TRI News

An Evaluation of the St. Stanislaus Kostka School 3-Tier RTI Reading Initiative Commissioned by The Reading Institute

To download the full evaluations click on the links below:

2008-09 Report

2009-10 Report

St. Stanislaus Kostka School (St. Stans) has an enrollment of 144 students in pre-K through grade 8. There is one class for each grade with class sizes ranging from 10 to 20 students. Beginning in the 2008-2009 academic year, St. Stans adopted a scientifically based core reading program that addressed the five core components of literacy as identified by the National Reading Panel. Through the use of leveled and decodable readers as well as weekly leveled selections, students are provided with frequent opportunities to interact with text, learn, and practice phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. In addition to the core reading program, teachers were trained and have available the materials from the Project Read curriculum and are expected to incorporate multisensory strategies and skills into their teaching.

In an effort to assess students’ response to both core and supportive reading instruction, a number of assessments were used to ensure that students are achieving to their highest potential. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of general outcome measures designed to measure critical literacy skills associated with early reading success. DIBELS benchmark assessment was administered to all student three times during the year. Based on research supported performance standards students were identified and provided with supportive intervention as noted above. The progress of these students was monitored on a weekly basis using alternate form grade appropriate DIBELS measures. In addition to the DIBELS, the Group Reading Assessment of Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE), a developmentally based group administered assessment of reading, was also administered during the fall and spring of the academic year.

Based on the results presented above it can be concluded that the combination of the core and supportive literacy instruction was strongly associated with statistically significant gains across the school year in the areas of phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Notably, significant gains were noted across all grades suggesting that the literacy program was appropriately administered in accordance with the changing developmental needs of the students.

 

Institute, school bask in success

Friday March 5, 2010 – By Jenn Smith, Berkshire Eagle Staff

WILLIAMSTOWN -- Part way through a multi-year literacy partnership between St. Stanislaus Kostka School in Adams and The Reading Institute in Williamstown, both organizations are boasting bold results and hopes of turning the program into a model for Catholic schools.

The partners shared their success story with The Eagle on Thursday morning during a literacy-planning workshop for teachers.

"I used to work with so many children who'd come to me in tears because they didn't know letters or words. Just the other day I had a little boy who looked at me and said, ‘I love reading now.' Since we've started this program, nearly every child has shown improvement," said Kimberly Scott. She and fellow reading specialist Jill Pompi were appointed to St. Stanislaus Kostka via the specialized reading program to directly help students learn and teachers teach new strategies.

Back in May 2008, The Reading Institute President Janet Stratton approached St. Stanislaus Kostka Principal Sr. Jacqueline Kazanowski about piloting a new literacy program for kindergarten through Grade 6. At the time, the school on its own was looking to update its reading program to improve student literacy and install a better system of evaluating students' progress in reading.

"We were looking for a school whose administrators and teachers would give 100 percent commitment to the implementation of the literacy initiative and St. Stanislaus has become an enthusiastic partner," Stratton said.

As a pilot program, The Reading Institute invested more than $115,000 into the literacy partnership with St. Stanislaus. This covers the cost of teacher training and stipends, salaries for substitute teachers and a half-time reading coach; new resources and materials from literacy programs like Project Read, Scott Foresman, Key Three Routine and Telian; intervention and assessment programs like DIBELS and GRADE, and continuous guidance.

Kazanowski called the program "a miracle," particularly because as a private school, even though it's implementing the same reading program as public schools, St. Stanislaus doesn't get state or federal aid to help struggling students.

"When a child is not reading as well as their classmates, they wear that," said fifth-grade teacher Mary Cook, a St. Stanislaus teacher of eight years.

At the beginning of the year in kindergarten, for example, all but one pupil was below the school's benchmark goal for fluency in sound, a measurement of whether a child is able to recognize and produce the initial sound in an orally presented word.

As of January, 11 of 14 children had met or exceeded this learning goal, and all of the children had shown improvement by recognizing five or more word sounds.

Stratton said the program has been so successful that it has gotten the attention of the Diocese of Springfield, which oversees Catholic schools in Western Massachusetts, as a potential model for other schools.
"This program has given our kids so much confidence," said fourth-grade teacher Tammy Barosso, a St. Stanislaus teacher of 10 years. "At first we were overwhelmed, but now I'm thrilled as a teacher and on a personal level that I've made progress too."

Photo: Sister Jacqueline Kazanowski, principal at St. (Darren Vanden Berge / Berkshire Eagle Staff)

 

Institute Holds Tech Seminar

August 19 2009 – By Ryan Hutton

WILLIAMSTOWN – About 100 educators from around New England converged on The Reading Institute in Williamstown over the last few days to learn new ways of integrating technology into the classroom.

This year was the third year for the institute’s symposium on differentiated instruction using technology, and president Janet Stratton said she was very pleased with how it has generated a lot of discussion about how to take traditional teaching techniques and integrate them into a technologically advanced world.

Madalaine Pigliese, director of technology integration for Simmons College, was one of the organizers of the event and she said so much can be done to advance things like literacy, phonics, comprehension and reading retention as long as you have the right tools.

"I work with a team of brilliant literacy folks who are great at their strategies and great at their off-computer materials," she said. "But being that it’s the 21st Century, we need to add in some tools strategy. So what you see going on here is a direct connection with what they’ve been studying. Our purpose with this event is to bring together the tools with the people who understand the strategies and talk about classroom implementation."

Pigliese said one of the biggest obstacles to overcome is having "digital natives" – those raised on modern technology – being taught by "digital immigrants" – those that were not. She said many of the teachers are digital immigrants no matter how familiar they are with modern technology because children these days have been surrounded by it almost from birth.

"A lot of them are digital immigrants and really need someone to translate how to work with kids today who have grown up with iPhones and texting and MP3 players," she said. "These kids have all that floating around in their heads. We need to meet the kids where they live. We can’t do things the way we’ve always done it just because that’s the way we’ve always done it."

Pigliese said the goal is to combine effective strategy, good teaching and good strategic instruction. She said those things will never be replaced by new technology, but they can be augmented with the inclusion of that technology.

She said there are also simple, commonplace tools that are largely free or already included in common software like Skype video confrencing and the ability to embed sound files in Microsoft Word documents.

One example she gave was an on-the-fly solution to one of the symposium’s problems. A lecturer was unable to attend because her flight was turned back, but she was still able to lecture from Little Rock, Ark. by using a simple MacBook laptop and the free Internet video conferencing service, Skype.

"It would have been real easy to cancel that and say ‘well, one of our speakers couldn’t be here.’" Pigliese said. "But now we have an opportunity to show how to use existing, free technology with no special equipment."

Stratton said of the 100 educators attending, 10 of them were from Williamstown Elementary School and St. Stanislaus Kostka had sent teachers from every grade to participate as well. She said 100 attendees was the perfect number because at a traditional convention, it is easy to hide in the big crowds and not engage. Stratton said the idea of the symposium was to favor quality of the discussion over quantity of the information being presented.

 

Literacy Initiative Launched at St. Stanislaus Kostka School

May 29 2008
Adams – Eight teachers and the principal at St. Stanislaus School are attending summer school thanks to the Literacy Initiative partnership with The Reading Institute (TRI) in Williamstown. Thirty-five parents recently attended a presentation provided by Jill Pompi, Reading Coach for the Literacy Initiative and learned that the goal of the initiative is to ensure that all students at St. Stanislaus read at or above grade level by Grade 3 and to have all students continue to read above grade level with excellent comprehension in Grade 4 and beyond. Janet Stratton, TRI president said “We were looking for a school whose administrators and teachers would give 100% commitment to the implementation of the Literacy Initiative and St. Stanislaus has become an enthusiastic partner.”

To reach the needs of students attending St. Stanislaus, teachers began attending training provided by TRI at the beginning of May. The training covers instructional elements which encompass research-based teaching methods and addresses five key areas of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Stratton said “Each component must be explicitly taught through the grades using a structured multisensory approach to reach all learners. The three-tier model used begins with an assessment of where students are, followed by a biweekly assessment that re-evaluates instruction techniques and changes variables to help students, and finally an evaluation of all students. Intensive instructor or student intervention is provided in areas not meeting with achievement.” On June 16th St. Stanislaus students will be assessed to determine their individual literacy benchmark.

“Our school’s partnership with TRI is providing professional development for our teachers in instructional methods that relate to reading success for our students,” said Principal Sr. Jacqueline Kazanowski, CSSF. TRI is investing more than $115,000 in the St. Stanislaus literacy partnership which will cover the cost of teacher training and stipends, substitute teachers’ and a half time reading coach’s salaries, new reading program resources, Project Read materials, and intervention and assessment programs. The outcome of the Literacy Initiative will not only provide students with improved reading success, but improved standardized test scores in all other subject areas. “The strong commitment being made by the teachers and administration at St. Stanislaus will ensure that the graduates of St. Stanislaus are achieving their highest potential,” said Stratton. TRI is a non-profit organization committed to improving literacy by training teachers.

For more information about the Literacy Initiative, visit St. Stanislaus online at: www.catholicschoolswesternma.org