Intellectual Engagement and Autonomy:

The Keys to Developing Proficient

Readers

2019 Cahn Fellows

Cahn Fellow: Dr. Frank Hernández

Fhernandez2@schools.nyc.gov

Cahn Ally: Yessenia Peña-Gutierrez

Ypenagutierrez@schools.nyc.gov

PS 49X Willis Ave. School

Bronx, NY

ABSTRACT

PS 49X Willis Ave School was one of the lowest performing schools in District 7, located

in the poorest congressional in the South Bronx. A new vision, direction, and commitments

among others led to a steady increase in student achievement in literacy and mathematics.

However, after several years of consistent increase in student performance in both literacy

and mathematics, stagnant performance in literacy scores over the past two years have

established a sense of urgency. These results have allowed us to reexamine, rethink, and

reform the way we teach, lead, and learn, specifically in reading. In 2017, 36% of the students

were proficient and in the year 2018, 36% of students were proficient on the New York State

ELA exam. As such, our project focused on intellectually engaging our scholars and promoting

autonomous readers to increase student achievement for all learners, as measured by grade-

level performance on literacy assessments.

While we entered the program with a predetermined approach based on the success of

the math department, as part of our work in the Summer of 2019 our focused changed.

According to Heifeitz, leaders must engage stakeholders by “giving them the work.” Hence, we

distributed the leadership in order to develop trust and teacher leadership capacity in our

school. Throughout the process, we provided teacher feedback in order to support teacher

growth and development. To measure our progress we used the iReady and Fountas and

Pinnell reading baseline and midline results. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our results are

inconclusive.

INTRODUCTION

Our Cahn project focused on improving students’ reading proficiency. In addition, our Cahn

project also focused on supporting the development of scholars’ literacy skills and sense of

efficacy through rich discussions and meaningful engagement with varied texts. To do so, we

provided our teachers with high-quality professional learning opportunities and building

community engagement in the literacy classroom; in addition to assessing, monitoring, and

revising learning based on formative and summative data. The result was a year-long process of

inquiry, professional learning, and reflection which was evidenced by our text-talk rubrics and

our pivots to support teaching, leading, and learning in the remote environment.

P.S. 49X The Willis Avenue School, located within the Mott Haven neighborhood of the

South Bronx, serves the needs of 650 students between grades pre-K 3-5 who represent the

diversity of the community. It is located within the poorest congressional district in the U.S

(Unconditioned Stimulus)., where 99 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Our student population consists of Hispanic (72.3%), African American (25.5%), two or more

races (0.9%), of which 172 students (approximately 26.5%) are students with disabilities (SWD).

Students with disabilities receive the following services: Self-contained, ICT (Integrated Co

Teaching), SETSS (Special Education Teacher Support Services), OT (Occupational Therapy), PT

(Physical Therapy), & Speech. Our English as a Native Language (ENL (English as New Language))

population is comprised of 87 students (approximately 13.41%) and consists of the following

services: Dual Language PreK - 3rd Grade / Transitional Bilingual in grades 3 - 5, ENL Push-

In/Pull-Out K-5.

Our school’s mission is to E.D.U.C.A.T.E. At PS 49X, we strive to E.D.U.C.A.T.E

(Enrichment, Discipline, United, College & Career, Arts & Sciences, Technology, Empowerment)

the WHOLE child by engaging parents and community-based organizations as partners. In the

development of educating the child as a whole, the fine arts were incorporated in the students’

educational

process. Likewise, after-school Common Core academy, Saturday intervention programs and

extracurricular activities were created to maximize students’ potentials and close learning gaps.

With the support of the PDSA (plan, do, study, act) Continuous Improvement Cycle Approach

and the District-Public data we expect to increase student achievement in literacy.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

After several years of consistent increase in student performance in both literacy and

mathematics, stagnant performance in literacy scores over the past two years have

established a sense of urgency. These results have allowed us to reexamine, rethink, and

reform the way we teach, lead, and learn, specifically in reading. In 2017, 36% of the students

were proficient and in the year 2018, 36% of students were proficient on the New York State

ELA exam. As such, our project focused on intellectually engaging our scholars and promoting

autonomous readers to increase student achievement for all learners, as measured by grade-

level performance on literacy assessments.

While we entered the program with a predetermined approach based on the success of

the math department, as part of our work in the Summer of 2019 our focused changed.

According to Heifeitz, leaders must engage stakeholders by “giving them the work.” Hence, we

distributed the leadership to develop trust and teacher leadership capacity in our school.

Throughout the process, we provided teacher feedback to support teacher growth and

development. To measure our progress we used the iReady and Fountas and Pinnell reading

baseline and midline results. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our results are inconclusive.

The racial and health pandemic caused us to pivot our project’s focus. While the goal

remained the same, we focused on securing culturally responsive and relevant texts, digital

curricula, and digital assessment to monitor student. Furthermore, with our students, staff, and

community impacted by the racial pandemic, it was imperative that we addressed the racial

crisis by providing opportunities for our community to heal. Addressing the social-emotional

needs of our community became our precursor for academic achievement and teacher

excellence.

METHODS

Although students increased in proficiency in literacy levels from 2018 to 2019 (11% more

students proficient) in the New York State ELA exam, an in-depth analysis of the curriculum was

vital. After examining data sources, such as: State assessments, Baselines, Simulations, I-Ready

diagnostics, End of Unit assessments, Bi-weekly assessments and Fountas and Pinnell Reading

levels, administrators and key stakeholders engaged in meaningful conversations about what

approaches were needed to support our readers and writers. As such, modifications to the

current ELA curriculum were crucial to develop a cohesive learning environment for all types of

learners. Various resources were incorporated in the instructional planning to develop a scope

and sequence to align genre and standards for reading and writing, with the mission to drive

writing through reading. At the same time, student choice read-aloud was included in the

instructional framework with the focus on cultural relevance.

Thus far, we have seen how these implementations have benefited student academic

growth in reading. Students in the lower grades are developing fluency with expression by the

exposure of dialogue in the read-aloud. Likewise, students in grades 3-5 are acquiring literacy

skills and strategies to develop self-efficacy and independence. Overall, across all grade levels,

students are becoming autonomous readers, leading text discussions, developing

comprehension skills, language, and vocabulary. In like manner, teachers are fully

understanding the sense of urgency by understanding the reason behind the journey (Wagner

et al., 2010, p.138). Throughout the curriculum revision process, and with ongoing professional

support, teachers are becoming more knowledgeable in their practices and taking

accountability for student achievement, while developing trust amongst each other.

By aligning and creating cohesiveness across reading and writing, school faculty has already

started observing the benefits. Students are building true meaningful comprehension,

language, and interest; students are analyzing culturally relevant text and from there taking

that knowledge and applying and interpreting it through the rest of the content areas. In

mathematics, teachers are collaborating with the ELA department to adopt literary elements to

engage and promote literacy skills, including close reading word problems, annotating text to

“well equip and prepare students for every aspect of life” (Mike Schmoker). Additionally, cross

curricular planning was carried out to promote cultural-relevant texts in instruction. Likewise,

differentiated critical thinking questions were upgraded using various DOK (Depth of

Knowledge) levels to meet the student’s needs.

Over the course of this project, we have witnessed the positive impact of strengthening

teacher capacity to support our scholars’ academic, social-emotional, and intellectual

development. However, one of the most significant challenges we encountered was shifting

from an isolated planning and designing ambient to a collegial environment to maximize

pedagogical expertise. Another challenge was shifting teachers’ mindset that we are all

teachers of reading and writing, and therefore we should all take action to strengthen students’

content-area learning while promoting general literacy development skills.

The development of this situation was a collaborative effort with our instructional

leadership team after analyzing data. As depicted below, some of the short-term goals involve

professional learning opportunities and building community engagement in the literacy

classroom. In like matter, longer-term goals include assessing, monitoring, and revising based

on formative and summative data.

Progression of Action

Action Stakeholders Responsible

Purpose

Evaluate NYS ELA & Math Test Data

3rd-5th Grade ELA/MATH educators

Compare past and current student academic performance in Math &

ELA

Analyze District Public Data Report

3rd-5th Grade ELA/MATH educators

Categorize students that are considered push-ables and slip-ables in meeting grade level proficiency in NY (New York) State test

Organize NY State ELA Released Questions from past 3 years

Literacy Supervisor/Literacy Coach

Categorize top ten most tested standards by standard and genre

Student Read-aloud Interest Survey

ELA Teachers Determine a culturally responsive text for the upcoming unit of study based on student choice

PD: Authentic Literacy and Intellectual Development

All Staff Acknowledge the importance of creating reading and writing opportunities in instruction

Biweekly planning ELA Teachers Standardize assessment based on unit of study and develop common verbiage

Analyze Biweekly Data ELA Teachers Develop small group instruction

PD: Vertical Alignment Planning Literacy supervisor/Literacy Coach

Develop Coherent instruction and build capacity

Teacher Choice Teams All Staff Develop trust and teacher leadership capacity in our school by creating a communal learning environment

Unpacking Danielson’s Framework (1a, 1e, 2a, 3b, 3c, 3d, 4e)

All Staff Build capacity

PASS (Principal Annual Space Survey) Survey

All Staff Analyze individual students’ reports based on nine varied factors to identify reasons for disengagement, future risk of chronic absenteeism, and potential barriers to

learning

EQUITY: Analyzing Data EQUITY TEAM- (teachers and paraprofessionals)

Analyze the 3-5th grade math and ELA NY state test results to display trends within various grouping, such as; gender, temporary housing, ethnicity, and diverse learners. For educators to plan according based on the findings.

EQUITY: Culturally/Historically Relevant Pedagogy

Math and Literacy Instructional Coaches

Align with Chancellor’s Instructional focus to implement culturally responsive practices.

RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND FUTURE PLANS

As indicated in the Appendices below, multiple qualitative and quantitative data sets

provided not only the context for this inquiry, but reading baseline and midline data. These

data sets both show that students struggled with reading comprehension despite their ability to

decode on grade level. Furthermore, with students demonstrating ability to perform at or

above

grade level in mathematics, we were committed to transferring those skills to students’ ability

as readers.

While the academic data on the impact was inconclusive due to the pandemic, several

elements of our project remain: implementation of digital curriculum, strong Cahn Team, digital

library, and strong remote practices. As the school has implemented blended learning

throughout the 2020-21 school year, the school has been able to successfully transition and

these practices have become a hallmark of teaching, leading, and learning during this remote

era of education. We anticipate these practices to continue and to serve to develop proficient

readers.

REFLECTIONS

Participating in the Cahn Fellows program has had an enormous impact on my growth

professionally. Despite my seven years as a principal, there were many leadership skills and

areas yet to be developed. The leadership impact was immediate from the initial Summer

institute where we met Teachers College Faculty and learned new concepts that would

forever transform my leadership.

The first session we participated in was facilitated by Dr. Jeff Young. In this session, we were

introduced to the work of Ron Heifeitz. Specifically, we learned about the difference between

“technical” and “adaptive” work and empowered our teachers by “giving them back the work.”

Immediately this allowed us to change our Cahn project from a predetermined course of action

to one that engaged our teachers in ways that allowed them to take ownership of the work.

Then Dr. Ellie Drago-Severson facilitated a professional learning series on adult-learning. This

series helped us focus on adult learners and their ways of knowing as we planned the best way

to engage them in our Cahn Project. Lastly, my participation in the Cahn Project allowed me to

build capacity and distribute leadership. This process was evidenced in the selection of my Cahn

Ally and my Cahn Team, among others, which helped lead the work in support of increasing

student achievement and enhancing teacher effectiveness. These structures will ensure that

the work we have committed to and developed will continue next year and beyond despite my

transition.

Ally

I am incredibly grateful for the learning opportunities that the Cahn program has provided

me. As a Cahn Ally and aspiring school leader, I feel that this work has strengthened my

immunity to believe that I have the potential and the expertise to be both a participant and a

guide in this transformation. With this self-confidence, motivation, and with the acquired

knowledge from this program, I was able to understand that as a school community we are

designed systematically. Therefore, being a part of a departmentalized school system does not

mean that the work must be done in halos. On the contrary, as educational stakeholders, we

must hold each other accountable in our shared ownership of the pedagogical challenges, as

they are fundamental in devising a solution to resolve these challenges. Through

interdisciplinary planning, not only I was able to gain a better understanding of the deficiency

areas for the entire school, but I was also able to be part of the process of this collegial learning

community. Furthermore, this experience has encouraged me to take a step forward to expand

my competencies and acquire certification to make a greater impact on my school community. I

am also grateful for the opportunity this program offered me to collaborate and explore with

other leaders. I learned from their leadership roles and their abilities to shift from the dance

floor to the balcony, which is crucial in the understanding of system thinking. However, my

greatest takeaway from this program has been learning the importance of building meaningful

relationships, where trust is the main ingredient.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This was truly a reciprocal learning experience that allowed us to learn from and with our

colleagues. We were able to get a broader and national perspective on leadership from various

dynamic leaders. I would like to acknowledge our Cahn Crew (Fia Davis, Michelle Verdiner,

Monica Berry, and Sharyn Briscoe). They have made the journey and experience more

enriching, engaging, memorable, and enjoyable. The relationships we have made will certainly

last a lifetime.

We would also like to acknowledge our Cahn Advisor Anna Cano Amato for her guidance,

support, and assistance throughout our Cahn Fellowship. She was truly helpful, always

available, and provided unparalleled support throughout the process. A special thanks to our

Teachers College Faculty for their instructional guidance and challenging our thinking. Lastly,

thank you Dr. Barbara Mckeon for her leadership, vision, and support and Mr. Chuck Cahn for

investing in urban education and leaders to improve schools across our Country.

Lastly, I could not have done this work without the collaboration and partnership of my

Cahn Ally Yessenia Pena. She has grown and developed as a leader as a result of her

participation and I am pleased to have had her by my side every step of the way throughout

this journey.

APPENDIX

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

Appendix F

Appendix G

Appendix H

Appendix I