Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 5/3/2022
HOLYOKE – Updates from the Schools on Literacy and special education were the focus of the School Committee’s April 25 meeting.
Giving the committee a curriculum and instruction update on literacy was Director of English Language Arts (ELA) for Holyoke Public Schools Sue Hocul. Hocul and her team gave a presentation on the new STAR assessment program that takes results from students and puts focus on where they are in their learning with lessons to match.
“It is tailored to students’ needs. If they are not able to easily master grade level standards and skills, it’ll give them questions matching their level to identify needs,” Hocul said.
She added that these assessments are available in both English and Spanish for bilingual students. Hocul added that the results from these assessments then turn into easy to use data for teachers to identify areas of focus for students.
When sharing data from the STAR mid-year reading assessment, Grades 1-10 all had at least 48 percent of students scoring in need of urgent intervention, something Hocul said was alarming for all involved. While these results were not great, they were still an improvement from prior to COVID-19.
“I do want to mention that four out of five students in K-2 are in need of urgent intervention in literacy. There is a huge dip in grade 2. For context, there is a dip across state and nation in Grade 2. This is their first year fully in a traditional school model,” Hocul said.
One question that came to Hocul was a concern that these younger students were spending too much time on screens and not engaging enough with one another, leading to these newfound issues in early literacy development for children, something Hocul said was incorrect.
“While we do use computers, it is not all day; no way, no how,” Hocul said. “We just feel like we are on a trajectory. We can’t underestimate how every change pushes us back. We are not making excuses, the numbers are heartbreaking. We feel them every day. We have to work within the systems put in place to make sure children are getting their needs met.”
Superintendent/Receiver Anthony Soto added that the schools are also looking at the academic day and schedule as students have returned to a normal school setting once again. Soto said he has been trying to take feedback into consideration on how this area of schooling could benefit children’s learning. He even suggested talks of a potential shorter school day but did not go into further detail.
Soto added this was all new to the Holyoke Public Schools has they have not had the proper funding to provide the resource of an academic intervention teacher, a position that has increased over in the district to help address students in need.
“I want to dispel the myth that students are in front of computers all day every day, that is flat out not true. It’s just not what’s happening,” Soto said. “This is just a snapshot in time and we hope to decrease that gap for sure.”
When looking deeper into the data, the STAR assessment summary illustrated that while second grade has the highest proportion of students in intervention, 56 percent of students in Grades 2-10 need urgent intervention in literacy.
To combat these results, the schools have began using a research-based core curriculum that supports quality structured literacy instruction and is aligned to state standards. The K-2 curriculum uses different methods through class activities to work on student’s needs.
A main takeaway from this report for School Committee members was the importance of interventionalist for students in need of support to flip these trends. Soto also added the schools take responsibility for this and that he felt they needed to improve their partnerships with parents so they are aware of this trend and the actions they can take with their child to help them outside of school.
Speaking to the School Committee on special education was Marianne Currier. She shared information on how the intersection of special education in curriculum and pro-development on teaching helped her identify the needs within the department.
The Special Education Department has recently adopted two new specialized programs called SPIRE and Rethink. SPIRE is a research-supported reading intervention program. It is designed to build reading success through an intensive, structured and spiraling curriculum that incorporates phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension in a systemic 10-step lesson plan.
Rethink provides scalable professional development with video models, quality lesson plans and curriculum to address the unique needs of students with autism. Focus is placed on communication and social skills that support students to fully participate in their learning. Behavior supports address challenging behavior to support students in inclusive settings.
Currier said Rethink has been valuable in supporting students and staff and provides a two-fold component that supports learning for the students, but also intensive training for staff.
These initiatives in literacy and special education hope to serve as a bridge to overcoming current obstacles within the Holyoke Public Schools and build forward for a stronger school system based on what the programs have to offer.
Soto said he is happy to now have the resources needed to address these issues and hopes to continue it for as long as it is needed.
“I pray and hope what we are doing can sustain. Holyoke was limited in what we can do but now the state is seeing and assisting,” Soto said. “We have resources and that’s a huge priority of ours. We want it to be a core way in how we function as a district. The most important thing as part of this data review is we do have real explicit steps we will be doing.”