You have questions about our “July Jump Start” and our school-year alternative plan for the Texas Reading Academies. We have your answers in this episode of SchoolWork.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone. Just wanted to pop in and tell you from the start that this is not an episode of schoolwork. This is the audio from a video that was recorded this morning in regards to reading academies. So if you are not one of our elementary teachers, then I would recommend skipping over this episode. If you are one of our elementary teachers, then this is 50 minutes of audio from the video that was recorded this morning. Um, we just wanted to make sure we provided it in a way and on a platform that might be a little bit more convenient for you and more accessible as you're on the go in the car, um, or in the classroom. So we hope you enjoy and we'll, we'll catch you on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey, there, everybody on this cold January morning. Um, really we we're gonna come together today. I have Mr. Loomis with me, uh, also Sam Holder. We're gonna talk really a whole lot about our reading academies. So I, I'll just start us off. Um, and we'll take it back about a year ago in, in consultation with d a c, we, we knew reading academies were coming. Uh, house Bill three mandated that all of our K through three, three teachers, um, went through this, this, this regimen of training. And really, a, a year ago what was important was t e a basically had given us very limited information. We, we knew that it was about 10 days of training. We, we really had no firm grasp of the concept and the rigor of reading academies, you know, and so, so Dac
Speaker 3 (01:31):
C I just, I don't even think we knew what the content really was. They were still in the process this time last year, writing many of the modules, right? So we didn't even know what this looked like as we finished,
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Right? So, uh, really d a c um, was trying to consider reading academies, but really didn't have enough information to make a really great decision, um, or, or, or really enough information to, to really come up with a whole lot of ideas. And so, d a c really, um, tried to ensure that we had as much time as possible built into the calendar a year ago, and, and really working with assistant superintendents and principals and teacher groups. We, we had eight, eight campuses that stepped out and volunteered to be the first group of schools to, to go through the reading academies training.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah. That, that, that's exactly, uh, what happened, Kevin. And, and, um, you know, as, as we stepped into the middle of this, you know, the pandemic was, was raging. Um, even as we came back to school in August, remember, we were still hoping that this thing was gonna be behind us or literally any day. And here we are, you know, at the end of January of 2021. And, and the pandemic is still raging. And, and so, you know, it, at, at, at several points, uh, we did temperature checks with, with the, the Reading academy, a team, uh, the administration about should we pull out of this? And, and really, because we had already stepped into, nobody really wanted to stop what we were doing and, and start over, because if we would've pulled out of these, it, it literally would've been been restarting. And, and so, um, I'm thankful.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I, I think those teachers at Wolfly, Glenwood Pucks, Sandburn, east Ridge, paramount, tar Terrace, Whittier, south Georgia, um, they really are my heroes in so many places. Um, I, I think it goes a long way to say who teachers are and what they believe. You know, I, coming in this morning, you hear about schools that still aren't back and, and teachers who, who, who, who don't wanna be back and, and are, and, and I completely understand that, but really from day one, teachers in, in Amarillo have stepped up and not, not without trepidation, not without fear, not without all the issues that run, run around covid, but, but literally we've been open since day one, and this group of teachers stepped up and said, on top of all of this, we're going to try to figure out how to manage, um, these reading academies. And I, and I think even Sam, when we were talking about managing these reading academies, even in August, I don't, I don't think we really understood, stood the rigor and the complexity of these
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Courses. Not at all. Um, and in fact, the, these team of eight, these, these eight campuses completed a full, um, six modules before we even started school. Six out of 12. So 50% of them were completed before we even got into schools. And then after that, the plan has been to use our built-in staff development days in October and in, um, February to complete, uh, some of the modules. And then, uh, aside from that, they've been pulled out along the way with a substitute. And so that really has been the foundation of birthing our plan moving forward. We took the input from those campuses, from those principals, and what we found out is first that the rigor is pretty intense, um, of, of the academies. And, and secondly, that it really is probably not in the best interest of our campus leaders, our students and teachers themselves, to be out of class to complete these modules. It's, it's hard then to go back and implement. Um, and it's rigorous,
Speaker 2 (05:20):
You know, I, I think another, to Doug's point to kind of back up a little bit on, um, you heard Sam say that we were, we were six modules in. And, um, and, and as we talked about, do we need to stop this? Do we need to pull back? We had people way into this. I think the other thing that's important, I, I'm, I've kind of been the guy all along the way that every Thursday has been in tune with a t e A webinar. And, and honestly, for a good while, I, I really expected every Thursday as I logged into that webinar that, um, that this, that the academies would be something that, that would be paused or waived or, um, at least stopped or, or, or there would be something. And that just never came. And so, in addition to teachers already being a good way into this work, uh, t e a really, this was not an area that they gave any relief on. And, and, and so their message was continue to try to figure out how to do this. And, and as we've done that, I think, um, I think we've received a whole lot of praise a, around the state as being a leader in this area and figuring out how can we not stop and, and virtually trash a a great deal of work that teachers have done.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah. I, you know, so that sort of sets the stage of, of, of how we got here, um, or at least how we, how we stepped into this new school year. Um, and so as the semester started to come to close, um, really in, in my mind, there were two or three things that that really started, um, to solidify in my mind about reading academies. I think one of them is the rigor and the complexity that this, that, that this science of, of, of teaching reading, uh, academies has brought, um, I think we said this earlier, but you know, this is not one of those things that, that we just went out and dreamed up and created this complexity and said by, oh, by the way, all of our kindergarten or kindergarten through third grade teachers have to take this course. This came directly out of House Bill three.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And the truth of this is, anyone who teaches kindergarten through third grade by the end of 2023, I think is, is the ending date has to have completed this course. And, and I'm gonna use the word pass this course. 'cause it's not like typical CEUs that we all go get in a sit and get kind of opportunity. This really is a, a, a college level course. I mean, there, there are pre-test, there are post-test, there are artifacts that have to be submitted and graded, uh, by third parties. Um, this is a really rigorous course. And, and so when, when you start thinking about what we, we, what, what we stepped into unknowingly and continued because of the professionalism of our teachers, it, it started to ring in my ring in my mind. You know, can we, can we sustain this for three more years? Um, I think the, the, the other thing is, um, we have subscribed to balanced literacy in this district for the last 20 to 25 years.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
And, and what I will tell you is, you know, we, we have gotten really, really good at, at the, at the right side of that scale, teaching comprehension literacy, uh, the literacy closet, the literature that we teach, the, it's a testament to our teachers of how good they have, have gotten. But one of the things not, not as, not as an indictment against teachers, an indictment against the system mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I didn't get it as a first grader, and I didn't get it as a second grader. I'm already a third grader. And you start thinking about how do you change, how do you change this paradigm? How do you find a way to speed this up? And, and so we, we've got the rigor, we've got the skills, and then we started debriefing our eight campuses. And, and we heard, we didn't hear anything new. It was the things that we heard from the very beginning. While this is hard, this takes a lot of time, this takes a lot of focus. This isn't easy. You, you have to go back and you have to practice, and you have to practice to get there. And, and so Kevin and I spent a day just trying to get outside the box and try to think about, you know, how how could we create an opportunity that one would get all 35 of our elementary campuses on board as soon as possible?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
That's right. Um, how do you, how do you create, you know, we, we preach a lot about I do. We do. And you do, you know, and I, and I truly believe that, I mean, you, somebody's gonna teach it to me, and then we're gonna work it together, and then ultimately I'm gonna do it by myself. And then how do you embed student engagement in that model? And so we started creating this model that is outside, out, outside of the school year and, and thought, so if you, if you could figure out a system that would pay, that would, um, train teachers part of the day and work with kids the next day, and then you get in revolving this, you get an opportunity to, to learn to do a little bit of practicing and then come back and fine tune it and go back the next day.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
And you just continue to fine tune this as you move through a ti a time period outside the school day or outside the contract period. And, and we really started to warm up on that idea, not that we will be finished with reading academies at the end of July. Uh, this is, this is a, this is a process and it's probably at least a five month process. But, but what, what July gives us are 10 days that we work deeply in those modules. We implement it with our kids deeply, and we get an opportunity to hit the ground running when we get to August. 'cause let's not anyone forget, we've been in the middle of a pandemic, and there's not one of us that can point to any evidence that we haven't had tremendous regression with our kids. And we've got a tremendous amount of work to do.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
And what excites me is, is this model gives everybody an even playing field. It gives every teacher that wants the ability to, to learn the skill and start implementing next August. It also doesn't play the educational lottery with our kids. Kids at all campuses across the district will have the benefit of teachers who have learned or re-infused, refocus their skills in on this side to strengthen our balance literacy approach. And, and so that, that's sort of how we, you know, that that's the big thinking around how did we get here? And so it was really clear. Um, this doesn't work on Saturdays. Uh, it, it, uh, there's not any of us that want to give up Christmas and, and, and, and spring break. Those are long periods of time. Really, the only lengthy period of time that, that we can, can find is either in June or July.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And based on a lot of reasons, July kind of came to the forefront as a, as an opportunity. After the 4th of July, we could find 19 days that we could offer this to teachers who, who, who, who wanted to give up their summer. Um, and I know teachers, we would've had, you know, out of the 350 or 60 that we need to go through this training, I don't have any doubt we'd have had a large number that were just shown up. 'cause that's who teachers are, right? Teachers work hard, and teachers are committed to their kids. But in my mind, we, we really are asking teachers to do something we've never asked them to do before. We we're asking them to give up an entire month of June. And so Kevin and I really started looking for ways, how do you say thank you for that?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
How do you say it's important to us? How do you say we value teachers? And I think you do that by compensating teachers at a level that they're used to being compensated for. And, and, and teacher daily rates are somewhere between three and $500 a day, depending on years of experience and, and, and, and so forth. And so we, we went to our board last week and said, we think this is worth $400 a day, which translates into about $7,600 a, um, for the month. Um, and, and I think it's important for me to stop right here and remind everybody this is, there's no guarantee that we'll ever be able to do this again. Um, the funds that, that are available to do this are coming directly from us shutting down last la last spring, and not being able to spend supplemental dollars that you have to spend in a certain area.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
It's not like you can take those dollars and go spend them somewhere else. You have to spend them on, in this case, early childhood literacy. And, and if we don't spend it there, we just write the check back to, to the state. And, and that's not where we want to be. And this gives us an opportunity to try a new model. Uh, I get excited about what this model will look like. I, I worry that will we ever be able to replicate it when we're highly successful with it? I don't know, Sam, I don't know Kevin, but I think it's worth, excuse me, guys trying and, and, and trying to change the paradigm of how we've done things. And so one of you step in here and caught me off, so let somebody else talk a minute.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I, I think as much as this is about providing information to our K through three teachers about this idea, I, I, I, I don't wanna miss an opportunity to really communicate clearly that we, we've pledged for some time now that we're gonna listen. Uh, we're gonna listen to our teachers, we're gonna listen to our principals. And so before Sam really dives into the details about this summer idea in July, I think it's really important to give you some really concrete things that we heard from our teachers and our principals in our eight schools. And so, um, you know, first, principals want to be involved in this training with their teachers. Uh, we were in a conversation yesterday with an expert in really a totally different, uh, field and, and, and area of expertise. And, and she really stressed to us the importance of a, of a principal being right in the middle with their teachers and understanding.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
I don't think she stressed, I think she was just blunt. Yeah. If, if you're gonna learn something new, new, you're probably right. How dare you learn something new and your leader doesn't know what it is? Absolutely. I think that was powerful.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yep. So our, our principals need to be involved with this. Our teachers need the content upfront, um, but they also need the opportunity to implement and, and, and to, to begin to implement so that it affects their, their instructional process and their kids' learning. Um, teachers need that time to practice and, and they need it to be in an environment where they can fail whenever failure is a part of it. And so being able to, to try this out and, and learn what, or how doing certain things works and doesn't work is a very important part of this. Um, again, we're reiterated, I'll go back all the way to even a year ago where Mr. Loomis and I sat in meetings at, at the state level in Austin, and really, you know, people would just give us a vague descriptor that this is hard. And, and really what we learned and what we heard from our teachers and our principals, this is not easy.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
It, it is difficult. It is complex. And most importantly, it requires a lot of support, um, which we want to give to our teachers. But, but this is not an easy training. And it generally, for most people, requires a level of support that is, that is unique. It's not like other segments of training that we've gone through. Um, the other thing we learned, we, we have to add a biliteracy cohort leader for our schools that are working in the bilingual world. Uh, we have to have a trainer that brings that to our team. And I, I will just, you know, I'll just stop and say, along with our teachers at the eight schools, our current cohort leaders are rock stars. They are awesome, but they have to have a bi literate member of their team moving forward. Um, the other thing that was really clear is we, we cannot rely on substitutes and missing instruction for teachers and for kids moving forward.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's not a good model. And it was clearly communicated to us that, you know, we, we did the best we could do given the information that we had. But, but that's not a sustainable mo model long term. And so pulling teachers out of the classroom for 10 days, even when it's spread out, is not a model that's conducive. And so, you know, those are specific things that we heard from teachers and from principals who have, uh, as Doug said, you know, just kept their chin high and have figured this deal out. But this is about us listening, like we pledge that we would do, and making an adjustment for the good of the district, for the good of teachers and for the benefit of our kids. And so, you know, those are just some really concrete things that I think are easy to, you know, just breeze by.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
But that is truly what we heard from our eight schools and our eight, and that really led us to thinking about this summer idea and then, you know, even a plan B after that for how to do this differently. And, um, you know, I, I appreciate the challenge that Doug gives all of us to not continue to do things like we've always done them. And this is a perfect example of how it would've been easy to just continue to build, you know, a certain number of professional development days in the calendar for next school year, and just continue with the model that we are being told from the trenches isn't really a good model. And so, yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
And I think it's important, you know, as you, as I talk to colleagues across the state, you know, they're, the way they intend on rolling this out is that blended approach where teachers really are on their own, more or less. I it is probably more, it's probably less than, right? And, and, and, and Kevin, I, the, the power of this is not how hard it is. It, it, it's, it's about what, what we've learned is we, we attest to having a balanced literacy approach. And, and what we know is, you know, those scales have been tipped mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
It was, it's funny that you say that because when you called me into your office, I thought you were both crazy. We are completely crazy. And in fact, I went back to our cohort leader team and I was like, this is what they're proposing. And they were like, they're crazy. Um, not because they didn't think the plan wouldn't work, but first of all, mainly because they're like, how, how do you, how do you, how do you pay teachers a daily rate in the summer? That's not done. That's never done. But the more that we digested, um, this suggestion, the more it started to really fall into place, and it made sense. It made sense with the modules, it made sense with the rigor. And so some of the perks to this plan to teachers out there, um, first of all, it's 19 days in the summer.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
That's, that's the, that's what you give up. Um, it, it starts on July 6th, and it ends on the 30th. It is five days a week. That first day of July 6th, we would front load content. It would be a full content day, moving through modules, making sure everyone's registered with the state, um, in the t e a learn accounts. And, and then from there on, it would be in the am We work with at-risk kids, we work with our own at-risk kids implementing the content from the academies. Um, Doug talked about this, and it's so true. We can look at this as a way to address the Covid cliff. And, and it is, I'm calling it the ju July Jumpstart. I, um, it just kind of, it, it kind of clicked. Um, but the truth of the matter is, when we look at our data, not just from this year, but across, really since about 2010, up to 2013, our data has been flat.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
One of the things that we've learned in the academies is that 60% of kids can learn to read without systematic and explicit instruction and foundational skills, but 40% cannot. They must have those foundational skills to learn to read. We're all tired, we're all frustrated. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that our tier one instruction has been out of balance. Our data shows exactly that. We have about 60% of kids that learn to read with proficiency, and we have 40% that don't. So we really can't wait on this. Um, moving into the perks of the plan, there will be no sub plans. You would not have to do sub plans because you're doing it in the summer. You are getting paid a $400 stipend daily rate to, as Doug talked about, do that. Um, see it, name it, do it or I do, we do, you do approach with teachers where, um, they're learning the, the material and then they're practicing the next day.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
We're able to break the material into shorter bits. Um, it would be very, uh, supportive. The cohort leaders would be there on hand to support. Now, you may be going, wait, what about the eight? I'm, I'm on one of these eight campuses. We made sure that when we talked to our board members about this, that we had a plan for our eight members. Um, we absolutely want them to have the opportunity to partake in this, because one of the things that we heard is that they really didn't get the, um, opportunity to implement this the way that they would've liked to have, have had. Um, and, and because of the fact that, you know, we've been in this covid situation, they may not have even had the opportunities to work in PLCs to digest the content. And so we listened to that. This would allow those eight to help facilitate content for, uh, those of the, the rest of us that are going through the academies, and then practice that content with their own students in a way that maybe they didn't get a chance to fully implement during the school year.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
So those are kind of some of the perks. Doug and Kevin have already alluded to the pedagogical shifts that could take place district-wide to improve tier one instruction overall. So really that's one option. Teachers can partake in the July Jumpstart for a daily stipended rate for those 19 days. They avoid having to deal with subs and they get the opportunity to practice with kids. This also addresses the needs of our at-risk students. So that's, that's one you may be saying, this is not an option for me. My life does not, um, a allow me in the summer to, to give up my July. I can't do that. So what about me? Well, DAC was so thoughtful when they put together the, um, the calendar, and they kept that in mind. And so you would, if you, if you could not participate in the July jumpstart, which would be option A, there is an option B that would allow you to go through the academies during the school year on staff development days.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
It would take all 10 of your staff development days, but you would be able to complete that content during the school year. Now, it would not be of as supportive. Um, it would not be, um, there wouldn't be the o opportunity to, you know, do the, the train and teach model. I'm calling it the see it, name it, do it. Uh, but certainly you would be implementing those, uh, your new learning in your classrooms. So really, those are the two, the two options for Texas Reading Academies. I wanna stress that our target audience for this plan is our K through three teachers that also came at from the eight that have participated in this. We had some pre-K teachers. We've had fourth and fifth grade teachers. And really what we learned, because we hadn't seen the modules in advance, is that the content of the academies is very much geared toward kindergarten through third grade teachers. And so this allows us to hit that target group, really focus on tier one, get our principals trained as well, and then move on in, in subsequent years to maybe any other groups that we, that we might could pick up along the way.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Thanks, Sam.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
You know, I, I, Sam talked about D A C and, and, and their involvement in this process. I, I think, you know, we, DAC was one of the first groups that we shared this July training concept with. And generally, you know, I think, um, and in fact there are, I believe some of our K through three teachers on dac who are very excited about learning more, um, about the idea. But, but DAC was very clear, you know, there needs to be a plan B. And, and so, uh, to that end, you know, all, all of us will see some slightly different things in our calendar. And really, a, a big, a big reason for that is to make sure that we do have a plan B for reading academies. Again, I, I think Sam's done a good job. I I think the July opportunity has, um, has a, has a lot of benefits, you know, the, the, the learn and implement, the support level.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Um, but, but DAC was, was sure to, to reinforce that, that it would be probably optimal if we had options. And so that's exactly what DAC did. Again, we, we sacrificed some holidays in places where we've normally had 'em, but that's to ensure that our K through three teachers who aren't able to participate in July have the opportunity to do that within the school year on those staff development days. So, uh, DAC was, was very much involved and supportive of the idea in general, but really also supported, you know, a plan B, and, and they, they did their work in inside the calendar for 2122 to ensure that,
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Uh, one thing I wanna make sure that we kind of talk about here is, uh, next steps. Um, we have set up courses in Strive. Those courses will, you'll be able to see them on March 1st. Registration opens for those courses on March 11th. That gives principals time to make sure that the, it's not for teachers that are teaching in K through three this year. Um, this is for what your placement is in the 2122 school year. Um, so that, that's first of all, this kind of gives everybody kind of time to digest and, and know what, what we're gonna be teaching next year. Because we know, especially with our enrollment this year with c o and everything being so up and down, there may be some shifts. So that's the first thing. The second thing is, we know you have questions,
Speaker 4 (30:28):
And so just to, to make sure that you have an opportunity to an, to have those questions answered, we, my, my team and I will have, uh, some q and a sessions. We'll have a kindergarten and first grade question and answer session at 3 45 on February 1st. And then we will have a second and third grade q and a session on, um, February 2nd. So that would be next Monday and Tuesday. So it's a Google meet. Feel free to sign on. I will push that q and a out to you via email with the, uh, Google Meet code. Um, and so, you know, I know this will give you kind of time to process and, and think of the questions that you have. And then, um, feel free to join us that day and we'll, we'll be there to answer for you.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Thanks, Sam. Um, you know, I, I just think, um, I'm sitting here just thinking there, there are several elephants in the room, um, and, and we've touched and, and we've danced around this just a little bit, and that's not our intent. Uh, we've worked hard in the last two years to be as transparent as we can be, uh, to try to be as collaborative as we can be, and look to always put students first and teachers, you know, right behind them. And because this is about building teams, and this is about supporting one another. Um, and just yesterday, um, you know, I received a communicate that that strikes right at your heart. Um, when you receive a communique that says you've betrayed the eight campuses, you should have had better foresight. I hope none of that is the truth. Um, because I, I honor the eight campuses who are our heroes, who stepped up and did this.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
And even when it was difficult, and they could have said, we're done, we're gonna wash it, and we're gonna come back at another date, uh, like so many other places has done, they, they didn't do that. So as we started to build the system, um, it was really clear, um, that these eight campuses had already gone through the struggles. But we really had an opportunity to, to either do what we've always done and just create this equal system. You know, we're, we're, we often throw around, you know, the definition of insanity from Einstein is to continue to do what you've always done. Um, and we could have easily done that. However, easily done that. I'm not sure, because if I think about what those eight campuses had to go through this year, um, there's nothing easy. I don't, I don't know that I hope next year in, in 21, 22, I can't replicate the nuances of a hundred year pandemic.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
You know, I, I hope it's behind us. Um, and so that alone would not have made it equal, uh, because it just would've been different. But we really started thinking about how do you do something different? And, and can you, and when you can, can you build equity? And that's what this system does. And so, as you know, for not one minute, did, did we not think about how this affects both sides of this coin? And so when I think about the eight campuses, your trials and tribulations really happened over this school year. And not that it was ever easy, but that's where the trials and tribulations, by the time we get to July, the post-test will be behind you. The initial new learning will be behind you. The, the post-test will be behind you. The artifacts will have been submitted and, and approved. And, and, and, and hopefully everyone has got that highly qualified indicator that's been there.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
It's done. And so as you step into July, this is about how do you collaborate, how do you practice the skills? And more importantly, how do you practice 'em with your kids? And how do you implement this? And then in places where it's, it's appropriate, how do you help lead these new teachers that have come to the table? My God, they, they, they were the pi, you were the pioneers, right? And, and we honor that. And, and so, you know, you're right. Should have, we had the foresight. If we'd had the foresight to do this, we would've never gotten to a daily rate because we, we don't, we, at the time that we started this, we didn't have a mechanism to do that. This is not something that you can go back and retro. Um, one, because we didn't have a a, an improved stopping to get there.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And, and the stopping that's approved is, is moving forward. And, and, and, and so much of what we did was within the contract day, right. You know, it was, and, and I, I don't take anything away from teachers having to, to, to miss class time and what it takes to do that. But so, so when you think about these eight campuses, you know, those trials and tribulations have happened over the last, you know, 12 months. By the time we get to July, when they get to July, it, it's sort of that we can breathe and we can really implement and, and we can really affect our kids, and we can lessons learned to the teachers that are going through it. Whereas if you're on the other side of this paradigm, you know, you're, you're a teacher that didn't get to do it, July's gonna be a pretty stressful time because those things of pre-test, new learning, post-test, those all kind of run.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
And then as you move into the first and second semester next year, you still have artifacts and you still have the completion of that, the coaching, the professional support that goes along with that. And, and so maybe next school year, there's not quite as much stress. So it's just shifting, it's shifting that stress a little bit. Um, and, and I, and I think, you know, and for those teachers who can't do it in July, they're gonna be right back in the same boat, right? That, that our eight campuses were this year. Because again, this is one of those things that by 2023 to teach kindergarten through third grade, you have to have completed this course
Speaker 4 (36:32):
With proficiency.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
With proficiency, yeah. You have to pass this course, don't you?
Speaker 4 (36:36):
And, and, you know, the, you guys have both been so supportive from the very beginning. Um, when, when we first started hearing about the Texas Reading Academies, what I kept saying is, if we're, we have to do this. I don't wanna just check a box, I really do wanna do it. Right? And Doug, and Kevin and our assistant superintendents have been so, so, so supportive of that going back and, um, and doing it the way that we did it, just because that's the way we did it the first time, would not be doing it. Right. Um, we tried our best. Um, we
Speaker 4 (37:33):
We see the struggle. And so to do that the same way, just as Doug said, would not have made sense at all. Um, the other thing is that the, what we, what we have learned is that the, now that we've gotten into the content is that we need it. Our data shows that we need it. We need it for our kids. We need it for our kids to be successful. And I've, I've been a teacher of, um, you know, early literacy, nothing is more frustrating when you are working your tail off and your kids aren't moving. And if we can give that, if this, if we can make this missing piece of the puzzle, a part of our daily instruction, all of us are gonna be stronger for it. But most of all, our 40% of kids that do not read with proficiency are going to thank us. You
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Know, as you, as you rattled those statistics off a minute ago, I thought, wow, 60 40. And when you look at our data mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Well, how about for teachers who don't get in that, that, that we hire after, or they have second thoughts after July and think, I wished I'd had done this, and you think, well, should I wait till next July? And, and here's the truth. Um, we may not ever be able to replicate this. There's no guarantee that we'll ever be able to go back and, and be able to offer the opportunity that we're offering in July based on the success of what happens in July or the lack of success. We'll determine where we move forward. And, and it, it may cause us to have to rethink where resources go. If, if this is highly successful and, and we, and, and we see productivity out of it at the level that we hope that we see, yes. Um, we may have to have some hard conversations about this is where we've always spent money, and that's really not where we ought to be spending it.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
We ought to be spending it in this kind of, of, of staff development opportunity. Um, one of the things that I've lost sleep, sleep over for years is the amount of time we ask teachers to miss, uh, for staff development, and they're not with their kids. I think we have to think about how do we develop a system that trains our teachers, gives 'em the support, the professional support they need, but doesn't pull them away from their kids. Um, you know, there, there are, there are teachers because of staff development that will miss 10 and 15 days a year mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
You know, I, I think the only other thing that I would share is, is that, um, you know, d Doug as a, as a supervisor over time and, and others that have supervised me and challenged me as a leader, I think, um, really several of those folks have, have honed in over time on two things that, that, that make your job as a leader tough. And again, I'm not asking anybody to feel sorry for us because this is what we do, and, and, and it's what we do every day. And, and it's frustrating at times, but it, it's very satisfying, uh, equally at other times. But really, I think two things that over time have been really, um, you know, ingrained in me as a leader is, is sometimes the, the, the feeling, equity, the feeling of fairness will prevent you from doing something that ultimately is the right thing.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
I think that very much applies here. I, I think, I think, um, if I, as, as a leader in this and working with Sam and her group get really caught up on the idea of fairness or equity, uh, it, it could cause us to, to, to, to just step back and do something or not do something ultimately that would benefit all of our teachers and many of our kids. Second thing is, is that I, it's been ingrained in me for a long time, and sometimes in our job, it's just easier to say, no. And that's not what we did here. It would've been easier for Sam's group as we worked through this idea and thought about our eight schools that had already completed this training. It would've been much easier for her group to say no. You know, I, it's, they just, they've, we've, we've changed the model.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
They don't have that opportunity. Uh, we don't have the space and the capacity with our trainers to do it. You know, the district doesn't really have the money, or that's another additional chunk of money that we don't have. It would've been much easier to say no. And, and that's not what her group did. They said, yes, how can we, how can we, how can we work through our capacity issues? How can we work through the funding issues and, and how can we really tap into the knowledge that that group will bring to this table? Yes. And so, you know, what I would say, um, is if you're in that group on one of those campuses that have already worked through this, we appreciate you, we appreciate what you've helped us learn. And, and the answer is yes, we want you to be involved and to be a resource in this or not. And I think we certainly understand if some of you say, I'm finished with the training, I've, I've done it, I now have, you know, some idea of how I'm gonna implement that moving forward. And, and if you're, yeah. If you're, if you're feeling is, I don't want to participate in July, we understand that. But we sure. Welcome each of you to help our other teachers and your colleagues learn from what you've experienced.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Yeah. Uh, that really well said, Kevin. You know, when you, if, if we wanna boil this down to equity, and equity usually equals dollars. One of the things that we've done, any extra dollar that's, that, that, that can be earned in, in this model can be earned with from anyone. The model of implementation's a little bit different depending on whether you've already done it mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
I don't, it wouldn't have been easy for this team, but I, but I think historically it would've, it would've been easy to say, um, eight campuses are done. You know, uh, let's move on to the next group of, of 27 or so that we have, and, and let's not expend another million or two, you know, whatever it happens to be to get there. It was never about, you know, how much money this was gonna cost. It was about how do you change the system? And, and don't anyone forget as much as this is about adult learning, there's a whole group of kids who for 19 days are gonna get the opportunity to build skills that they have to have before they're able to get to that literature comprehension, right? We've got kids who are going to learn in this process and, and, and wow, if that's not our mission, I'm not sure what our mission is. Um,
Speaker 2 (45:17):
We've given you, we've given you a lot of information. Um, Sam talked about some q and a sessions that are coming up. We encourage any of you in that K through three grade span, jump on there, ask those questions, let those ladies give you some more information. I, I will tell you, there still are some parts of this that we're figuring out. Um, again, I'll go back to every time you say yes to one aspect of this or another, there's usually three or four details that have to be worked out. So for every, yes, there's three or four things that have to be worked out. Some of those we've figured out, some of 'em, we're still working on 'em. And so, you know, I'm not sure that Sam's Group will have the answer to every single question, but we would encourage you, uh, if you're one of our K through three teachers to jump on there, ask those questions, really look at the two options.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Really look hard at July because we think that there are many things built into that, that are supportive and helpful as you work through what we've learned to be a very rigorous process. If you're a, a middle school or a high school teacher, I would challenge you to embrace the changes you see in calendar. Um, reading academies doesn't yet directly affect you, but reading academies over time will significantly benefit, we hope your students and how they come to you. So embrace those changes as a secondary teacher that you see in the calendar, because that's to allow options for our elementary teachers to receive this training. Um, and let us answer your questions. Um, and let us, let us all move toward summertime and next school year knowing that we have a good plan and options for our reading academies.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
Um, and as I, I think it's important, Kevin, as, as we close up, um, there, I, I don't want someone to feel pressured one way or the other. Okay? Uh, obviously we believe in this July model, uh, we wouldn't have put the kind of money towards it if we didn't believe in it, and we didn't think it was the right thing to do for you and for our kids. But the reason we have option B is because we recognize because of, of personal commitments, family commitments, um, just personal needs. Sometimes option A is not going to work for you. And so we have the option B that's there. And so, um, I think it's also important for you to recognize this. This is not one of these we're all in or we're all out on a campus. Um, this is, this is not necessarily something that site-based decision making teams, um, have to approve or, or disapprove, because this is one of those things that we all have to do to keep our certification.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
So everyone on a campus can make that decision of, am I doing option A or am I doing option B? This is not one of those things that we all have to come to consensus, that we're all going to be an A or we're all going to B and b. 'cause I have no doubt all 35 of our campuses across the district, there will be teachers who, who eagerly await option A. There will be teachers who are repulsed by option A because of the time it takes away from family and commitments in the summer. Um, and so that's the reason for option B. And so I, I would encourage campuses to have conversations in, in site-based decision making teams and, and have these discussions about pros and cons and, and try to make the right decision for you, for your campus, and most importantly, the kids that you'll teach tomorrow. Thanks for all you do.