Techniques to improve student literacy were among the topics discussed Nov. 24 at Illinois Valley Central District 321 school board meeting.
Janean Hansel, the district’s literacy coordinator, gave a presentation to the board about the newly formed literacy committee.
The committee, which meets monthly, is made up of teachers grades K-12. Their purpose is “to promote an ever-progressing literacy program,” said Hansel, who was hired for the new position in August.
“This literacy plan — it will change as we do,” Hansel said. “It’s a living document, so we’re a work in progress. And we’re working toward strengthening literacy in our district.”
Hansel discussed various curriculum goals, such as striving to address all students’ reading-level needs, along with promoting a lifelong love of reading.
“We’ve been talking as a group about how important it is to make sure that they not only learn to read but they like to do it,” she said.
Hansel’s multi-media presentation also focused on seven areas of a quality district literacy plan. And much emphasis was placed on one area: what Hansel called “a system of data collection and analysis.”
Relying solely on Illinois Standards Achievement Test information to measure student progress, she said, is troubling.
“We believe it’s an important thing to do, yet ISAT information usually comes to us toward the end of the year,” she said, adding that the information does not give the district a wide window of opportunity to try to turn things around while the school year is still in progress.
Another one of the seven areas of the literacy plan focused on an “ongoing professional development of high-quality teaching.”
“If we had to put all of our eggs in one basket, we definitely would say that professional development is so important to us, more so than materials or anything else,” Hansel said.
“If we’re after high-quality teaching, the professional development piece is the integral piece to having an ever-progressing system.”
Superintendent Dr. Nick Polyak said Hansel’s position is more about teachers coming together to share literacy ideas.
“One of the points we tried to make clear to the staff at the beginning of the year was that Janean’s presence was a fully non-evaluative position,” Polyak said. “She’s not in there telling teachers whether they’re right or wrong.”
In other action and discussion, the board:
