K–6 Literacy Improvement Partnership
The K–6 Literacy Improvement Partnership (LP) aims to enable educators to improve literacy instruction and outcomes for K–6 students in Nevada’s Washoe County School District. With a focus on literacy instruction, the district is interested in implementing more systematic supports for teacher development, strengthening the connections between what happens in teacher meetings and what happens in the classroom, and seeing specific results from professional learning activities. REL West is partnering with Washoe County School District and the Northwestern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program to leverage improvement science methods, in which teachers test new practices and examine data together to improve instruction. Partners at both the district and school levels are learning together how an improvement science approach can support the conditions required for teacher learning, teacher collaboration, and instructional shifts in the context of curriculum implementation.
Alliance Objectives
The partnership aims to improve literacy instruction and student outcomes by building the capacity of two groups of educators:
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Build the capacity of teachers and grade-level team leads by supporting them to:
- shift their instruction through conducting inquiry cycles in their classrooms
- understand “change ideas” and how to test them in inquiry cycles
- deepen their understanding of effective literacy instruction
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Build the knowledge and skills of principals, district and school-based coaches, and district partners by supporting them to:
- understand the principles of improvement science
- use data to reflect on the impact of professional learning
- develop a shared vision of good literacy instruction
- increase their capacity to support teacher inquiry and collaboration
- use improvement science principles in other initiatives and schools
Resources
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Video: Improving Practice in Being a Writer: Summer Institute
This video is an excerpt from a two-day summer institute for grades K–6 teachers focused on the Center for the Collaborative Classroom’s “Being a Writer” curriculum. The first segment of the video provides an improvement science framework for learning together and the second segment introduces a process for a grade-level team meeting called a “learning huddle”. -
Video: Using Learning Huddles to Improve Teaching and Learning
This webinar introduces the “learning huddle,” short, grade-level meetings where teachers collaborate to improve their practice by reflecting on their instruction and classroom data. -
Infographic: Using Inquiry Cycles in PLCs to Improve Instruction
This infographic illustrates how inquiry cycles can provide opportunities for teachers to improve their practice and also includes a data analysis discussion protocol and links to relevant resources. -
Presentation: Improvement on the Front Lines: Using Learning Huddles to Shift Instruction: Presentation at the 2019 Carnegie Summit on Improvement in Education
These presentation slides describe how inquiry cycles and teacher discussion protocols (“huddles”) have been used to support improvement activities in Washoe County School District and Baltimore City Public Schools. -
Poster: Leveraging Learning Huddles to Improve Instruction: Poster at the 2018 Carnegie Summit on Improvement in Education
This conference poster describes the literacy improvement work at two elementary schools in Washoe County School District. -
Blog: Improving Instruction with Teacher Learning Huddles and Inquiry Cycles
Elementary school teachers in Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada, use rapid inquiry cycles to examine classroom data and improve how they teach reading and writing. Read about how teachers are learning to conduct inquiry cycles and how this is shifting their instructional practice and how they collaborate.
Projects
Partners
Partnership members include staff from the Washoe County School District Office of Curriculum and Instruction, the Center for the Collaborative Classroom (a nonprofit curriculum and professional development provider), Nevada’s Northwest Regional Professional Development Program, and teachers, principals, coaches, and learning specialists from participating schools.