Spotlight Ohio: Structured literacy is a non-negotiable

Although educators at Fairless Elementary School had started the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling® (LETRS® training in 2016, many things—including the unexpected pandemic in 2020—caused them to put it on hold. Eventually, they extended their license and finished the training in 2021. According to Adam Amato, elementary reading instructional specialist celebrating his 10th year in education, the major takeaways and a detailed look at what their students and teachers needed to be successful led them, ultimately, to look for instructional materials that would fit their new non-negotiable of structured literacy.

Snapshot: Fairless Elementary School

• Brewster, OH: 60 miles due south of Cleveland
• Total enrollment: 590
• Preschool enrollment: 94
• Students w/ free or reduced lunch: 250 (42%)
• Students with disabilities: 110 (19%)
• Average daily attendance: 94.5%

Challenges lead to literacy change

Once they had wrapped up training with the LETRS® program, educators at Fairless Elementary in Ohio did what everybody else would do: they found a starting point—and made the necessary adjustments.

They knew that when looking to adopt a new curriculum, the priority had to be the core instruction—the instruction all students would receive in the classroom. Upon figuring out that they could use and extend into grades 2 and 3 what they already had for core instruction, they then turned to working out the best path for intervention.

“We had a lot of readers who were struggling,” Amato stated. “In many cases, when you were looking at MAP or Acadience data, half of our students were reading below grade level. And in some cases, we were still seeing below grade level scores in 4th and 5th grades.”

At first, they began piecing together materials they had already been using along with another product—one that they could print resources from online. They soon discovered that their teachers, as motivated and dedicated as they were, were getting frustrated.

“It was burning them out because there was so much prep time needed. They had to copy the stories. They had to make word cards, they had to create the games that were provided; they had to create all of their materials. And it was a struggle for them to keep up with the prep to be able to implement it. We needed something more comprehensive.”

A true phonics lesson plan

It was at this point that Amato and his team heard about the 95 Phonics Lesson Library™ (the instructional component in 95 Tier 2 Phonics Solution). “We saw that these were our weak points, and that this had everything needed for teaching and learning,” he continued.

That winter they purchased the 95 Phonics Lesson Library and, by spring, began implementing the program as their Tier 2 intervention resource in classrooms. “After seeing it in action for a few weeks with students, we realized what a true speech-to-print format and a true phonics lesson plan look like,” Amato said excitedly. “We could see clearly that even though the curriculum we had been using had brought us a long way, and given us a lot of background knowledge, at this point it was falling short. It didn’t have what we needed.”

A phonics core curriculum comparison

Amato knew 95 Percent Group had other resources, including 95 Core Phonics Program® —now the main component in 95 Tier 1 Phonics Solution.

This prompted the second-grade team to dive deeper into their existing reading curriculum to identify its shortcomings, and look for what they really need to understand if 95 Phonics Core Program would better meet their Tier 1 needs. They recognized the need for phonemic awareness, access to decodable text, and an evidence-aligned structure for teaching sounds and skills.

As they explored the program, they decided to pilot it with their high-performing first-grade students, who would be transitioning to second grade in the fall. Convincing the school administration to fund this new program was a challenge, but they eventually secured the support. Amato knew it wouldn’t be effective to just impose a new curriculum on his colleagues and teammates, but aimed to ensure buy-in and to show that they could enhance the existing teaching methods.

 K-3 implementation  process

Fast forward to the 2022-23 school year. Once it became clear that 95 Phonics Core Program was producing positive results in 2nd grade, Amato wanted to work towards full K-3 adoption of 95 Phonics Core Program. He decided to form a committee. In a high-level, well thought out presentation, Amato and his 2nd grade team brought these ideas to a committee made up of administrators, interventionists, and K-3 faculty representatives. They went through the different program options and looked at strengths and contributions to teacher knowledge, as well as limitations and challenges that each different program brings.

The committee began by comparing their current program and the potential of 95 Phonics Core Program for K-3 core literacy instruction. They analyzed various curriculum components based on what they now knew they needed, including synthetic phonics instruction, phonemic awareness, practice reading words, and automatic word recognition. They found that 95 Phonics Core Program aligned more closely with their goals, especially in terms of providing decodable text and improving teacher efficiency.

The team’s ultimate objective was to save teachers time, resources, and enhance student growth. This required a turnkey solution that ensured consistency across all grade levels, from kindergarten to third grade.

In the end, everyone agreed that 95 Phonics Core Program would be the best fit for what they wanted to do: ensure consistently high quality, explicit literacy instruction across all classrooms from kindergarten to third grade. They purchased the curriculum, went through the training, and hit the ground running in fall of 2023 with 95 Phonics Core Program across grades K-3.

The future is bright for reading improvement

Although this is the first year that all students in grades K-3 will be receiving instruction using 95 Phonics Core Program as their Tier 1 curriculum, the results coming out of 2nd grade for the past two school years tell a story of success. The 2022-23 school year in September was the first year 2nd grade students would receive 95 Phonics Core Program as their Tier 1 instruction. From June 2022-June 2023, students reading at or above grade level increased from 56% to 71%.

“Our scores are now above pre-Covid test scores,” Amato reported. “And, thanks to 95 Percent Group, our Acadience 2nd and 3rd grade data is so close to a true pyramid.”

These results are what led Amato and his team to push so hard for adoption of our 95 Core Phonics Program from kindergarten to third grade. With all students across k-3 now receiving 95 PCP as their Tier 1 instruction, and small groups using 95 Phonics Lesson Library, there’s no telling how far they can soar. The Beginning-of-Year data for 3rd graders this year was 72% reading at or above grade level.

And that’s not all.

“Right now I’m working on getting 95 RAP™ into our building for Tier 3 Intervention.” Amato admitted, “We aren’t quite there yet, but I’m confident we will get there.”

Here are four things to remember as you work towards reading change in your community:

1. Structured literacy, phonics instruction, core and intervention need to follow a speech to print model.
2. All students have multiple opportunities to decode and apply concepts.
3. Struggling readers need two doses of that lesson plan: 95 Percent Group’s Acceleration Model offers Tiered Instruction so all students receive Tier 1 instruction, and then students needing more support receive additional Tier 2 and Tier 3 instruction.
4. Code emphasis and meaning emphasis have a place in each grade level in different proportions.

Ready to strengthen literacy instruction in your district?

Fairless Schools show what’s possible when educators have the training, tools, and aligned instruction to support every student’s reading development. Contact our literacy experts to explore how 95 Percent Group can help your school build a more consistent, structured approach to literacy.