Page 20 - BusinessWest February 19, 2024

An Intriguing First Chapter
Western Massachusetts Literacy Collaborative Helps Kids Succeed
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
Daniel Warwick understands the challenges of early literacy — and the ways early deficits can impact later learning. In the Springfield Public
Schools, which he serves as superintendent, the pan- demic didn’t help matters.
That’s why he’s grateful for the Western Massachu- setts Literacy Collaborative, which was forged last year between the Springfield school system and four area high-education partners: Elms College, American International College (AIC), Bay Path University, and Westfield State University.
“Seeing the challenges brought on by the pan- demic with early literacy, we wondered what the colleges could do to collaborate with us to deal with these issues,” said Warwick, who will be retiring from his longtime role as superintendent this spring. “We provide a significant summer school for kids that are below level in reading to try to boost those skills up during the summer, and we felt we could use some extra help in that area. So the idea was that some
of these college students would come work with us, helping the teachers run those summer programs.”
The collaborative springs from an idea from Cyn- thia Lyons, the former chair of the Elms College board of trustees, the namesake of the college’s Cyn- thia A. Lyons Center for Equity in Urban Education (CEUE), and a fierce advocate for education in gen- eral and literacy in particular.
“It’s not just a Western Massachusetts issue; it’s the entire country ... our kids in K-12 schools are not reading or doing math at the level that they should be doing it. This was already a problem, but it has been exacerbated through the pandemic, through what is called the COVID slide.”
Last summer, the collaborative launched the Learn and Earn Literacy Corps, whereby college students seeking degrees in education were trained as lit- eracy interventionists by faculty with CEUE and then deployed to teach in Springfield Public Schools dur- ing summer school. A total of 15 students from Elms, AIC, Westfield State, and Bay Path participated.
“It’s not just a Western Massachusetts issue; it’s the entire country ... our kids in K-12 schools are not reading or doing math at the level that they should be doing it. This was already a problem, but it has been exacerbated through the pandemic, through what
is called the COVID slide,” Elms College President Harry Dumay told BusinessWest, noting Lyons’ infec- tious passion about the issue.
“She and several other members of the Elms Col- lege community believe that one of the things that we can contribute to the region is helping to solve that problem of kids being behind in reading,” he contin- ued. “We think that this is a problem where we can come together. So we took the lead and invited those area college partners to help the Springfield school
Harry Dumay presents Nancy Rodriguez with a certificate recognizing the work she did with the Learn and Earn Literacy Corps.
district with that problem.”
The collaborative was also spurred by a study by
the National Assessment of Educational Progress showing that school children across the U.S., regard- less of geographical area, are not reading with the same proficiency as those from decades earlier. Test results showed declines in reading scores at urban, suburban, and rural schools not seen since the 1990s.
“When we dig deeper into the statistics, we find that, according to the U.S. Department of Education, 20% of American adults — one in five — lack basic English literacy skills. As a result, they cannot under- stand, evaluate, use, and engage with written texts to participate in society,” Dumay said during a town-hall event last fall following the collaborative’s first suc- cessful summer.
“For a country as large as the United States, one in five translates into 43 million people. Forty-three mil- lion people are adrift and uninvolved in the affairs of their communities and have limited means of advanc- ing their careers or standard of living, all because they have limited reading skills,” he continued. “We can all agree that the best and most sustainable long-term strategy to increase literacy rates among adults is to reach out and make a lasting impact when they are children.”
Strength in Numbers
Dumay explained that faculty prepared a course
to train education students from the four participat- ing colleges so that they could be reading specialists working in summer schools in Springfield. Results have been positive, to the point where the collabora- tive is looking into expanding its efforts to Chicopee Public Schools and Catholic schools in the Diocese of Springfield.
“The students were really satisfied with the expe- rience,” he said. “The Springfield Public Schools — which also put their reading specialists together with our reading specialists to train the students to be
reading tutors in the summer — were very satisfied with the project.”
The colleges also intend to prepare and train many more specialists in the science of reading, Dumay added, adding that this program can have a region- wide workforce-development impact for years to come.
“Together, little by little, we can help our kids in K-12 schools catch up with that reading deficit,” he said. “If a kid can’t read, they cannot progress and be the workforce that the region needs for the future.
It all starts with being able to read adequately. And that’s the effort that we’re doing collaboratively. I’m really proud of Elms College leading that effort, but I’m particularly proud of the collaboration we are hav- ing with the public schools and with our partners in higher education in the region.”
Warwick agreed.
“Our plan is to continue the partnership and extend it as much as possible to meet the need. We impacted 120 kids last summer, and we plan to con- tinue with that. It’s been a great success.”
He said the Springfield school system collaborated on professional development for the college students as well as with instruction for the kids. “It worked really well — it had a very positive impact on the kids. The other outcome was that we wound up hiring some of those students in positions we have open.
“There’s a critical shortage of certified licensed teachers now, so for the college students, working with the kids for was a great success,” he added. “It’s a win-win for them; they train in an urban system, get some great professional development, and some of them wound up landing jobs. So it’s a big benefit to the college students as well as the children.”
It’s too early to track achievement gains after one summer, Warwick said, but as the system continues
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