San Jose, April 24, 2017:  Moreland School District announced that eight Moreland staff members have completed the Reading Recovery Teacher Program at St. Mary’s College, Kalmanovitz School of Education (KSOE) this spring.  The KSOE is one of 17 Reading Recovery University Training Centers in the country.

Tyler Derler, Trish Caron and Dana Schreiber from Anderson, Julie Bohn from Baker, Nancy Roldan from Country Lane, Susan Lavelle from Easterbrook Discovery School, and Andrea Morikawa and Shanowa Ross from Latimer all received their Reading Recovery Certificates and were honored at the April 18, 2017, Board Meeting.  These Instructional Coaches, Resource Specialists and Reading Teacher trained with a Teacher Leader while working individually each day with four students at their school sites.  

The goal of offering this program is to provide these instructional leaders with expertise in early literacy.    “We’re so proud of the additional impact they are having with students,” said Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Destiny Ortega.  “Some gained early literacy background knowledge that they may not have had before as an upper grade teacher, and all were able to strengthen their tools to support students who struggled with reading.”

Country Lane parent and Moreland Teacher, Trisha Keiser said,  “Going into first grade, my son was very behind in letter sounds, recognition and reading. He had the opportunity to be a part of the program at the beginning of the year.  He has progressed in his reading and is now caught up to where he should be for first grade.”

Anderson RSP Teacher Trish Caron shared, “I’ve been working with a 3rd grader since the beginning of the school year.  He said, after breaking apart the word "excited” (which he was using in the story he was writing), "This is my new favorite word!  I love words! Words are so cool! I LOVE reading!"  In the 2.5 months Trish had been working with this student as part of the Reading Recovery Program, he advanced from a Level 4 to a Level 11 in Reading.

Reading Recovery is an early intervention program for young elementary children who are at risk for learning to read and write.  Teachers enrolled in this program participate in a yearlong curriculum at an off campus site affiliated with St. Mary’s.  A  review of Reading Recovery research by the What Works Clearinghouse, an initiative of the US Dept of Education, reported the highest rating in general reading achievement for all beginning reading programs.  An independent research study conducted by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (2013), reported “large positive effects for student literacy performance overall, and these results were also large for ELL students.”