class act
Best practices in action
As much of the nation struggles to improve literacy rates among its youngest students, Hemet Unified School District — where nearly 87 percent of students are unduplicated homeless/foster youth, English learners or are low-income — has seen K-12 literacy rates skyrocket since implementing a new literacy program in 2021 focused on promoting best practices and building teacher capacity.
In partnership with WestEd, the district implemented a new strategy focused on continuous improvement, creating a system map to identify the moving parts within the literacy system, and using that information to design and implement systems that promote best practices, build capacity of teachers and leaders, and effectively measure and monitor student progress.
Three years ago, less than 15 percent of Hemet USD students in grades 2-12 were reading at grade level. That number has risen to 40 percent. Hemet USD Director of Literacy and Instructional Development Kristen Anderson said about 65 percent of first graders currently moving into second grade are anticipated to be reading at grade level.
“Something that we talk a lot about in our district is having a dissatisfaction with the status quo and that if getting good outcomes for students was based on hard work, we would’ve had that a long time ago because we have amazing teachers, we have very hardworking staff, and so we had to take a look at our instructional practices,” Anderson explained. “We needed to implement systems that were building capacity of all of our teachers and leaders, not just at early elementary, but into middle and high school. We needed systems to measure and monitor student outcomes.”
Now, all students undergo a literacy screener five times per year to identify specific skill deficits in areas such as phonological awareness, phonics and comprehension. They also take diagnostic assessments to pinpoint their exact needs, allowing teachers to tailor instructional resources accordingly, often monitoring student progress in three-to-six-week cycles. Each school site all the way up through high school also has a literacy specialist and access to literacy coaches.
Additionally, over 650 TK-12 grade teachers have completed the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) program — a two-year online course paired with some in-person instruction — which Anderson said was an important step toward a mindset shift around literacy districtwide.
“I was hoping that we would maybe have 30 or 40 teachers interested in our very first cohort. We actually had 500 teachers sign up, which was just amazing,” she said.
Teachers’ literacy knowledge improved dramatically as a result of the training, with pre-test scores rising from 54 percent to 92 percent post-test following LETRS training. It also empowered educators to advocate for changes they needed to support students.
“Once we started learning more about how our kids needed us to show up for them every day and how we needed to be as teachers, our teachers started saying, ‘our instructional materials, these curriculums that you’re giving us, they’re not doing all the things that you’re telling us need to happen,’” Anderson said. “They were the ones saying, ‘We need assessments that are going to give us this information. We need curriculum that is sequential, that is organized.’”
Still, Anderson said it is surprising how many teachers were on board to pivot to a new curriculum earlier than district leaders expected. “We had just this huge momentum and desire from our teachers and our coaches were right there with them every step of the way to help coach them through,” she said. “And we’ve been able to just continue to refine deeper and deeper now where we’re getting better at understanding our data.”
As teachers’ efficacy has improved, so too has students’ confidence and school connectedness. Since adopting these changes, experience surveys show that the number of students who report feeling that learning is important on their campus, that they set learning goals and track their progress, that their teacher cares about them, and other metrics are improving. At the same time, school site data also shows reductions in misbehavior and acts of aggression among students.
“Being able to hear our students speak to their growth is also really something exciting,” Anderson said. “When we talk about embracing, educating and empowering our kids, I think that the literacy piece is one place where our students are feeling more confident in the classroom, but they’re also feeling safer at school and happier.”
Anderson also credits leadership from the Hemet USD school board in not only supporting these endeavors, but also engaging deeply with literacy overall.
At every board meeting, Anderson and her colleagues have time to present on the progress of the literacy work taking place and identify areas for improvement. Trustees have also taken part in mini-literacy lessons designed to equip them with the latest research, strategies and practical tools in literacy education, as well as firsthand experience and deeper insights into the pedagogical approaches that educators employ, fostering a more informed and cohesive strategy in the decision-making processes.
“As we’ve gone through this every single month, when we have come to our school board and we’ve asked for support, whether it be financially for things like instructional coaches or instructional materials, or if we’ve had to move away from certain practices and things that have been in place a really long time — they’ve been our biggest supporters,” Anderson said.