萝莉网

President's Corner

In the early 2000s, I was an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, teaching a course about special education and law. My classes studied the foundational laws created to support all students in public education, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act from its inception as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.

At one point during my time instructing this course, I had an epiphany.

I realized how much I had taken the ability to read, comprehend, write and communicate for granted. As a student in the public school system, I never had given much thought to literacy, although I knew people, including family members, who struggled with reading.

I am the youngest of seven children, and two of my siblings have dyslexia. One sister spent most of her time in public education before the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed. Although my other sibling was in school when IDEA was passed, neither truly benefited from the early focus on ensuring all students receive personalized, inclusive education.

I don鈥檛 know the full extent of my siblings鈥� challenges because they didn鈥檛 have the advantage of the assessments and research-based interventions we have today. I do know, however, they struggled with formal education, and their inability to read fluently created barriers throughout their lives.

Reflecting on their journeys through K-12 education and postsecondary opportunities gave me a powerful reminder of the importance of literacy as the foundation for all learning.

I started my career as a math teacher and received minimal training in incorp颅orating literacy into my classroom. When I moved into administration, I began to un颅der颅stand the complexity of literacy and its importance.

As a middle school assistant principal and principal, I was directly involved with assessment, scheduling, intervention models and countless meetings to understand and address the unique needs of the students under my purview. Through these experiences, I grew to appreciate the struggles some of our students experienced, the importance of data and the value of a talented literacy intervention staff.

During my 15 years in district leadership, I have seen significant changes in how we teach literacy, from phonics to balanced literacy to decoding to multimodal literacy.

With each seismic shift in reading instruction, we have faced pushback from within our schools and community. Early in my superintendency, I hosted a 鈥淐offee with the Superintendent鈥� and spent a full morning listening to teachers unhappy with a new approach to literacy instruction.

I sympathized with them. As educators, we are invested in instructional strategies that seem to work for our students, and we become tired of constant change, of the supposedly 鈥渘ewer and better.鈥� Yet we also are committed to providing the best education possible, which often means change.

While I am wary of the volume of student assessments, I believe in measuring student growth and being accountable to our community. Whether summative or formative, current measures demonstrate room for improvement in helping all students become fluent readers.

We are amid a significant shift in how teachers across the country approach literacy, specifically reading instruction. As we work to provide an education that ensures our students are prepared for the future, we must not overlook the importance of literacy. We must embrace new research and new methods, such as the science of reading, evidence-based practices and technology integration. What an amazing opportunity to do better for our students and their future.

I look forward to serving as 萝莉网president this year as we work together to meet the needs of all of our kids.