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SPPS asks families, community to help kids reach literacy goals
Superintendent Dr. Joe Gothard says SPPS Reads is a call to action for families and community partners.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Children who were getting their first taste of school when the world shut down because of COVID are now in third and fourth grade, and many are still struggling to read.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ 2022 report card, only about one third of the nation’s fourth graders are proficient in reading — a dip from 2019. The average score for Minnesota students in 2022 was on par with the national averages, and our state too saw a dip in 2019.
To try to get students back on track, St. Paul Public Schools has opened the next chapter of its literacy improvement plan.
“We are really happy that we are able to announce SPPS Reads,” Superintendent Dr. Joe Gothard said.
But first, let’s flip back to 2018, when the district aimed launched SPPS Achieves as part of its strategic plan.
“In that plan, we look to decrease disparities between students based on their racial groups, whether or not they’re English language or receive special education services,” Gothard said. “We’ve tried many different strategies but have found that our results haven’t always been there, and we continue to have some of the historical disparities in reading achievement that have been persistent here for a long time.”
Gothard says, in spring 2021, reading levels began to improve after the district received $209 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds. This allowed dozens of teachers to train in scientifically based reading strategies.
“Many children are taught to read by word memorization and making inferences to pictures, for example,” Gothard said. “[Whereas] the science of reading is very clear about making sure that students can pronounce words. They have phonemic awareness. That they can decode complex words and make meaning of it, make comprehension of the words they’re sounding out.”
Each certified teacher put in 180 hours of training through Lexia LETRS, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, which provides teachers with science of reading teaching methods. The teachers have been implementing these methods through a program called WINN, or What I Need Now.
“Many times, it’s in a small group in a classroom,” Gothard said. “It can be outside of the classroom, but it’s very short. It’s 45 minutes a day, and it’s every day that a small group of students receives this instruction from one of our teachers who’s been trained.”
The district reports more than 4,000 kids in the program are learning to read more quickly than their peers. They’re assessed at the beginning of the school year and again in winter and spring.
“The body language of students in those classrooms is something I notice right away,” Gothard said. “Students are sharing. Students are not afraid to show up as the readers they are, whereas in maybe a large class or maybe without the skills that they’re learning, students can feel a real sense of shame and sense of embarrassment at times, and nobody wants that for our students. So it’s been able to create a safe environment for students to step up and push themselves and be guided by our amazing teachers.”
Now with SPPS Reads, the district aims to involve families and community partners in improving literacy rates.
“We can’t put reading and literacy only on the backs of students and their teachers,” Gothard explained. “This really does require a call to action to our entire community.”
As part of the launch, Amazon last week donated $10,000 in reading instruction materials to 90 WINN teachers.
And Wednesday, the district plans to host the first of three community movie nights to explain the science of reading and show Reading Rainbow legend Levar Burton’s award-winning documentary, The Right to Read:
- Wednesday, November 29 | 5:30-8 p.m. | Johnson Senior High School
- Thursday, December 7 | 5:30-8 p.m. | Humboldt High School
- Tuesday, December 12 | 5:30-8 p.m. | Central High School
The Saint Paul Public Library system is one of the school district’s partners, and its director provided the following statement Tuesday:
“Reading is incredibly important for everyone, especially for our youngest learners. At the library, we foster a love of reading and learning through books that represent the identities and experiences of families in our community. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Saint Paul Public Schools in helping our students to read and learn.”
-Maureen Hartman, Saint Paul Public Library
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The crash happened when a Suburban pulling a trailer failed to stop at a stop sign, Minnesota State Patrol said.
WAUKENABO, Minn. — Two people from Minnetonka died in a crash Friday in Aitkin County while others, including children, were hurt.
According to Minnesota State Patrol, it happened at the intersection of Highway 169 and Grove Street/County Road 3 in Waukenabo Township at approximately 5:15 p.m.
A Suburban pulling a trailer was driving east on County Road 3 but did not stop at the stop sign at Highway 169, authorities said. The vehicle was struck by a northbound GMC Yukon. Two other vehicles were struck in the crash, but the people in those two cars were not injured.
In the Suburban, the driver sustained life-threatening injuries, according to State Patrol. Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, of Minnetonka, and Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, of Minnetonka, both died. Officials said the driver of the vehicle, a 61-year-old from Minnetonka, has life-threatening injuries.
There were six people in the Yukon when the crash occurred. The 44-year-old driver, as well as passengers ages 18, 14, and 11, sustained what officials described as life-threatening injuries. The other two passengers have non-life-threatening injuries.
Alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash, but officials said Elizabeth Jane Baldwin had not been wearing a seatbelt.
Among those at the start line this year will be Alex Vigil.
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Pixar’s second installment of the movie features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.
MINNEAPOLIS — Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” universe plays out inside the mind of the movie’s adolescent protagonist, Riley.
She plays a kid from Minnesota whose family uproots her life by moving to San Francisco. But did you know that what plays out in Riley’s mind actually comes from the mind of a real-life Minnesotan?
“You are one of us!” said Breaking the News anchor Jana Shortal.
“Yes, I am!” said Burnsville native and the movie’s creator and director, Kelsey Mann.
Mann was chosen for the role by ANOTHER Minnesotan — Pete Docter, the man behind the original movie, “Inside Out.”
“I don’t know if Pete asked me to do this movie because I was from Minnesota and he was from Minnesota … I just think it worked out that way,” Mann said.
How two guys from the south metro made a pair of Pixar movies that would change the game is a hell of a story that began with Docter in 2015.
“He [Docter] was just trying to tell a fun story — an emotional, fun story — and didn’t realize how much it would help give kids a vocabulary to talk about things they were feeling because they are feeling those emotions, but they’re really hard to talk about,” Mann said.
Some parents, counselors and teachers might even tell you it did more good for kids than just entertain them. It unlocked their emotions and begged for what Mann set out to create at the beginning of 2020.
“That part was fun, particularly fun,” he said. “I think the daunting part was following up a film that everyone really loved.”
But Mann knew what he wanted to do with the movie’s follow-up, “Inside Out 2.”
“Diving into Riley’s adolescence … that was just fun,” he said.
This time around, Riley is 13, hitting puberty and facing all of what, and who, comes with it. The franchise’s second installment features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.
“I think that’s what’s fun about the ‘Inside Out’ world: You can take something we all know and give it a face,” Mann said. “We can give anxiety a name and a face.”
The film follows Riley’s emotions fighting it out for control of her life. Joy wants Riley to stay young and hold on only to joy, while anxiety is hell-bent on taking over Riley over at the age of 13 because as a lot of us know, that’s when anxiety often moves in.
“I always pitched it as a takeover movie, like an emotional takeover,” Mann said. “Anxiety can kind of feel like that; it can take over and kind of shove your other emotions to the side and repress them.”
For a kids’ movie, it’s hard to watch this animation play out, even when an adult has the keys to decide.
“I’m making a movie about anxiety and I still have to remind myself to have my anxiety take a seat,” Mann said.
All of our individual anxieties have a place in this world.
“The whole movie honestly is about acceptance. Both acceptance of anxiety being there and also of your own flaws,” said Mann.
Even for our kids, we have to remember that this is life.
Anxiety will come for them; it does for us all.
The “Inside Out” world just shows them it’s so.
