At A Glance

CEC partners with teachers and school leaders to develop and implement effective writing instruction, a key driver for early literacy development and improved student writing proficiency. To ensure sustainability, CEC provides tailored school-based support, addressing initial implementation challenges and integrating writing as a core component of the K-3 literacy block. Through professional development and coaching, CEC strengthens teachers’ expertise in a robust Tier 1 literacy framework, emphasizing writing instruction. These efforts have resulted in more students achieving growth targets and grade-level proficiencies compared to the previous year, along with teachers’ enhanced understanding and implementation of a comprehensive ELA program.

Client: Charles Sumner Math & Science Community Academy
Impact Area: School Improvement

Key Actions

Sumner was focused on taking the right steps in order to achieve their goals for the school year.  They have set specific key actions on how to achieve those goals.

Effective Distributive Leadership

1. 1. Building a strong leadership team that balances teacher support with accountability while also adopting a wide shared agreement as to what effective instruction in literacy looks like
   2. Conducting leadership learning walks which identify patterns of professional learning needs and develop a coordinated strategy for improvement
   3. Implementing a Lit Block schedule

Building Wide Literacy Strategy Coaching

1. 1. Prioritizing individual teacher coaching, focusing on more balanced tasks and include more guided, shared, and independent reading activities
   2. Ensuring an appropriate balance of phonics instruction and comprehension and fluency of work with actual texts
   3. Supporting writing instruction and understanding the link between reading and writing by holding one-on-one coaching sessions
   4. Implementing a guided reading block

Increasing Coherence Between Tier 2 Intervention and Tier One

1. 1. Ensuring high quality instruction happens as part of the classroom and that it aligns with intervention support and resources
   2. Creating clear “look for” documents and agreements surrounding key components of the literacy block
   3. Providing all classrooms with access to both the curriculum reader and also reader kits
   4. Holding co-planning sessions where the aspects of leading guided reading groups, including differentiating based on level, are unpacked, and followed up with debriefing and walkthroughs