Rural Missouri Literacy Coaching Program Boosts Scores, Inspires Statewide Model
Kindergarten teacher Wittney Swyers knew it was impossible when her colleagues said her students should be entering first grade prepared to write sentences independently.
That was roughly a decade ago, when the kindergarten and first grade teachers at Harry S. Truman Elementary School in Rolla, Missouri, were discussing what reading skills students should have by the end of the year.
Swyers, who was in her first few years of teaching in the district at the time, realized there was a gaping disconnect between what state standards required and what her students could realistically achieve.
“They would tell us these expectations, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, how are our kids able to even do that?’ ” she said. “I was like, ‘This is a nightmare — they are coming into [first grade] not knowing all their letters and sounds, but then they’re going to expect them to sound out and write two or three sentences within the first quarter.’”
Swyers began several years of research into the science of reading, and in fall 2023 she started using a phonics program from the University of Florida Literacy Institute.
Read more at The 74.
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