Suburban Public District
Grades 6-8 • ILLINOIS
Student Demographics
Title I School
48.6% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch
Demonstrated Effectiveness
This district’s goal was to create standards-aligned writing curricula for three middle schools that taught students to work through a writing process to increase the quality of their informative, argumentative, and narrative writing. In addition, coaches and teachers worked on their teaching methods to include goal-directed responsive small group instruction. In just one year, students made dramatic growth. For example, following the cohort of students who were 6th graders in the 22-23 school year, they increased from 16% meeting or exceeding grade level expectations for informative writing to 54% in the 23-24 school year. Those who were 7th graders in 22-23 went from 26% meeting or exceeding to 59% by 8th grade.
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[Our literacy specialist] was great at listening to our needs and concerns in the beginning while we were planning and she always gave great suggestions for us to improve the writing strategies during the 80 minute block. She was a wonderful resource for our department this year. She was thoughtful in the lessons she chose and very responsive to our needs and wishes for our emerging curriculum. I felt that she had a strong sense of what it feels like to be in a classroom, and that allowed her to show us how to actually implement strategies into our practice. She has opened my eyes to some new strategies and techniques without it feeling overwhelming.
