Can Seattle close literacy gaps for kids of color with science of reading?

Last June, teacher Kyle Jackson started an English language arts lesson by getting his kindergartners to sound out the beginning and end of words. 

Jackson, a teacher at Rising Star Elementary School in Seattle’s South Beacon Hill neighborhood, wrote “pen” on the overhead projector. “‘P’ makes the ‘PUH’ sound,” Jackson said as the class repeated back “PUH.”

“‘En’ makes the ‘En’ sound,” he added. “Put those two together and we get —”

 “Pen,” the kindergartners said in unison. 

At Rising Star Elementary and 12 other Seattle schools, educators are getting extra training and coaching on a different way to teach reading, a method based on how the brain connects letters with sounds. Although similar lessons are happening across the district, the focus is on these racially diverse schools because the district has a history of significant gaps in academic achievement by race.

Overall the district has been “relatively successful” at getting kids to read at or above grade level by third grade, said Cashel Toner, executive director of curriculum, assessment, and instruction for SPS. For example, recently released test score data from spring 2023 shows about 62% of Seattle third-graders met state standards in English Language Arts, about the same as pre-pandemic scores.

But even before the pandemic, district officials dug deeper into the data and realized that certain groups of students weren’t being reached, a persistent trend. This spring, only 29% of all Black/African-American students across all grade levels met the reading standard.

The numbers are of particular concern to the Office of African American Male Achievement, an initiative launched in 2019 focused on integrating Black male student perspectives in every part of the district’s departments and schools. 

Because more than half of African American male students in elementary and K-8 schools are enrolled at 13 schools, the district is focusing reading instruction changes and support at those schools. They are: Bailey Gatzert, Broadview-Thomson K-8, Emerson, John Muir, Leschi, Martin Luther King Jr., Olympic Hills, Rainier View, Rising Star, South Shore PreK-8, Thurgood Marshall, West Seattle, and Wing Luke. 

Seattle has shifted to an approach known as the science of reading. The method has been heavily researched and the curriculum has been adopted in a number of school districts across the country.

The research on how kids best learn to read was controversial, Toner said, “and folks in the field didn’t really agree about that, but that’s been basically settled.” 

It’s a departure from the way reading was traditionally taught in most schools, including Seattle. Before the switch, SPS used a method called balanced literacy, which places a greater emphasis on teaching children to recognize whole words, said Luke Justice, project manager of continuous improvement in early literacy.

Instead of expecting children to learn how to read and write through exposure to books and context clues, reading science is centered on brain science and teaching the fundamental structures of English, including phonics. Students learn one sound at a time, and eventually can identify patterns to deconstruct words into their smallest parts. 

“Therefore they (students) don’t need to learn and memorize tens of thousands of words — they just have a code of sounding words out,” Justice said.

‘A strong start’

There are other elements to the approach beyond sounding out words. For example, kindergartners in Jackson’s classroom read a story together. After the first read-through, Jackson went back through every sentence, asking his students to explain what happened to make sure they understood what they read, he said.

And he’s seen a major improvement. Some of his students only knew a few letters at the beginning of the year, some didn’t know how to count yet or write their names. 

By June, 12 of 17 students were reading above grade level, Jackson said. And at least five were reading at second- or third-grade level. 

“In kindergarten, fluency really is more so focused on accuracy but since I have lots of high (level) readers I scaffolded it up or increased the rigor … because they’re ready for it,” Jackson said.

Three students in Jackson’s class had individualized education programs (IEPs) last year, a legal document that details the special education supports a child needs. Those students also made strides. Jackson said one student can read 83 words out of a list of 122, and has been reading books.

It’s crucial for kindergartners to have a solid foundation of literacy, Jackson said. 

“If they’re still behind in first grade they’re almost never going to catch up to their peers because the jumps get so significant so quickly,” Jackson said. “I wanted to teach kindergarten because I believe in a strong start — that is an equity- and equality-based practice.” 

A system change

Six years ago the district adopted a reading curriculum from the Center for the Collaborative Classroom, a literacy nonprofit. All kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers received training in the new way of teaching, said Toner. Most educators teach students how to read the way they learned to read themselves, so trainings were crucial. 

The district has a history of big gaps in academic achievement by race. In 2016, SPS gained national attention for having the fifth-biggest gap in academic achievement between Black and white students among the country’s 200 largest school districts.

“That speaks to our system needing to change and set different conditions in place so all kids can be successful because, certainly, all kids are capable of reading by the end of third grade at or above grade level,” Toner said. 

Although some school districts have seen literacy rates improve after implementing the science of reading, scholars have pushed back, saying they fear it’s being used as a one-size-fits-all way of teaching. Students need more than just phonics and word recognition, said Lakeya Afolalu, an assistant professor of language, literacy, and culture at the University of Washington’s College of Education. 

Early on, conversations about race, ethnicity, gender, and social class were missing from conversations about science of reading, Afolalu said, and “we need to think about who does this type of reading instruction benefit, who does it not benefit?”

Historically, learning to read was a privilege not accessible to people of color, Afolalu said. 

The goal isn’t to get rid of literacy basics, such as phonics and word recognition, Afolalu said. Rather, “I’m arguing we need to couple it with forms of literacy that are inclusive of students’ racial, ethnic, historical, gender, (and) languages (identities),” which is needed “for an equitable and just anti-racist approach to reading instruction,” Afolalu said. “We have to consider place, we have to consider the history, we have to consider the identity of students.” 

Toner said the district has been making sure the books in classrooms are reflective of the diverse student populations at each school. Students also are given books to add to their personal libraries.

“Inside of that subset of 13 schools, we have a continuum because they’re unique school communities,” Toner said. “They have assets, and strengths, and brilliance. Part of our work was to think about what does the landscape look like inside of these schools and what systems and supports could we build centrally to offer to add value to those schools and communities.”

Educators at the 13 schools have access to additional training. Some of their lessons are recorded and reviewed by reading coaches, who provide feedback. The principals at each school meet monthly for trainings and to review how the curriculum is being implemented with instructional coaches. Family liaisons were also hired to help foster relationships between educators and families, and encourage literacy that affirms Black identity, such as including books that resonate with Black culture.

Toner said it’s too soon to know how effective the new curriculum has been.The district is currently implementing new tests that can show how students are doing from pre-K to second grade. 

“You don’t just need foundational literacy skills,” Toner said. “You need to take those next steps and be a confident reader — being able to make meaning from the text, make inferences, ask questions, maybe write about what you just read.”