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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:

  • 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
  • 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

Projects

Educator Effectiveness Alliance members

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.