Teaming Up To Improve Literacy In Tennessee: Q&A With Sharon Roberts And Courtney Bell

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Teaming up to improve literacy in Tennessee: Q&A with Sharon Roberts and Courtney Bell

The Learning Forward publications team often wants to follow up on the current state of all the inspiring, system-changing work we’ve encountered through the stories told in this magazine. When we heard about the recent work of the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), it was the perfect opportunity to get an update on one of its latest initiatives that reflects the partnership theme of this issue. In her 2020 article in The Learning Professional, Sharon Roberts, now senior advisor to SCORE, described an innovative network of districts across Tennessee that worked with SCORE to reshape early literacy instruction and improve students’ reading skills. Through this network, named Leading Innovation for Tennessee Education (LIFT), district and school leaders, curriculum supervisors, and instructional coaches learned

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Highlights from the 2018-19 TNReady English language arts assessment

Eight out of 12 LIFT network districts saw increases in 3rd-grade students who scored on track or demonstrated mastery.

Every network district had at least one school engaged in the literacy work that exceeded growth expectations.

In five network districts, all schools engaged in the literacy work exceeded growth expectations.

Twenty network literacy schools were named reward schools by the state. Four of those schools moved up from a Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System score of one in 2017-18 to five in 2018-19.

Source: Bell, 2019.

References

Bell, C. (2019, October 2017). Sustaining progress in early literacy. SCORE. tnscore.org/perspectives-and-press/perspectives/sustaining-progress-in-early-literacy

Roberts, S. (2020). Ready for reading: Tennessee network of schools tackles the literacy crisis. The Learning Professional, 41(2), 32-35.