"Mississippi’s approach to teacher training also evolved through the years. Initially, LETRS training was its standard. Many advocates touted the role of LETRS in Mississippi’s success, to the point that the “Mississippi Miracle” became practically synonymous with LETRS. Few realize that in 2021, Mississippi moved to AIM ‘Pathways’ training, a more streamlined training (45 hours rather than 150 hours) that focuses less on theory and more on application."
Thank you so much for doing this deep analysis Karen! The national
coverage has been anemic so you’re picking up the slack. When everything is failing, focusing on the bright spots is strategic.
By the way, what I’ve seen in research and practice work the best is integrating PD directly with curriculum. And we should build pedagogical content knowledge, such as how to teach blending - not mostly content knowledge, such as whether “fox” is 3 or 4 phonemes.
Thanks, Karen, for lifting up the Barksdale Reading Institute's contribution to the Mississippi success story. I hope your on-going coverage will consider the role that educator preparation programs must play to improve literacy outcomes.
You write "On the NAEP, Tennessee was 6th in the nation for the growth of its 4th graders" but Tennessee is still four scale score points below where they were in 2019 and approximately half a year below where they were in 2013. Yes, we need to learn from bright spots, but Tennessee's data isn't there yet.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with our community, Karen! This is fascinating! As an elementary teacher, I was trained in Balanced Literacy. After 10 years of teaching, I stayed home with my son and now sub. Wow! The landscape has changed. Love to read about what the latest research shows and yay for progress!
I feel like the definition of small government has really changed over the last few weeks for politicians, but not most Americans, although they would prefer we believe it has.
"Mississippi’s approach to teacher training also evolved through the years. Initially, LETRS training was its standard. Many advocates touted the role of LETRS in Mississippi’s success, to the point that the “Mississippi Miracle” became practically synonymous with LETRS. Few realize that in 2021, Mississippi moved to AIM ‘Pathways’ training, a more streamlined training (45 hours rather than 150 hours) that focuses less on theory and more on application."
This is HUGELY important! I am concerned that we are both overtraining and overteaching, which brings with it all sorts of opportunity costs. "Bursting with Knowledge: Are We Overteaching Phonics?" (https://highfiveliteracy.com/2024/11/18/bursting-with-knowledge-are-we-overteaching-phonics/)
Thank you so much for doing this deep analysis Karen! The national
coverage has been anemic so you’re picking up the slack. When everything is failing, focusing on the bright spots is strategic.
By the way, what I’ve seen in research and practice work the best is integrating PD directly with curriculum. And we should build pedagogical content knowledge, such as how to teach blending - not mostly content knowledge, such as whether “fox” is 3 or 4 phonemes.
The national coverage HAS been anemic. Thanks for the kind words!
Thanks, Karen, for lifting up the Barksdale Reading Institute's contribution to the Mississippi success story. I hope your on-going coverage will consider the role that educator preparation programs must play to improve literacy outcomes.
You write "On the NAEP, Tennessee was 6th in the nation for the growth of its 4th graders" but Tennessee is still four scale score points below where they were in 2019 and approximately half a year below where they were in 2013. Yes, we need to learn from bright spots, but Tennessee's data isn't there yet.
Yes, I could have phrased that better. Good point, will edit.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with our community, Karen! This is fascinating! As an elementary teacher, I was trained in Balanced Literacy. After 10 years of teaching, I stayed home with my son and now sub. Wow! The landscape has changed. Love to read about what the latest research shows and yay for progress!
I feel like the definition of small government has really changed over the last few weeks for politicians, but not most Americans, although they would prefer we believe it has.
https://open.substack.com/pub/pimentomori/p/america-dont-worry-about-big-brother?r=5783cf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true