Greater County Clark Schools, a school district located in Indiana with 16 schools and 10,320 students, transformed its literacy framework to make room for proven strategies based on the science of reading. After two years of declining reading assessment results, district leaders decided it was time to make a change. To understand how students learn to read, we first need to ensure teachers are set up for success with the right tools to teach students, which requires training teachers. 

After the Indiana district enrolled its teachers in IMSE’s summer literacy training, the schools saw improvements almost immediately in student literacy scores. Importantly, the changes Greater County Clark Schools underwent demonstrate that curriculum changes don’t have to be extreme to drive results, but they do need to be data-informed and intentional. 

 

Data Doesn’t Lie

 

In 2021, the district realized that tier-one students were struggling to meet reading standards. Many students showed reading deficits indicative of dyslexia, and Greater County Clark Schools did not have enough interventionists or time during the school day to help all students effectively — especially as the district had not yet found a literacy strategy that worked for all students at all tiers.  

In the academic years of 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, the district’s universal screening flagged 620 students as behind in reading, with an increase to 804 the following year. Once student assessment data consistently reflected that many students were unable to meet base-level literacy benchmarks, the Greater County Clark School district knew it was time to make curriculum changes.  

 

The IMSE Impact

 

During the summer following the 2023 school year, teachers from the Greater County Clark School district attended IMSE’s summer literacy training, a 30-hour professional development course that spans over a week. This comprehensive training equipped educators with an immersive, hands-on experience that seamlessly translated into their classroom. Moreover, the training was supplemented with explicit resources such as guides with thoroughly explained strategies from IMSE, which ensured teachers had everything they needed to implement the proven strategies at the start of the new school year. 

Tammy Nuxoll, District Literacy Coach at Greater Clark County Schools, said, “The explicitness of the training and the practice was so helpful and the materials you receive can be implemented right away. Teachers were able to incorporate the science of reading-based frameworks they had learned during training at the very beginning of the school year.”  

After nearly an entire school year of infusing IMSE’s proven, easy-to-adopt Structured Literacy programs built on the science of reading into its curriculum, the Greater County Clark School district has already started to see improvements in student literacy assessment scores.  

 

2022-2023 v 2023-2024 I-READ3 Results

 

Greater County Clark Schools administered the IREAD-3 assessment for second and third graders. Across the district, administrators saw a significant rise in reading proficiency rates after implementing IMSE literacy programs: 

 

With the Right Resources, Curriculum Change Doesn’t Have to be Hard

 

Introducing a new framework into a system that has been around for a long time is going to be intimidating no matter what. Nuxoll describes that the Greater County Clark School district decided to merge its past framework with IMSE’s evidence-based approaches because they were hesitant to fully implement a new curriculum. However, even though the district gradually introduced IMSE’s science-based strategies, they still saw immediate improvements in student literacy results in the first year. Greater County Clark teachers also benefited from IMSE’s approach and described the new framework as comprehensive and easily applicable in all their classes. When students are successful, teachers feel good about what they’re doing, too.  

Every student has the potential to become an exceptional reader. For educators to foster this, they must wholeheartedly believe in students and commit to lifelong learning that makes their instruction consistent with research-proven methods to support every reader.   

To discover how other districts have successfully transformed their curriculum to achieve better literacy results, schedule a district training session with us today. Visit: https://imse.com/private-district-trainings/ 

 


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