Professional Documents
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Description: Tags: Steps
Description: Tags: Steps
GET STARTED
The Core Compact Team • Organize and facilitate Invention Team
Step 1
meetings;
The first steps in developing a Compact for
• Present and explain the Compact to the
Reading are to form a Core Compact Team if
wider group of teachers, parents, and
you do not already have one, and identify
community members, once the
people who can serve on a Compact Inven-
Compact is completed;
tion Team—the Team that will actually
develop the Compact for Reading. • Monitor your school’s progress toward
achieving the Compact’s goals; and
The Core Compact Team oversees the
• Update and strengthen your Compact in
development, implementation, and evalua-
accordance with your review of
tion for your school-family-community
progress.
partnership. The Core Team includes as
members at least one principal, teacher, Team members should be knowledgeable
parent, and another community member. about reading and family involvement,
know the school and its broader community,
The basic responsibilities of Core Team and be willing to take a leadership role in
members are as follows: overseeing the school Compact process.
• Define and present the purpose of the In forming your Core Compact Team, you
Compact for Reading; may want to use an existing team to take on
• Recruit members for the Compact Inven- these responsibilities. For example, look at
tion Team (if the Core Team is not going the membership of an existing Compact
to write the Compact); Team, a school-based management council,
a family-school advisory group, a working
• Identify the school’s literacy needs and
team of the Parent-Teacher Association or
resources;
Organization, or business-school partner-
• Analyze the current reading standard- ship, or a similar group that works closely
ized test scores; with the school, families, and communities
on educational matters.
• School administrators,
One of the responsibilities of the Core
• Reading specialists or literacy coordina-
Compact Team is to identify people in the
tors,
school and community who will brainstorm,
strategize, and develop the Compact. • Representatives of the school’s business
community or university partners, and
In some cases, the Core Compact Team may • Members of local community organiza-
want to take on these responsibilities. In tions, librarians, literacy groups, cultural
other cases, the Core Team will need to form or arts associations, or senior citizens
another team—the Compact Invention groups dedicated to improving education.
Team—to develop the Compact.
The members of the Compact Invention
Team are responsible for developing and
Among representatives reflecting the make
writing the Compact; for working to ensure
up of your school community, who could be
that the school staff, parents, and other com-
considered for your Compact Inventory
munity members understand the Compact;
Team, include:
and for obtaining continuing commitment
• Teachers from each grade level, from the school community to fulfill it, once
it is adopted.
• Parents from each grade level,
Shared What are the reading How do teachers What have your child’s
Responsibility for standards in place at address the reading teachers explained
Learning your school? standards in their class- about the role that read-
rooms? ing standards play in
Are special subgroups determining classroom
of children (ethnic/ What kinds of reading work and their expecta-
racial groups; special programs and special tions for your child’s
populations like Title I, assistance exist, such as performance?
special education, and tutoring or after-school
bilingual education programs, to help stu- Have the teachers given
students) performing at dents meet higher read- you examples of out-
expected levels? ing standards? standing student work?
Shared Are there clear school Do you talk with fami- Is there an open line of
Responsibility for policies about the avail- lies on a regular basis communication
Communicating ability of the principal about who can help between your family
and teachers to meet their children with and your child’s teach-
with families? school assignments? ers and the principal,
and vice versa?
Are you asking families
to attend parent-teacher Are you responsive to
conferences so that you your child’s teachers’
can show them new concerns and sugges-
ways they can help? tions?
Shared What resources are Do you have the neces- What kind of training/
Responsibility for available to provide sary training (past and support do you need
Building Capacity extra literacy support ongoing) to teach read- and have to help you
for students? ing and work with fami- work with your chil-
lies? dren?
Activity Sheets ✍ 11
Notes
Step 2
Invention Team ✓ Conducted and distributed an
inventory of the literacy needs and
The Core Compact Team facilitates the first resources of the school?
meeting with the Compact Invention Team ❏Yes ❏No
members. The facilitator, who is designated
by the Core Team, leads the meeting. During
the meeting the facilitator: ✓ Prepared a meeting outline or
agenda?
• Invites members of the Core Team and ❏Yes ❏No
the Compact Team to introduce
themselves.
✓Prepared a team roster?
❏Yes ❏No
• Hands out a general outline or agenda of
the meeting. This can be distributed prior
to or at the beginning of the first meeting. ✓ Established the ground rules for the
meeting?
❏Yes ❏No
• Provides a team roster of the Compact
Invention Team. All team members are
encouraged to speak with each other ✓ Determined the process by which
about the Compact during the writing the team will write the Compact for
process. Literacy?
❏Yes ❏No
• States the overall purpose of the Compact
process and discusses the process by ✓ Provided a translator for non-Eng-
which the Invention Team will write the
lish speaking team members?
Compact for Reading.
❏Yes ❏No
• Establishes the ground rules for this and ✓ Provided easel boards, paper, tape,
all other meetings, such as, “respect each
other’s ideas” and “only one team mem- and markers for each break-out
ber may speak at a time,“ as a way to group?
show that everyone’s participation is wel- ❏Yes ❏No
come and desired. These ground rules
will be reviewed at each meeting.
The first item on the work agenda is for the Then ask each group to write its partnering
facilitator to report and explain the findings name (“Teachers,”“Parents,”“Administra-
of the inventory of literacy resources and tors,” “Community Members”) at the top of
current levels of student achievement. The a piece of easel paper, and look through the
facilitator provides a handout that describes list of commitments on the page. These are
in detail the Core Team responses to the Lit- commitments that can help to form a strong
eracy Inventory and that summarizes stu- Compact for Reading.
dent achievement data.
Arrange the commitments in order of prior-
Identifying Partner Commitments ity, keeping in mind the school’s resources
that were identified by the literacy inven-
Once the results of the literacy inventory are
tory. Team members may add new items to
understood, the facilitator asks the larger
the list as desired.
group to form small break-out groups, with
parents in one group, teachers in another, Reconvene the break-out groups and ask
principals and administrators in another, each group to present its list of top priorities
and community members in a fourth group. for commitments that should be added to
the school’s Compact for Reading. Make
Using Activity Sheets 2A through 2D, the
sure to reserve enough time to evaluate and
facilitator hands out each sheet to the appro-
edit each group’s findings in line with the
priate group (2A to parents, 2B to teachers,
school’s needs and resources.
and so forth). Members of each group are
told that they are going to brainstorm ideas Writing the First Draft of the Compact
on how they, as a special constituency in the
school, can make a commitment to achieve Reconvened as one team, the Compact
the goal of the Compact—so that the school, Invention Team should now choose 5 to 10
its families, and community members can key commitments for each partner to to be
all work together to improve students’ read- included in the school’s Compact for
ing achievement. Reading. These may be chosen by:
• Do activities at home that Know what is expected of Ask for workshops on how
continue my child’s class- my child, by grade, in children learn to read and
room learning at home. reading and other language write and how parents can
arts skills. help.
Read at home with my child Set up special meetings Ask local businesses or
at least 30 minutes a day. with my child’s teachers community groups to
when I cannot attend provide the resources
back-to-school events or (books, tutors, etc.) that my
parent-teacher conferences. child’s school needs to meet
its reading standards.
Ask for home learning activ- Contact the teachers when I Work with the school to
ities in my primary lan- am concerned about my ensure that workshops have
guage. child’s progress or have a translators or equipment for
question about the school’s translations for non-
literacy standards. English-speaking parents.
Activity Sheets
✍ 15
2 WRITE THE COMPACT
Activity Sheet B: How Teachers Can Improve Children’s Reading
Achievement
Look at the following sample list of commitments that teachers can make to form a strong Com-
pact for Reading. Rank in order of importance each of the following commitments that you want
to add to your Compact for Reading. You may add new commitments to this sample list as
desired.
Expect students to learn Provide ongoing communi- Guide parents to help their
basic and advanced literacy cation with families about children with home learn-
skills and do challenging the literacy skills their chil- ing activities.
work. dren are learning.
Teach to challenging school Inform students, families, Ask for and attend work-
standards. and the community about shops to learn about
the school’s high literacy research-based methods for
standards, and ways they teaching literacy skills.
can help children reach
these standards.
Provide meaningful learn- Encourage parents to read Ask for and attend work-
ing activities, with clear with their children at least shops to learn how to work
directions for parents to 30 minutes per day and to effectively in partnership
use at home, that reinforce get a library card for their with families.
school standards and class- child.
room learning.
Offer special assistance and Give families timely reports Meet frequently with other
provide more time to of their children’s progress teachers to discuss effective
accommodate students’ in reading and the school’s teaching strategies in read-
individual learning needs. overall performance. ing, writing, listening, and
speaking; students’ needs;
and school resources.
Meet with the student and Develop a system of contin- Hold frequent parent train-
the family to discuss the uing communication with ing workshops to improve
student’s progress. families such as regular the help parents can give
phone calls or notes on their children at home in
progress. reading.
Link teacher instruction Communicate with tutors Hold workshops for tutors
with after school and sum- about individual students’ on effective methods for
mer reading programs. needs for extended helping students with liter-
learning. acy activities.
16 ✍ Activity Sheets
2
WRITE THE COMPACT
Activity Sheet C: How Administrators Can Improve Children’s Reading
Achievement
Look at the following sample list of commitments that administrators can make to form a strong
Compact for Reading. Rank in order of importance each of the following commitments that you
want to add to your Compact for Reading. You may add new commitments to this sample list as
desired.
Set high standards in read- Report publicly on the Allocate adequate resources
ing and other language arts. schoolwide reading scores. to ensure that high stan-
Help teachers and parents dards can be met.
understand how adopting
high standards can lead to
the improvement of scores. Hold workshops on the
standards in reading—what
they are, what they mean by
grade, and how to set the
standards into practice at
school and at home.
Provide activities in reading Communicate with teachers Work with teachers to use
that can be done at home or and parents about the role these activities with fami-
after school to support of extended-learning activi- lies, and encourage families
schoolwork in reading. ties in improving children’s to use these activities at
and school achievement home.
records.
Provide special benefits to Communicate the school’s Train tutors and families to
teachers that meet with commitment to extending work with children on
families and tutors in learning time for students home activities, like the
extended-learning pro- needing special help in School-Home Links.
grams for children. reading.
Start or expand after school, Build community partner- Seek out provide staff
weekend, and summer ships with libraries, literacy development opportunities
reading programs for stu- and cultural groups, col- to link reading teachers
dents who need or who leges and universities, with after school staff and
want to expand their skills. senior citizens, and state tutors.
and local government to
help provide quality after
school, weekend and sum-
mer efforts.
Activity Sheets ✍ 17
2 WRITE THE C OMPACT
Activity Sheet D: How Community Members Can Improve Children’s Reading
Achievement
Look at the following sample list of commitments that community members can make to form a
strong Compact for Reading. Rank in order of importance each of the following commitments
that you want to add to your Compact for Reading. You may add new commitments to this
sample list as desired.
Keep informed about the Call the school and attend Businesses and other com-
literacy standards and the open houses to find out munity organizations may
performance of your local more about the school’s donate age-appropriate
school. reading standards. books, photocopying ser-
vices, or other resources the
school needs in its efforts to
meet high standards.
Open other facilities where Participate in ongoing com- Colleges and universities
students can go after school munication with the school may offer workshops for
to read with someone or to staff about how volunteer teachers on new, research-
do their homework. tutors can meet students’ validated methods for
learning needs. teaching literacy skills.
18 ✍ Activity Sheets
• Taking a vote. If you call a vote, each team languages. Special outreach meetings
member uses a marker to check his or her should be held to reach busy people who
top three commitments from each group’s might not respond to written requests for
list. The 5 to 10 items with the most feedback.
checks are incorporated into the first draft
of the Compact. 2. Revision
Time is an important consideration during Core Team members compile the feedback
your team meetings. Creating the first draft and incorporate the relevant comments into
of the Compact may take more than two a revised draft. As result of this process,
hours. If you run out of time, schedule the there may be more than the recommended 5
next meeting time and place before the to 10 commitments in each category.
participants leave to ensure that most of the
team members will be available to continue
3. The Final Compact for Reading
writing the Compact.
The Compact Invention Team then recon-
Writing the Final Draft
venes. The Core Team shares the feedback
1. Wide Review and Feedback they and the Invention Team have received.
The Invention Team discusses the revisions
It is vital that members of the school com- (this may be done in break-out groups), goes
munity who did not serve on the Invention through the voting process again to identify
Team have an opportunity to voice their no more than 10 commitments in each cate-
opinions about the content of the draft Com- gory, and approves the school’s Compact for
pact that has been developed and make sug- Reading. Completing the Compact may take
gestions. Once the draft is completed, the more than one meeting.
Core Team should distribute it to the Inven-
tion Team members, all school staff, parents, Finally, the Core Team develops a letter of
and other interested community members introduction and explanation to the Com-
for written feedback by a set date. pact for Reading . This letter can summarize
the current status of literacy in the school
The team member distributing the draft for community, including areas of success and
wide review should remind readers of the areas needing improvement, the roster of
needs the team is addressing, the resources Core and Invention Team members, the
available to meet those needs, and the process used to develop the Compact, and a
process used to create the first draft. As with statement of support by the team members
other school communications, the letter for the widespread implementation of the
should be translated into relevant foreign Compact.
Step 3
families, and their children are meeting their The School-Home Links Reading Kit:
commitments in the Compact for Reading. A Launching Activity for Your New
The teams, for example, may want to make Compact
a checklist of all the commitments made on
Launching your new Compact for Reading
the Compact and rewrite each commitment
with an activity that involves all the
as a question— “Have you... (conducted
partners who signed your school Compact
workshops, sent home learning activities
highlights the importance of the Compact
each night, obtained a library card for each
as a tool to drive improvement.
child)?”—to use at these meetings
(see Activity Sheet 3A).
Teachers
✓Do you send home three to five times a week learning activities, such as School-Home Links
activity sheets, that parents can use to reinforce classroom learning?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Do you check to see whether students complete the activities and follow up when students fail
to turn them in?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Do you use student performance on home activities to help guide classroom reading
instruction?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Do you encourage parents to read 30 minutes a day with their children and get their children a
library card?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Do you send home monthly calendars informing parents of the reading skills that their chil-
dren will be learning on a weekly or daily basis?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Have you helped to set up extended-learning programs in your school for children who most
need help in reading?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Have you led or participated in training sessions for families as well as volunteer tutors in the
community ?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Do you expect children to perform at basic, then increasingly advanced, levels of reading in
your classroom?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Do you link classroom instructions with after school and summer reading programs?
❏ Yes ❏ No
✓Do you communicate regularly with parents of your students, by telephone or notes?
❏ Yes ❏ No
22 ✍ Activity Sheets
Working with teams of teachers from the
Mason School in Boston, Massachusetts, and
To improve family involvement in educa-
Books and Beyond in Solana Beach, Califor-
tion, the Mason School in Boston, Massa-
nia, as well as researchers from the Univer-
chusetts, launched a School-Home sity of Oregon and multiple consultants from
Activities Program. This program offered the reading and education communities, the
learning activities for families and their Department’s Family Involvement Partner-
ship for Learning has developed a kit of
children at home to reinforce the teachers’
materials called the School-Home Links Read-
work in school. The principal and teachers ing Kit. This kit is available as a companion
at Mason School developed the take-home volume to this Compact Guide, and can be
materials. Families were asked to work used to launch your family-school-commu-
nity Compact for Reading effort.
with their children on these simple reading
skill builders four times a week. When Two teams of teachers developed one-page
families were unable to work with children reading activities for children in kindergarten
at home because of language or reading through third grade, with approximately 100
activities for each grade level. These easy-to-
barriers, volunteers from the community
use activities align with the major “Reading
helped. When all the members of the learn- Accomplishments” for children in kinder-
ing community—students and their fami- garten through third grade published by the
lies, principals and teachers, and community National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in its
report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young
volunteers—became involved, a critical
Children (see Appendix A). The NAS report
mass of support was developed for the represents a consensus of national reading
school, and all partners learned there were experts on some of the important
clear and simple ways they could help accomplishments students can achieve
within a particular grade in reading.
improve the achievement of students.
Researchers from the University of Oregon
further examined state and district standards
for reading, as well as research summaries of
reading skills and activities by grade, to
enhance the NAS “Reading Accomplish-
ments” and ensure that the School-Home
Links activities are comprehensive.
Kindergarten
• Knows the parts of a book and their functions.
• Recognizes and can name all uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Correctly answers questions about stories read aloud.
First Grade
• Reads aloud with accuracy and comprehension any text that is appropriately
designed for the first half of grade 1.
• Uses letter-sound correspondence knowledge to sound out unknown words
when reading text.
• Has a reading vocabulary of 300 to 500 words (sight words and easily decoded
words).
Second Grade
• Interprets information from diagrams, charts, and graphs.
• Rereads sentences when meaning is not clear.
• Suggests possible answers to how, why, and what-if questions.
Third Grade
• Reads aloud with fluency and comprehension any text that is appropriately
designed for grade three.
• Asks how, why, and what-if questions when interpreting nonfiction texts.
See Appendix A for a complete list of reading and literacy focus areas developed by the National Academy of Sciences.
Dear Parent:
Today, I am bringing home my first School-Home Links Reading Kit activity. Several times a week, I
will be working on these activities with you. Will you help me with these things?
1. Help me find a quiet place where I can complete my School-Home Links activity sheet.
2. Read the instructions with me. I want to do my best work.
3. Help me if I have difficulty understanding.
4. Help me to remember to bring my work to school every day.
1. Let’s look at the book together. Let me tell you about the pictures.
2. Read the book with me.
3. Help me find a place where I can keep my book so it will not get lost or damaged.
4. Remind me to use a plastic bag when I carry my book home and back to
0. school each week.
5. Help me complete my Book Links activity about the book.
Thank you for helping me. It’s a lot of fun to share my work with you.
Love,
___________________________
Comments:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Later this week, we will begin a new program for our students called Book Links. The program
will work as follows:
• Once a week, your child will choose a book to read from our classroom library, the
school library, or your local library.
• If your child takes a book from school, your child will sign a book check-out card and put
it in our class’s Book Links check-out chart. He or she will put the book in a resealable
plastic bag to take home.
• Your child will read the book at home with you, complete the Book Links activity sheet
that goes with the book, and bring the book back to school the next day in a plastic bag.
The book may be one your child has heard before in class. Whether your child has heard the story
before or not, he or she should read the book to or with you. You will need to read some of the
books to your child, particularly if your child is just learning to read. Many people at home can be
part of this book sharing by listening to or reading the stories with your child.
• Introduce the book before you read it by letting your child flip through the pages–left to
right–to look at the pictures.
• Ask your child to describe the beginning, middle, and end of the story after you read it
together.
• Ask your child if he or she enjoyed the story and why. Talk about your favorite parts of
the story and interesting characters.
Your child is responsible for the care of the borrowed book. Books should not be written in or torn. If
a book is lost or damaged, the family is responsible for replacing the book. A child will not be
allowed to borrow a new book until the first book is returned or replaced.
As you can see, we need your support and assistance to help your child continue learning to read,
listen, and comprehend, as well as to become a responsible book borrower.
Finally, please remember to visit your public library’s Children’s Book Department to get a library
card (if you child does not already have one), borrow, and read other books with your child.
Sincerely,
Dear Family, Your child is learning what a letter is and how to find letters
on a page.
The Farm
In addition to doing the School-Home Links a special aspect of book reading (see next
Reading Kit at home, teachers should page). Every Book Links activity asks the
encourage families to read to or with their child to record the title and author of one
children five days a week, 30 minutes a book the child has read during the week
day. One of those days teachers will send with the family, as well as to complete an
Dear Family, Your child is learning to listen to a story and answer questions.
• Read a book with your family. Write the title and author of
the book below.
Title:____________________________________________________
Author:__________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Child’s signature:__________________________________________
Parent’s (Learning Partner’s) signature:________________________
K/Correctly Answers Questions About Stories/1
• Help students complete the activity • For students who regularly do not
before or after school. complete assignments
11. Help Families of Students Who Do Call home or meet with the parents
1. Attend a School Training Workshop 3.Work with Your Child, or Ask the
and Sign the Compact for Reading School for a Volunteer to Work with
Your Child, on the School-Home
The principal, reading coordinator, and Links, and Sign Each School-Home
teachers of children in kindergarten Link
through third grade will convene a meet-
ing with families of their students to Three to four times a week, School-Home
inform the families about the Compact for Links will be sent home, and once a week
Reading and their partnering role. Each Book Links will be sent home. Most activ-
parent or a family adult should sign the ities are addressed to the child, but fami-
school’s Compact for Reading as their lies of very young children will need to
commitment to work with their own chil- read the sheets for the child.
dren at home to support school work. The
Families should ask their child to fill out
principal and the reading coordinator will
his or her name at the top of the page,
describe how the School-Home Links Read-
then read the boxed area that includes a
ing Kit program works.
message just for the family. It tells the
family what the child is learning in school
2.Ask Your Child to Show You the
and lets the family know why the activity
Monthly School-Home Links
sheet has been assigned as homework for
Calendar and Display It in a
the child.
Prominent Place in Your Home
Families should ask their child to com-
Once a month, families will review the plete the activity in the middle of the
School-Home Links Calendar to keep sheet that reinforces work done in school
up-to-date on school and classroom liter- that day or week. Finally, the family
acy events. This calendar will show the should ask the child to sign his or her
days on which home reading activities name at the bottom of each page when the
(School-Home Links and Book Links) are activity is done. The responsible family
due. It could show the dates of parent member will also sign each sheet at the
workshops, the days the school or class- bottom of the page.
room library is open for children to select
If families ever need extra help to com-
books to take home, the visit of a chil-
plete an activity, they should call the
dren’s author to the school, or the days
teacher and ask for help, or send a note at
children visit the public library to take
the bottom of the activity sheet asking the
books out. At the bottom of each calendar
teacher to help the child that day.
are the teacher’s contact information and
a list of times the teacher is available to
speak with families. This availability rein-
forces the essential, open line of commu-
nication that your school’s Compact for
Reading encourages.
Your school’s business and nonprofit com- books, or funds to start classroom lending
munity partners can play a major role in the libraries.
success of your School-Home Links program
• Photocopying Services
and, subsequently, your school’s Compact
Schools that do not have access to a photo-
for Reading.
copying machine or the extra funds to
support the copying of the School-Home
• Tutors
Links and Book Links activities, parent let-
Personnel in local businesses and
ters, and so on might also ask local busi-
nonprofits can be approached to serve as
nesses to help fund these services that
tutors for children who most need help in
support literacy.
reading. Hundreds of thousands of
volunteers are currently tutoring children
Other Types of Activities to Implement
at lunch time or in after-school tutoring
the Compact for Reading:
programs. If your school needs volunteer
Building a Lasting Capacity
tutors, ask your community organizations
to help you locate them.
The School-Home Links program is only one
• Book donations suggested activity to fulfill your reading
Many schools do not have the resources to Compact. It is an unusually effective part-
set up lending libraries of age-appropriate nership builder, as well as an effective tool to
books in each classroom. In such cases, improve students’ learning and achieve-
administrators, teachers, and parents may ment, because it calls on multiple partners to
call on their local businesses and commu- improve student learning, communication,
nity agencies to help. School staff mem- and capacity building. However, there are
bers might attend local chamber of many other activities that can and should be
commerce meetings to inform the busi- conducted to meet the requirements of your
ness community of the literacy initiatives Compact.
being implemented at your school, and
ask for donations of gently used or new
Step 4
sure reading done, more time spent test scores in reading (see the section fol-
reading each day, or less TV time at lowing on “Individual Student Perfor-
home? mance”). An indicator of “strengthened
lines of communication” would be
increases in the numbers of families who
• Communication
report that they are informed about the
Have lines of communication among school’s reading standards. An indicator of
school staff, families, and community “a growing capacity of families to help
members been strengthened? their children in reading” would be
increases in the percent of families that
help their children complete the School-
• Capacity Building Home Links activities. See Activity Sheet 4A
Has the capacity of families to help their titled “Evaluating the Quality of the Com-
own children grown, and has this family pact Process” for more performance indica-
involvement helped students learn more tors that can be used to collect such
and better? information.
Attendance
___% of teachers were absent ___% of families and ___% of ___% of students were absent 10
more than ten days. (admin. teachers and school staff report or more days in the past year.
records) that families monitor their chil- (admin. records)
dren’s attendance. (survey)
Quality of reading
instruction and support
___ % of parents indicate posi- ___% of students show a posi-
___% of families and ___% of tive attitudes toward reading tive attitude toward reading.
students indicate that the with their child. (survey) (observation, survey)
instructional program is chal-
lenging and that it is tailored to ___% of parents read a book or ___% of students show that they
students who progress at differ- story with their child at least 30 read a book or story for at least
ent rates. (survey) minutes most days. (survey, minutes most days. (survey,
admin. records of completion of admin. records on Book Links
___% of teachers have creden- Book Links activities) activities)
tials/training to teach their sub-
ject. (admin. records)
Completion of school-
home activities
___% of families and ___% of ___% of teachers report that stu-
___% of families and ___% of teachers report that families dents come to school with home
students report that meaningful supervise completion of home reading activities completed.
activities are assigned and activities and sign completed (survey)
returned promptly with teacher assignments. (survey, admin.
comments. (survey) records)
38 ✍ Activity Sheets
4EVALUATE THE COMPACT
Activity Sheet A: Evaluating the Quality of the Compact Process
(Continued)
___Yes ___No
School climate
___% of families and ___% of ___% of school staff and teachers ___% of teachers report that stu-
students indicate that they feel indicate that families are respon- dents are respectful of one
welcome at the school and that sive to their concerns. (survey) another and of teachers. (survey,
the school respects their opin- observation)
ions. (survey)
Activity Sheets ✍ 39
A word of caution: Gathering and analyz- To measure performance in your school for
ing data can be expensive and time- your students, a range of informal and
consuming. Therefore, your school should formal assessments is most useful. Some
measure only what is important and, make quick-to-administer, informal assessments
certain that what is important is measured. enable teachers to easily gauge student
While some data can be collected and progress in early literacy skills and get
analyzed quite easily by members of the immediate feedback to guide further
Core Team, other information can be more instruction. More formal group assess-
difficult to get and may require the help of ments provide an overall picture of where
your district or state evaluation staff, or groups of children stand in reading ability
university partners who specialize in and achievement.
research and evaluation.
Informal Checklists of Skills
Assessing How Well Your Students Informal checklists of skills that most
children have by grade, developmental, or
Are Reading
proficiency level can indicate very quickly
The ultimate goal of your Compact for which skills the child has or needs further
work on, and can show at what level a
Reading is for more students to be reading
child is reading.
at higher levels of proficiency. Basic readers
should be developing into proficient read- Informal Reading Inventories
ers, and proficient readers should be
acquiring the skills of advanced readers. These quick-to-administer reading tests,
such as the Running Record and the Infor-
You need to look at your students’ reading mal Reading Inventory, permit teachers to
progress on two levels: determine students’ reading strengths,
weaknesses, readability levels, and fluency.
• How are individual students performing The Running Record, for example, requires
in reading? that each child read 100 words of text out
loud to the teacher. The teacher notes the
• How is the school as a whole (all the
time it takes the child to read the passage,
students) performing in reading?
and the accuracy with which the child
reads the passage. Teachers can administer
Running Records multiple times during the
Individual Student Performance
year to note progress in fluency as well as
Many different kinds of information can be accuracy in reading.
obtained on student performance in read-
Student Home Reports
ing, ranging from very informal measures
of progress, like skills checklists, to more Several times a year, teachers develop
formal measures of performance, such as grades or scores that reflect students’ per-
standardized reading tests administered by formance on classroom reading, written
the school, typically for the district or state. work, and classroom tests. Grades are very
Each of these measures has particular broad indicators of performance and are
strengths as well as weaknesses. There is more likely to be subjective than other
not simply one good test of reading ability. assessments.
Attendance
Quality of reading
instruction and support
Completion of school-
home activities
Activity Sheets
✍ 43
4 EVALUATE THE COMPACT
Activity Sheet B: A Final Tally of What We Are Doing Well and What
We Can Improve
Directions: For each major focus area, determine what you are doing well. Then describe
what areas can be improved.
School climate
Volunteering
44 ✍ Activity Sheets
STRENGTHEN
YOUR COMPACT
The goal of the last step in the Compact
process is for your Core and Invention
Teams to strengthen your Compact by
building on successes documented during
Step 4 (Evaluation) and improving in areas
5
• Brainstorm at your school Compact
meetings. The collective wisdom of a
team is far greater than that of each
member. Use your team to look around
your school for opportunities to operate
better and more efficiently. You might
documented as needing improvement. start by asking a series of questions: Do
some strategies seem to be working for
During this step, you will develop solutions certain students, families, and teachers
to challenges, determine action steps, and that could be applied throughout the
revise your Compact as needed. You can use school? Are there better ways to allocate
Activity Sheet 5A to develop an improve- resources? Are staff schedules arranged to
support learning and home-school com-
ment plan.
munications? What types of training are
helpful to staff and families in teaching or
This last step is extremely important
reinforcing reading? Are some school staff
because it allows partners to step back and and parents particularly effective at
praise themselves for what is going well in overcoming difficulties? Answers to these
your school community to help children questions can help guide school
improve their reading skills and achieve- improvement throughout the school.
ment. It is also a time to look at what has not
been going well and to seek new solutions.
• Review the reading research. The
These new solutions will provide informa- recently, published National Academy of
tion for revising your Compact for Reading, Sciences’ report, Preventing Reading
if necessary. Ask yourself: Are the right part- Difficulties in Young Children, is an out-
ners making the right commitments? Do standing summary of an enormous body
new commitments need to be made? Are of reading research on “what works” in
reading. The U.S. Department of
there enough people with the right training
Education is supporting nontechnical
and expertise to make this work? Are there summaries of this report that can guide
sufficient funds to support the commit- you through the findings.
ments in the Compact? Fine-tuning your
Step 5
Compact is essential if everyone is to know
what needs to be done and do the best job. • Look for solid reading models. Some of
the best ideas in teaching reading have
been packaged into model programs.
Generating Solutions for Thorny Some models with a clear emphasis on
Challenges reading include the New American
Schools Corporation models, Success for
Every school community faces challenges.
All, Early Literacy Learning Initiative,
Compact Teams can use the following
Family Literacy, and Books and Beyond.
approaches to generate solutions for these
There are others that have similar
challenges:
emphases.
A Compact for Reading 45
5 STRENGTHEN YOUR COMPACT
Activity Sheet A: Your Improvement Plan
Directions: Make a list of your successes (strengths) and a list of areas needing improvement
below. Use the following worksheet to design an improvement plan for each area indentified.
Why improvement is needed (based on progress toward standards and local, state, and national
comparisons):
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Improvement Strategies. How will you strengthen your actions in this area? What specific
actions will you take with reference to learning, to communication, and to volunteering and
training? How will each partner contribute to the effort?
1. __________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Do you need to make any specific changes to the Compact document itself?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
46 ✍ Activity Sheets
Before deciding on one model, ask its cre- • Put the Compact on the agenda of every
ators for their research evidence of effec- major school meeting relating to
tiveness. Consider models that have a improvement.
strong parent involvement component.
• Consider including School-Home Links
as one part of student report cards.
• Visit successful schools. Find the time • Provide resources that are targeted specif-
and resources for school staff and parents ically to implementing Compact responsi-
to visit neighboring schools. Seeing how bilities.
other schools successfully tackle the same
• Hold staff accountable for implementing
problems you have provides solid train-
their Compact responsibilities as part of
ing and reinforces continuous improve-
their annual performance assessment.
ment.
• Publicize the Compact through signs,
posters, and newsletters, and at parent
• Obtain outside advice. Experts in the meetings—it is said that it takes many
field can cut through the jargon and help reminders before people remember some-
you understand the different reading thing new.
approaches and strategies for assisting
• Recognize Compact successes through
families and involving communities. Your
newsletters, end-of-year parent achieve-
school district, state education agency,
ment awards, and thank-you notes.
and local colleges and universities are
good places to start for advice on effective • Use the school calendar as a reminder
practices. At the national level, the U.S. about Compact events and obligations.
Department of Education supports Com-
prehensive Assistance Centers and ERIC Challenge #2: School staff
clearinghouses that can be of help (see want to do more to fulfill the
Appendix D, Key Resources). Compact, but they simply do
not have the time.
• Look on the Web. The World Wide Web
Solutions:
is a new resource that is available on any
day and at any time (see Appendix D,
• Assign to each school staff member—
Key Resources for sites that can be
including the principal, other school
helpful).
administrators, and teacher specialists—
a group of families with whom they are to
Sample Challenges and Solutions keep in regular contact. Sharing commu-
nication responsibilities among all the
school staff, not just the homeroom
Challenge #1: My school has a teachers, reduces the requirements on
sound Compact but it is not any one teacher.
used.
• Give staff access to the telephone, prefer-
ably a telephone in the classroom, to facil-
Solutions:
itate family communication. In this age of
• Give your Compact Core Team clear modern electronic communications,
responsibility for setting guidelines and schools remain one of the last places
monitoring use. where a professional does not typically
have easy access to the telephone.
Solutions: Solutions: