The South Carolina Reading Initiative
Teachers, Principals, Administrators, and Literacy Coaches
Work Together to Improve South Carolina's Literacy Rate

 February 2001 Council Chronicle

Copyright © by the National Council of Teachers of English

As district literacy coach for Lexington and Richland counties in South Carolina, Polly LaRosa is learning new techniques for teaching reading and writing. Through twice-monthly study group meetings and weekly classroom visits, she shares and tries out these techniques with 39 teachers, 4 principals, and 1 district language arts coordinator at 4 schools within the district.

LaRosa sees teachers becoming more confident and taking risks as she encourages them to enhance their teaching repertoire. It really helps, she says, for teachers to know that they have the support of their administration.

LaRosa's group is part of the approximately 3,200 K-5 teachers, principals, and administrators who are working together through the South Carolina Reading Initiative (SCRI) to improve the state's literacy rate for all students.

SCRI is sponsored by the Governor's Institute of Reading, funded by South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges to mobilize education, business, and community resources to ensure that all children in the state learn to read well.

Together, a leadership team from South Carolina and the NCTE Reading Initiative staff chose and developed resources for the program. The state designed its own implementation plan, and school districts were invited to apply for grants ($50,000 grants have been awarded to 31 districts, and 24 additional districts are receiving training, materials, and support). School-based study groups began at the start of this school year and will continue for three years.

Suzette Lee, coordinator of the Governor's Institute of Reading, says, "SCRI is definitely aimed at helping people understand that one size doesn't fit all. It's based on teachers being equipped to assess what a child knows and then working from that strength model."

Pat Warner, a coach in South Carolina's McCormick School District, says that the approach works on many levels. "The strength and beauty of the program are that it's voluntary, it's research-based, and it allows teachers the opportunity to reflect on their practices and to change from the inside out. It recognizes that change is gradual and constant, and it puts the student in the center of instruction."

Also serving as the district's curriculum coordinator, Warner became involved in the project because she believed teachers were looking for a way to improve low reading scores. She also is piloting SCRI at the middle school level, working with two middle level teachers in her study group.

LaRosa, Warner, and more than 120 other district literacy coaches receive support from regional literacy coaches like Robin Cox. To support her five district coaches, Cox gives demonstrations, offers advice for the coaching role, shares feedback, answers questions, provides support through monthly meetings and visits, and serves as a liaison to those running the program.

Cox also serves as a coach to Lake Murray Elementary School in Chapin, South Carolina. Working with a school site, she says, helps regional coaches better understand the type of support that district coaches need.

"I am excited about what we are doing in South Carolina," Cox says. "Jim Hodges, our governor; Inez Tenenbaum, Superintendent of Education; and the state legislators have put their trust and resources in teachers. They know that knowledgeable teachers can and will make a difference for all children in South Carolina."

Participating in SCRI has helped Jessica Brinkley, a third-grade teacher at Lake Murray Elementary, refine her goal and expand her resources for teaching reading.

She used to focus on reading for an hour each day; she now makes reading a priority throughout the day. "My goal now," she says, "is to develop lifelong, strategic readers who are able to use the power of the books they read to change their lives and the lives of others. I want everything I do to be centered around what really works and what really matters in the teaching of reading."

Julie Finelli, a fifth-grade teacher at Lake Murray Elementary, appreciates the time, community, and continued support that SCRI provides. "I believe that beginning teachers are often so overwhelmed that what they firmly embraced during their teacher preparation programs starts to slip away. I worry that these ways of thinking start to fade if they are not fostered and nurtured."

Finelli is grateful for more than a one-shot approach to professional development. "Often, staff development opportunities leave me feeling like my toolbox is overflowing, but the philosophies that initiated the tool's invention are not addressed. I need to know why and how come!" One of the best parts, she says, is getting together with other teachers and talking about why a tool worked or didn't work and what that means to their teaching.

The teachers, principals, administrators, and coaches participating in SCRI can receive graduate credits in literacy. And when asked what the state is hoping to reap from the project, Suzette Lee says, "We're very interested in teacher change."

She says a variety of instruments will be used to assess how teachers' belief systems and practices have changed as well as teachers' ability to translate theory into practice. They also will be looking at student achievement and are hoping that this move to strategy-based instruction will have a positive impact.

"The entire premise," says Lee, "is that if teachers have the knowledge base that they need, they are the best ones to make informed decisions about what's best for children."

For more on NCTE's Reading Initiative, including South Carolina's program, visit http://www.ncte.org/.

To find out how your school or district can participate in NCTE's Reading Initiative, contact Leslie Froeschl at 800-369-6283, ext. 3627.

SCRI will be featured at session C.05 (Thursday, March 29, 1:45-3 p.m.) of the NCTE Spring Conference in Birmingham, Alabama.