2013-2014 Board of Education Proposed Budget Book

LITERACY – GRADES K-12 (CONTINUED)
Middle School: As students progress through the grades, literacy skills and concepts introduced in earlier grades are refined and deepened.
Students engage with increasingly sophisticated texts and construct meaning in writing in response to both non-fiction and fiction, and we are
developing our professional skills as we work to adhere to the Gradual Release of Responsibility model of instruction.
At the secondary level, students requiring intervention are provided additional literacy time with reading interventionists, during which they use
research-based interventions designed to address individual literacy needs. As we develop our expertise, we are honing our interventions, with a
combination of more effective diagnostic assessment and progress monitoring and a more nuanced and integrated approach to strategic reading
instruction.
High School: In the high school English program, we continue to emphasize the Gradual Release of Responsibility model of instruction. All
students work with sophisticated, grade-level fiction and nonfiction texts, in addition to practicing and applying literacy skills and concepts to
other texts, chosen based on interest, reading level, thematic relevance, etc.
At the high school, students requiring intervention may be provided services through additional literacy time with reading interventionists. In
addition, we also provide interventions through co-taught extended literacy experiences, incorporating both English and Social Studies content, in
9 th and 10 th grade.
BUDGET NOTES
• This budget provides for ongoing program revision and redesign based on the new Common Core State Standards expected to be fully
implemented by September 2013.
• This budget provides for the professional support necessary to ensure instructional best practice and pedagogy necessary to realize the
content goals set out by the Common Core.
• This budget provides for significant professional learning to support precise instruction within a balanced literacy framework. This will
include classroom and small group coaching at the elementary and middle levels, as well as continued coaching in co-teaching at the high
school level, in order to sustain the progress we are making this year.
• This budget provides for increasing the level of instructional text complexity at each grade level, as well as text choice for students, by
purchasing additional titles at a variety of reading levels and from various cultures. The goal is to ensure that students experience an
appropriate literacy program to prepare them for the complex literacy demands of post secondary education and in accordance with the
expectations of the Common Core State Standards and their implementation.
• This budget further provides for the continuation of a research-based, technology-based intervention for students in grades 3-10 requiring
comprehension intervention.
• Support for English Language Learners
• Assessment and progress monitoring for all levels
• The personnel increase at the elementary and systemwide levels is due to teacher and tutor wages no longer being funded through grants,
as well as an increase in systemwide curriculum writing. The high school personnel budget includes the reduction of 0.6 FTE.
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