(upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Supporting Michigan Learners, "Toward Excellence in Reading" is a co-production of Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest and Detroit Public Television.

Funding is provided by the Institute of Education Sciences.

- Reading is fun because you can learn from it and it's cool.

- It really takes you into a whole different world.

- It makes me feel calm.

- When I read, I'm happy.

- So, there's nothing quite like seeing a child who is successful in reading and who's excited to read.

- And when you set students up to be able to read, you are setting them up long term in life.

- I think we need to think of reading, kind of as a civil right, as a human right.

Like reading opens the doors to all things.

- There's nothing more important nor anything more complex than the teaching of reading for our young people.

- So, I think it is so important that we go and we make sure we provide opportunities for every child to leave us as readers because it changes lives.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) - REL Midwest has three main goals.

We're working closely with our partners and local and state education agencies to try to address problems of practice that they are facing.

One of the ways that we're doing that is by working with them to design research studies that will result in actionable findings that they can apply to their decision making.

A second way that we're working with them is to design training, coaching, tool development that will help them meet the needs in the field.

And then the third is by engaging in visual storytelling, in creation of events that bring people together, all with the aim of trying to bridge the gap, between research and practice and bring research findings to life.

(gentle music) - We know from the research that students who do not read proficiently by the end of grade three, are at greater risk for high school dropout and for lower outcomes when it comes to the job market.

According to National Assessment of Educational Progress, only about one third of the fourth graders in the State of Michigan are proficient readers.

- It's pretty clear that we have children and adolescents that have returned to school post-pandemic that need support.

They need additional instruction and intervention.

- And so we know we have a lot of work to do.

There's this extreme sense of urgency to come in and provide sound, high quality, scientifically based reading instruction to address these kids needs.

- We have even more of an urgency to make sure that every minute that we have with students is exactly what they need and that we are using strategies and tools and materials that have the strongest research base behind them.

- It's just really critical that we pour into our educators who themselves have to pour into our young people.

The better we do early, the better we're going to do later in the education of our young people.

- The research tells us that when we intervene early and we provide high quality reading instruction to students when they are young, that it has impacts on their learning, all the way throughout their educational careers.

So, we have an opportunity right now, really to address early learning and early literacy with scientific reading instruction.

- Most children benefit from what we refer to as decoding or phonics instruction.

Systematic instruction that helps young children connect letters to letter sounds.

And helps them connect letter sounds to read words and to connect words to read sentences on and on.

Decades of research has come together, if you will, to form a science for reading instruction.

- The science of reading is an evolving body of research that has informed reading development, writing development.

It has also informed what to teach and to a lesser extent, how to teach students to read.

- The science of reading gives you, gives children what they need to read.

It empowers teachers.

It empowers students.

- It teaches you exactly how a student learns to read and it gives you those next steps.

I'm doing my hand like this, because I just think about the image of the brain and how you start here when you're looking at a letter.

And then you have to go all the way back here to get the sound, and then it has to go.

And there's this relationship that happens in your brain.

And once you see how hard it is to read, you look at your folks in front of you and it reminds you that reading is not easy.

It's a challenge.

- So as schools are thinking about how do we recover and make up for the learning that was lost, it's really important for them to think about systems of support and to really reframe how they go about reading instruction.

It'll be important for schools to think about a much more targeted and focused approach where teachers have more time in small group with small group instruction, so that they can really differentiate their learning and they can really focus on those areas where students have missed opportunities or have learning that has not been mastered.

So, schools really will want to lean on evidence-based practices to use during that small group instruction, because that is really going to help accelerate student learning and fill those gaps.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) - Early literacy supports come in essentially in two broad areas.

The first is the training of educators and by extension, children in the science of reading.

Kids need to learn deeply about word recognition and by extension, word comprehension.

- Many teachers report that they have not received training or instruction in the science of reading, through their teacher preparation programs.

- We believe strongly that we need to do a better job of professionally developing teachers in the science of reading instruction.

So, we've had more than 3000 teachers signed up for and going through LETRS training currently, which is on the science of reading instruction.

We think that that's enormously important.

(upbeat music) - I believe all students can learn.

You just have to figure out how.

And I think LETRS opens that window for teachers, especially for literacy.

It gives them a way to connect the how and the why of the science of reading and understanding the process that goes into teaching children actually how to read.

- With LETRS we really wanted a strong foundation for our K-3 teachers to understand how the brain learns to read, so that as they notice gaps with students in real time, they can just on the spot make that adjustment, We decided to expand it to K-8, because we noticed that some of the foundational gaps that students had in the middle grades, they're still appearing as they're trying to read these more advanced texts.

And so our educators, need to know what some of those gaps might be, so that they can also intervene in the upper grades.

- LETRS actually connects the how, how we can address these deficits.

What's going on?

Why is this student not able to grasp it as fast as someone else and understanding how the brain works and bring the brain science into learning.

- I mean, I've got two masters, I've taken linguistics classes.

I learned more in the LETRS program than I learned in any of the linguistics classes that I talked about.

The whole idea of teaching how we can help kids decipher words, break them down to understand them, let alone say them and read them and remember them.

So, those trainings have really been meaningful to me.

- It all makes sense, when I was training to be a teacher, it was the way we were taught to teach reading was language experience.

And that just, I never quite got that.

But knowing exactly how the brain develops and how the different components work together and knowing that, "Oh, well, this isn't happening, "because this isn't happening.

"So, that's not going to happen either."

And it just It wove it all together.

- They're not only learning the words, they're learning how the word is built, how the word is used.

So, for as long as I've been doing this, I love that I keep learning new tricks and new ways and new research behind it that works.

- I have one educator in mind particularly where we took the training together and every session he would have his aha moment and he would go, "You know, this really makes sense for me, "because it helps me understand "what I need to do differently with my students.

"I've been giving them this "when actually I need to take a step back "and do this other thing instead."

- I would give the recommendation to other school leaders, when you decide on a science-based program for literacy, make sure it's what your students need, because every child, every classroom, every district and every school, they're different.

So what works for one space, doesn't necessarily work for your space, so be strategic and intentional about the needs of your students before you delve into something.

- It changes the entire trajectory of their life, because it it empowers them, because now they're doing better in math and social studies and science and they're able to read and be more successful and see themselves as more successful.

(gentle music) - MTSS is everything in Chippewa Hills.

It's how we talk.

It's changed our vocabulary.

It's changed how we operate.

- Pretty much everything that we do within our school is based on the MTSS framework, whether it is reading and literacy supports or behavior.

- So, MTSS really builds that first tier one system of, "Hey, this is how we want you to be a student "in our building and this is how we want you to behave."

And then through that, because behaviors diminish, we have increased time for learning and increased time for teaching.

So, MTSS and the framework for that Multi-Tiered System of Supports is really the foundation of what we do on a daily basis in our classrooms.

- Every child is unique.

And approaches that work for one child or one group of children might not work for every child.

So, it's really important to be able to use data to shine a light on or diagnose problems that the child might be facing, both their strengths and their weaknesses.

By putting all that information together, trying out a reading intervention and seeing if it works and if it doesn't work, adapting it so that you're really stumbling upon something that is effective that can be impactful for that child.

- Multi-Tiered Systems of Support; MTSS was developed in response to broad recognition that classrooms, general classrooms, were not reaching all kids.

MTSS was an effort on the part of many at all levels from federal government all the way down to the school building to redefine general education.

Taking it from a classroom to multiple tiers of instruction.

- So, MTSS is a system, it's often depicted as a pyramid and you can think of the foundation of the pyramid or the base as Tier one or core instruction.

Everybody gets instruction there.

Tier two is what we call, more of a standard protocol intervention.

It's often a scripted package or a packaged intervention in mathematics or reading.

There's a little bit of that work in writing and it's intended to be delivered in small groups.

On the top would be Tier three, that would be the most intensive level of intervention or intensive intervention or where data-based individualization lives.

And those students would be identified, based on student data, based on student need.

You're collecting data as kids move in and out of tiers here.

(gentle music) - Data-based individualization is based on a process of scientific teaching where you are taking data and then you're addressing the student's needs, through intensive instruction that is targeted and focused for students and repetitive.

And then you continue to take data to see, is this working for students and adjust your instruction.

- DBI fits into an MTSS framework, because it's really those upper tiers when we realize that things that we're currently doing, might not be working for struggling readers, we can intensify in that way.

- Step one begins with a standard treatment protocol intervention.

And step two is really then looking at how students are responding to the intervention instruction by using progress monitoring assessment data.

Step three within the DBI process is to, if students are not responding, as we would have expected, we would then look at additional data, we would look at diagnostic data, we would look at progress monitoring data in a diagnostic way.

- And so what we also ask folks to look at is collect behavioral data and see is there an impact, potential impact on the academics, coming from behavior data or is there a potential impact on their behavior coming from academics?

Are these related?

It's an additional data source that's critical to making decisions within DBI.

And then folks take all of these data pieces together and that's how they intensify, adapt and continue to deliver intervention.

- And based on that information, would lead us into step four of DBI, which is to adapt or alter the intervention instruction, based on what the data is suggesting is needed.

And those adaptations really become what we're looking to ensure that we're monitoring the fidelity of implementing the adaptations with the intervention and continuing to monitor students progress.

That's step five of the DBI process.

- And there's no dispute about when it's done well, it is very effective for lots of kids who would otherwise not be reading.

- School leaders can help support teachers in providing effective instruction by providing the types of professional development that they need that are evidence-based and rooted in the science of reading.

And teachers can help students get back on track by using those practices in their classroom.

- I believe that the best way to develop people's readiness to implement DBI is to show them how important DBI is and to increase their confidence that it can be done in the setting in which they are situated.

Chippewa Hills is a good example of that.

(upbeat music) - [Michael] Chippewa Hills School District is approximately 387 square miles.

- So, our reading and academic goals for all learners in Chip Hills is growth.

- At Chippewa Hills, our schools are miles apart.

And that can create some inconsistencies in what we're doing.

But we have done a really good job of making sure that all three of our elementary schools, are implementing DBI consistently and similarly to each other.

- I think that DBI came to us at a very crucial time with the pandemic.

We saw incredible learning loss and skill deficits in our early readers.

And I think that the timing that we implemented this has been just absolutely crucial.

- Our journey implementing DBI or database individualization, started with our partnership with the center, the MiMTSSTAC, when they were looking for schools to pilot DBI.

- They adopted a new Tier one curriculum resource.

They had adopted, a Tier two standard treatment protocol intervention.

Their primary focus last year was on using those materials really well.

So, if you think about where in the context of the steps of DBI that they fell, they were, in my opinion, successfully implementing DBI for steps one and two.

- I was excited from day one about this whole process, about MTSS, and then looking at DBI.

And how can we enhance the learning for our Tier three kids.

What I was really excited about was, it took the feelings conversations away from it from an administrative side and we really focused on the data of, "Okay, this student has this deficit in this area, "this area, this area."

And based on those deficits, we can we can now build that student up.

- Our multidisciplinary team meets.

We actually meet weekly with our core team and then our bigger, larger MDT team meets.

And that's how we identify students that might need more intensification, especially in literacy and sometimes in behavior as well.

We really try and hone in on the students that need that extra support by following their progress monitoring data.

- We collect all sorts of data.

First of all, their attendance.

We collect data on whether or not they were engaged in that lesson.

We are also gathering data on whether or not the intervention is being taught correctly.

And then also whether or not they're completing all the components, within that intervention lesson.

So, we have to collect all that data and then we make decisions based off of the data that we collect to decide whether or not, we need to intensify interventions for them.

- I think the most exciting part of DBI has been the ability to know our teachers can utilize data in an effective manner that impacts Tier one, Tier two, which allows us to more clearly identify, our Tier three students and what those needs are.

- The evidence-based professional development opportunities that our school has implemented here at Chippewa Hills has been using data-based individualization when we are making decisions about what to do when students aren't responding to interventions.

- It's really amazing, because you can see it both at the Tier one and the Tier two level and students are progressing.

I mean, we've only been in school for a month and a half, two months, and I've already seen extraordinary growth based on DBI.

- It's like that big aha moment for them, you hit things so hard, like with the intervention and whatnot and then it's just like they get it and everything just feels like it fell into place.

- To be a part of a process that is based on data.

It's not just a, "I'm going to put this student here "and this student here because I think "that's where they go."

I'm putting this student here, because I know that's where they go, because that's what the data is showing me.

It has made me a better teacher and it has made me a better leader in my classroom.

- We have also provided professional development to all of our teachers and paras that are teaching interventions.

So, the intervention program that they're teaching is called Enhanced Core Reading Instruction and they have all been trained in providing that intervention to students.

- I think it really targets what that kid needs.

And not just like a set group of kids are being pulled and they're missing out on, maybe like their core learning time no matter what.

Now, every single kid at a certain time is getting pulled for that reading intervention.

- I am most proud of where we came from and where we're at.

In the midst of a pandemic, we flipped the script, and that that is huge.

And that goes to the work in the classrooms.

- And so it's really amazing to see these students that came in the first of the year, they were reading eight words a minute and now in December they're reading 50, and then in April they're reading 75.

And it's amazing to see that.

And that has given me confidence, because I know what I'm doing is working.

(gentle music) - What we're giving students by providing them with evidence-based instruction in general education and true individualized instruction, outside of general education instruction is helping to ensure that they grow up and they live productive, happy lives and in the process where we're helping to ensure the health of our society.

- It's just so key to provide students with opportunities to learn and to not give up on students, before they have those chances to receive interventions that are impactful.

I think as educators, we have an obligation to continue trying to use the data that we have in front of us to really shape experiences that will allow students to be successful.

- If a district were to ask me, "We wanna get started with DBI, "what are your thoughts?

"What do we do?"

I would say it's a really good choice.

More importantly though, it's right to do it.

We want to have a seamless model that flexibly supports learners, based on what it is that they need.

It builds upon their individual assets and is able to address their specific needs.

- It can feel very overwhelming to begin with.

It's a lot of decisions.

There's a lot of moving pieces.

And sometimes we let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

- It is a lot of work, especially in the beginning when you're first just learning, about all the different components that you need to install, but don't let it deter you, because it is well worth the effort that you're going to put in to get those components implemented into your school.

- And so what we would say is that just get started.

- DBI has changed the future of those students that may in the past have fallen, through the cracks so to say, because we as teachers can now, and as a team we can now see this student has a deficit in this area and we can intervene in that area and we can help them become more successful.

- Data-based individualization, can really change the trajectory of a student's academic career.

Students who have the opportunity to get targeted, intense instruction and foundational skills, have the opportunity to go from at risk to completely not at risk.

So that by the time they reach third grade or fourth grade, they are able to be on track with their same-age peers.

- [Michael] Some of this is about the science of reading and the science of reading instruction.

But some of it is about the excitement and the engagement and the joy of the reading, that it's about kids getting geeked, about what they read and wanting to read more frequently.

We're reading for the sake of creating lifelong learners, readers and researchers and kids who are able to use those literacy skills to pursue their dreams later in their lives.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Supporting Michigan Learners, "Toward Excellence in Reading" is a co-production of Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest and Detroit Public Television.

Funding is provided by the Institute of Education Sciences.

(gentle music)