Their NWEA scores showed ALL student categories in the red, which means they fell far below where they were supposed to be and did not meet the targeted goal.
Principal Aquan Miles began searching for reading instruction that works. She was directed to EBLI by Wendy Miller, a Reading Specialist at GVSUCSO, Taylor Prep’s charter authorizer.
This is how Taylor Prep implemented EBLI in their first year (2013 – 2014):
- Three teachers plus the Curriculum Director, Amelia O’Brian, attended EBLI training in November.
- After the last day of training, they sat down with me and asked for help in making an implementation plan with EBLI that would result in significant gains quickly.
- On my recommendation, they suspended content area instruction and taught only EBLI in the ELA classes for 6 weeks (or until the EBLI lessons were finished).
- They purchased a novel for the class to read that was of interest to the students. They started students reading in this text after they’d had a few weeks of EBLI instruction.
- They began writing instruction using engaging EBLI writing and vocabulary expansion activities.
While I had recommended this dramatic implementation plan many times, Taylor Prep was the first school that followed this plan exactly as outlined. By January that same school year, their students had made gains of over 400% in their NWEA scores.
In the spring, all student categories were green and students had made an average of almost 500% growth! After learning about their unheard of gains, we visited the school to interview several of their staff members. Watch the following video to hear what these educators had to say about their EBLI experience in that inaugural school year.
