you know, the board of education was really shocked too. Like, why are you changing so suddenly? So we had to pare down the research and the media releases and and things like that to to show everybody involved. You're going to see some swift changes. Here's why, and here are things here's what it's going to look. Like? I I just wanted to, like, commend you guys on the on the language that you used on the website because I thought that it was really well balanced in terms of, you know, the science around the reading and the other approaches that people might be familiar with and, you know, it wasn't like taking a polarized stance and I'm sure it was an easy wordsmithing stuff like that, but I thought that it was a nice way to navigate the conversation program? Oh, well, thank you so much. That we were very intentional on trying not to polarize things, partly because Many of the people that worked on this have been in education and we do usually see a wide pendulum swing. And we know that as more and more information comes out, there are many things that science of reading, as it stands right now, could look different in two years down the road. So we didn't want to take the same approach as a lot of the mass media outlets were that the sky is falling and and, you know, all of these things are are really damaging because there are practices that we continue to do that are part of science of reading. So not everything is just thrown out. Here are things that we're going to change. We're going to be more intentional about. We're going to adopt materials on. We're gonna shift our language around, but there's no reason to panic. We just need to shift quickly. We know more now, so we'll do better. I'm talking to districts about implementing well. I do talk to them about three things I'm hoping that you will cover particularly around parent development and engagement and education. So the first is just you know, how do we get the mindsets of the parents in the right way? And I I think I I really enjoy the tools that you're providing parents as they prepare their children and support them. How parents can collaborate and learn from each other in this environment that because there there is a lot of noise in the space and trying to filter what is actual, you know, facts and scientific versus, you know, what's opinion based is really hard these days, and then I think third just touching upon the systems that are necessary because this isn't something that just, it's implemented over three months. It's something that takes a lot of time. And a lot of practice for educators to develop their skill too. So maybe if we could just start by mindsets, how do we get the community in the right mindset? I think some of the things that you're doing to make it kinda natural language education of the things are pretty right on point. But are there other things you're finding that improved mindset with I think having them involved in decision making from the beginning is key. So, you know, this sometimes tends to go into or overlap into, like, a dyslexia. Kind of space. And so we we did have a lot of students, families that do that do struggle with dyslexia, and they wanted to be a part of this. But we also have systems and structures built within our school district where we have parent ambassador groups. We also tapped into like our PTO's PTAs. Anybody who wanted to to know more, come be a part of this and and help us, give us ideas as to where we should be going in the community, what are the modes of communication that are most often utilized by our community. So instead of having a plan and just presenting it to the community, we actually utilized them in our planning process, which I think helped tremendously. So, I also noticed that you have, like, reading out loud materials that parents can use with their kids and such. They're like, do you feel like those materials are actually being utilized by your families? Oh, yes. We we track our our click in all of our data. We do have parent surveys. So, they are being utilized. Not, of course, as much as we want. We are still adding to it constantly, so it is something that we're pushing out all the time that we remind our parent ambassadors at each school to, you know, continue to push and talk about, so so that families feel equipped to work with their their children at home. I we do have some families that I that struggle themselves with literacy. And although they want to help and do anything possible. They don't always feel that they're qualified to do that. So, we have had some instances where we've had some more personalized or intimate trainings with those families. Those are usually identified by a school. And when those come, then a small group of us gets together, you know, they might have some questions in the beginning for us. How can we do this? What are some materials? Where can I get some materials? We we give them all of that in in that small group session where they're not as, I think, nervous maybe to speak up that a larger communication tool like a town hall or a press release where they might not want to respond. In something large. So we we really have many different avenues, not just the website. We have parent ambassadors. We have parent university. Options as well. So that's not just around early literacy. We have that around many, many, many initiatives in the district But if a family is well versed in our parent university system, they're going to know that that's an option. We do have a lot of Title one schools, and they have a lot of family nights. So we do encourage and send some information and templates and options for working with families when they do literacy nights. So they can continue with the same message that the district is having. And so that it weren't we don't want to confuse the parents and give them, you know, a different idea of of, you know, how how massive this shift is and how capable they are to support their their their children because they really, really are. Yeah, I thought it was really cool when I was checking out the website. It was pretty differentiated by age group and then there was by staff holding for parents if you felt comfortable with the materials and you could do it this way. You know, if you didn't feel comfortable, like here's kind of a simpler path that you could take. I didn't know about the, you know, the additional workshops that you provide, which kind of leads me into the second point I'd like to make around just the ability to have that safe space or the psychologically safe space where you could share and learn and push. And so, how do you get people to put the time and attend those types of things? Because I'm sure that's pretty much voluntary to participate in those? It is. It is. So I would give a few tips for that. Offer them at different parts of the day because our families do work different shifts. We always provide childcare. We always provide food we normally provide something they're going to leave with too. Whether that be books or some sort of literacy activities, they're going to leave with something in their hands that they can implement right away. You mentioned differentiated. A lot of our families have multi age children in the house. So if they need to take four different levels of something. Go ahead, please take four different levels. We'll support you in all of those things. So, That I think has been most helpful. Since COVID, I think adding remote options is also really helped full, so you're going we repeat sessions and we repeat information, but it's really just so we're making sure that we're meeting the needs of our community in families. Yep. That's great. And and I guess the the third piece that I often like to talk about is around just the resilient systems, and I think that a lot of times, districts implement these kinds of support systems for community, and then this the first year is great that it trickles down a little bit and the third year trickles down. And so How can we, like, maintain these really great support systems for the community other than just saying we're gonna keep on doing them? Yeah. That that's a really that's a really great question. So our journey started over COVID And the the draw to use EssER funds was really high. But the more we we did use some lesser funds to supplement some of this work, but it wasn't in any of our community work. So we made sure that we used existing dollars, whether that be title four dollars, title one dollars, already dollars that were allocated for our family and community engagement office. We we reworked things so that some of those systems and structures are going to stay because they're natural budget line items. So that did that did mean we had to make decisions on what was working and what was popular. And what wasn't. And I think that's hard because you are competing in a system that has a lot of needs. But fortunately, because this is so I would say, like, widely known by families now because it's talked about so much that most people understood that this had to take a front seat at least for now. One other thing that was critical though, we built this into our five year strategic plan. So we just started a new strategic plan for the district this school year and early literacy is one of our five main goals. Which means our system has reorganized and shifted to pay more attention and and create more solid systems around prevention in, in literacy. So, that will help at least for five years. And we've come to find here, you know, I have been here for a long time. But after five years, it really does seem like it's business as usual for the most part. People become used to that. They know where to go. The community knows who to talk to more often. They can recall things for previous years. So we really are kind of banking on just our experience over the years with what we've rolled out, that that type of reaction will come? So I kind of do wrap up here. I think, you know, as so many states have new mandates to implement science reading by, you know, twenty four. This tricks are scrambling and, you know, sometimes they're just putting plans together just to feed the work to the teachers and the classrooms and, you know, not much is getting out to the community. So, you know, now having done this for a bit, What kinda tips would you have given yourself now that you know what you've done, you know, and what is needed to be done so that other people can not go through the same kinda mistakes that are, you know, challenges that you might have experienced so that they can already anticipate some of the things that might be headed their way. I would say don't neglect other partners in your community that that can be of service, not only in support, but also in communication. So your local library. Your local, if you have any tutoring agencies or anything like that, make make sure that you're reaching out to them in elaborating with them, so they know what's coming. I know that we're in kind of a time crunch like you had said, there are some legalities in some states that this has to be done in a very fast timeline. And if you're in a larger district, or, you know, medium sized districts like us, we're around a little over sixteen thousand students. Doing something in a tight timeframe is is very challenging. So get get people on board to help you. And if that means you have to take the time upfront to reach out to other stakeholders that you've collaborated with and other capacities do that. Because more often than not, community members or parent advocates. They're they're on board and ready and willing to help. As much as they possibly can. That's one thing I would suggest. That's a really great point, because, let's say, some sort of tutoring group has, like, a different philosophy, and they're still promoting a different way in congruent with what the district's doing and that, you know, it creates that friction. And so, you know, making sure that everyone's invested in online and in the core strategy that the district's offering is so smart, and I don't think I I thought about that, but I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for making the time. I think, you know, these are really great tips for the audience here. And, you know, as as the districts we work with start thinking about implementing science or reading, I think it's so crucial just hearing the stories that you've provided today. So crucial that they engage the community stakeholders. And even like start preparing the students in and parents early before they even start coming to the district. So thank you so much for these incredible tips. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you.
