Partnership Around Literacy Strategies ::
Executive Statement
To reform literacy instruction and raise students’ reading achievement, the Partnership Around Literacy Strategies (PALS) builds critical bridges between Aspire Public Schools and Oakland Unified School District and engages in knowledge transfer at the district, school, and classroom levels. This collaboration between Aspire and OUSD will distribute information, ideas, and resources regarding effective and ambitious approaches to reading and writing instruction to shift the literacy practices of administrators and teachers. Additionally, PALS aims to surface the requisite support for effective implementation and how this understanding can further the district’s work to improve its overall approach to literacy.
PALS utilizes an inquiry process to develop a deeper understanding of effective literacy practices and how they are implemented within local Aspire schools. Then, these practices will be replicated in 2-3 three OUSD partner schools. Specifically, the partnership will take the form of a collaboration between one ASPIRE elementary school in Oakland, acting as the Practitioner School, and approximately two to three OUSD elementary schools serving as Partner Schools.
OUSD and Aspire will develop an integrated, two-year long plan for literacy professional development and program implementation. The plan will scaffold the replication of literacy practices within the OUSD Partner schools as exemplified by the Aspire Practitioner school. Development activities range from inputting new information and observing and reflecting on conditions and practices, to, ultimately, designing and implementing the literacy model. The partnership’s activities for professional learning will be tailored to individuals’ needs and values, as well as pre-existing beliefs practices.
From the spring through fall of 2010, OUSD partner schools will have multiple opportunities to study the conditions, principles, and practices that cultivate rigorous reading and writing instruction within Aspire’s elementary schools. Thus, educators from OUSD partner schools will actively learn through engagement in structured observations and participation in professional development. In addition, resource materials and research on literacy instruction will be distributed, studied, and analyzed.
The long term goals of PALS include OUSD developing the administrative and support services capacity to continuously improve upon the early literacy successes evident in the OUSD Partner Schools. This could codify and disseminate the individual and organizational learning related to PALS. It would also serve as a step toward developing the infrastructure for a specific approach to literacy instruction that could serve as one model among others for OUSD elementary schools. Ultimately, PALS will also increase the district’s capacity to implement similar school improvement efforts within OUSD’s schools.
PALS utilizes an inquiry process to develop a deeper understanding of effective literacy practices and how they are implemented within local Aspire schools. Then, these practices will be replicated in 2-3 three OUSD partner schools. Specifically, the partnership will take the form of a collaboration between one ASPIRE elementary school in Oakland, acting as the Practitioner School, and approximately two to three OUSD elementary schools serving as Partner Schools.
OUSD and Aspire will develop an integrated, two-year long plan for literacy professional development and program implementation. The plan will scaffold the replication of literacy practices within the OUSD Partner schools as exemplified by the Aspire Practitioner school. Development activities range from inputting new information and observing and reflecting on conditions and practices, to, ultimately, designing and implementing the literacy model. The partnership’s activities for professional learning will be tailored to individuals’ needs and values, as well as pre-existing beliefs practices.
From the spring through fall of 2010, OUSD partner schools will have multiple opportunities to study the conditions, principles, and practices that cultivate rigorous reading and writing instruction within Aspire’s elementary schools. Thus, educators from OUSD partner schools will actively learn through engagement in structured observations and participation in professional development. In addition, resource materials and research on literacy instruction will be distributed, studied, and analyzed.
The long term goals of PALS include OUSD developing the administrative and support services capacity to continuously improve upon the early literacy successes evident in the OUSD Partner Schools. This could codify and disseminate the individual and organizational learning related to PALS. It would also serve as a step toward developing the infrastructure for a specific approach to literacy instruction that could serve as one model among others for OUSD elementary schools. Ultimately, PALS will also increase the district’s capacity to implement similar school improvement efforts within OUSD’s schools.
