DeWine sees Heath Stevenson Elementary's literacy program in action

HEATH ― As part of his effort to support literacy in Ohio schools, Governor Mike DeWine visited Heath's Stevenson Elementary on Wednesday.

He observed classroom activities, discussed how the district has aligned literacy instruction to the Science of Reading, and heard about the students' experience with the program.

According to a press release from Heath City Schools, DeWine went to Barb Jackson's fourth grade ELA classroom, where author's craft and figurative language such as simile, metaphors and idioms were being studied. Next, he observed intervention specialist Stephanie Maddux's third grade group during a lesson on root words, prefixes and suffixes. And lastly, he visited Karen Day's fifth grade ELA class to watch a vocabulary lesson on homonyms.

The Science of Reading is research from multiple fields of study using methods that confirm and disconfirm theories on how children best learn to read, and is based on five big ideas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension.

All current Heath K-3 staff and all K-12 intervention specialists have completed 30 hours of training in the Science of Reading. Curriculum spans the five big ideas, including writing, and there is an assessment calendar and decision tree that aligns with Ohio's Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement. The process is refined to provide specific interventions based on students' needs.

With the alignment to the Science of Reading pedagogy, and the district’s complementary efforts, the results have been significant. Since 2018, third grade reading proficiency has increased by 8%, fourth grade reading proficiency has improved by 3% and the current kindergarten class is on target to have more than 80% of students on track to proficiency.

DeWine's visit to Heath, after going to another elementary school in Marietta earlier Wednesday, was especially timely. Just a few weeks ago, Heath Superintendent Trevor Thomas participated in an event called "Literacy Matters: Shaping the Future for Ohio Students," which was hosted by Ohio Excels. DeWine gave opening remarks and described the literacy initiatives that are included in his biennial budget. Thomas alliterated the story of Heath’stransition to structured literacy during his panel.

It happened to be the same day the governor signed Executive Order 2023-07D, "a measure to create the Governor's Literacy Challenge to improve reading proficiency for all Ohio children."

"We are grateful to Governor DeWine for his support of evidence-based teaching, and his belief that all students have a right to learn to read," Thomas said. "The most important part of the literacy portion of his budget is the support he gives to teachers, so they can be trained and valued as professionals."

"We are fortunate to have the talent and dedication of our teachers and administrators who lead our literacy work," Thomas added, citing assistant superintendent Kelly Holbrook and literacy coordinator Blythe Wood. "Our principals and teachers have worked extremely hard to transform our literacy curriculum, and we are still in the early stages of that work.”

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: DeWine sees Heath Stevenson Elementary's literacy program in action