Appendix B-6.

Carol St. George: Developing an externally-funded reading program for disadvantaged elementary students

Allison Yerger – University of Rochester (2021)

 
Background information

Professor Carol St. George has a decades-long history as an educator. Although she may not have always recognized it, her journey as an educator has been filled with substantial endeavors that were entrepreneurial in nature. Starting her career in 1974, she taught elementary school grades of kindergarten, third, fourth and fifth in the Greece Central School District. The district had, at the time, about 13,500 students, with 13 elementary schools, three middle schools and 3 high schools. During her years as a classroom teacher, she held many various leadership positions in her school building and district. She was recruited to become a teacher on special assignment (TOSA) and served as one of only three full time release district mentors for all newly hired teachers to the district. She was personally responsible for mentoring ten new teachers yearly helping them with all aspects of teaching such as planning and implementing lessons, assessment, classroom management, communicating with families and negotiating district policies and requirements, and supporting all other expectations of new teachers. Her goal was to first, help and support the new teachers assigned to her and second, get them “invited” back after their first year, while also having them want to return to the classroom after their first year. Another responsibility was to provide professional development for all faculty, staff, and administrators in the district, for example Basic literacy In-Service Courses. Being a mentor to new teachers and professional development provider led to her pursuing her EdD at Warner School of Education. While working in the district as a TOSA, she served as an adjunct professor at Warner School, Niagara University and The College of Brockport. After graduating with her doctorate, she was hired full time at Warner as Director of Reading and Literacies and a professor in Teaching Curriculum and has held this position since 2009.

Key innovations and their value-added

Throughout her robust career as an educator, Dr. St. George has successfully implemented a number of entrepreneurial innovations. For example, while working as a third grade teacher, Dr. St. George initiated a collaboration between her students and the local nursing home. Aware of the all too common issue of senior loneliness and the benefits of introducing children to different walks of life, Dr. St. George knew that this innovation would add value to all involved by building connections and offering students a unique cultural learning opportunity. For the entire school year, students and nursing home residents were paired, communicated daily or weekly through letters, and participated in monthly face-to-face activities. This developed strong bonds and relationships between the pairs. Students also interviewed their older partners and compiled a book as a culminating gift. Writing grants to get transportation required for the visits, getting funds for snacks, book publication, and materials for crafts, and arranging for volunteer help were some of the necessary parts of the success of the initiative. Many lives were positively affected from the collaboration.

Another innovation that Dr. St. George ventured was a year-long collaboration with her fourth grade class and anthropology, music, education, and art students from The College of Brockport. Dr. St. George and the college students designed a curriculum around the Inuit community in Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. Through her network of local professionals, Dr. St. George was made aware of the anthropology class and was able to secure their partnership. All the curriculum subjects, such as math, science, social studies and language arts centered around the history, geography, culture, legends, animal habitats, and overall culture of the Alaskan region. Much of this new curriculum material was made by Dr. St. George herself in order to keep costs down. The students had video calls with children in the area through a platform called ‘CU-C me.’ Using video calls helped to save on transportation costs. Through the year, the 4th graders rewrote familiar stories placing them into Inuit life and culture. Musicians came to teach the children Inuit style drumming, artists came to help them make Inuit style masks and dancers helped the students perform their Inuit stories. The entire project was presented at Scholar’s Day at the college. For many students and parents who accompanied them, it was their first experience on a college campus. Dr. St. George recognized the lack of hands-on cultural education in the existing curriculum. This initiative added value to the students’ education by providing a multi-sensory, comprehensive and fun way to learn and experience a different culture and way of life.

Recently Dr. St. George became involved in a grant that partners her with doctors at the UR medical school. They are currently working on an app to be used by pregnant and new mothers that will have medical information and information about supporting literacy learning pre-birth. Dr. St. George believes, and research supports,  that literacy is a major contributor to health and well being, therefore, this innovation adds value to the expecting mothers by enhancing their ability to support their own and their child’s health and well being.

According to Dr. St.George, her most successful long-term initiative is Project READ, a privately funded literacy intervention program designed to support Rochester City School District’s (RCSD) student literacy learning and Warner teaching candidate’s ability to be outstanding literacy professionals. Project READ has been in place for over 10 years. Reading and Literacies master’s students, other U of R and Warner students, and volunteers provide strategic literacy intervention to targeted RCSD students at first grade and middle/high school. Dr. St. George goes with her Warner students into the school to provide support and  model best teaching strategies. She also teaches a weekly seminar for the Warner literacy interns to help support their work with the children assigned to them. Through data relating to test scores and graduation rates, the need for literacy support in RCSD is clear. Project READ adds value to students, teachers and RCSD as a whole by providing literacy intervention to teachers and students in need.

In-depth story of an innovation: Project READ

How the idea came about and was evaluated/refined

Dr. St. George first had the idea for Project READ when in 2008 a woman who volunteered in a first grade classroom at RCSD #36 was concerned that a teacher was considering retaining 16 of the 21 first grade students rather than sending them on to 2nd grade, because the students were very behind in their literacy development. This woman, who is not an educator, knew that retention was not a good idea and came to Warner as a school of education to see what could be done for these children. The Dean at the time asked Dr. St. George if she thought she could help. With one TA and a handful of her friends who volunteered, Dr. St. George went into the classroom and offered literacy support to the students. This was in January. By May, twelve of the sixteen students were able to move onto 2nd grade, one student went to special ed, and three others moved out of the school. This means that 75%of the targeted students were successfully moving on with their peers to 2nd grade. Inspired by this success, Dr. St. George decided to pursue her idea of Project READ as a long-term initiative that each year would support children in similar situations, leveraging her graduate literacy students.

Planning and gathering the needed resources

In order to develop Project READ, funding needed to be secured to support stipends for the literacy students and provide tuition credit for the supporting seminar instituted to provide the students with training and support as they implemented the literacy intervention. Private funding was also used for salary and materials. Dr. St. George created a written plan for the program describing the targeted aims and a structure for Warner students’ time commitment. This plan was used as the basis for a proposal to help secure the needed funding. Fortunately, a private funder provided the money that was needed to support the project for the first three years. Dr. St. George, interns, and volunteers provided the necessary human skills resources.

With the financial and human resources assured, Dr. St. George was able to move forward with her plan and little refining of the original idea was needed. The next step in preparing to launch the innovation was getting the targeted elementary school’s buy-in. The school leaders needed to agree to having literacy support for their students. Based on the success of the RCSD #36 class, the school administration was very agreeable. However, an additional important component was gaining the support of the classroom teachers. As a veteran classroom teacher herself, Dr. St. George knew that support stemming from outside the district was not always helpful or wanted, and she recognized that no one wants to feel that they are being judged or evaluated by outsiders. Building trust with the classroom teachers was essential so that they would welcome the innovation and share their students. This trust was gained by reaching out to the teachers and having open conversations that addressed their concerns. The combination of Dr. St. George’s literacy expertise, personal experience as an elementary school educator, and delicate interpersonal skills made her the ideal leader for this entrepreneurial innovation.

Implementing and monitoring the innovation

Now that the necessary resources had been accrued and buy-in from the school and teachers had been established, it was time to implement and monitor the innovation. Literacy growth needed to be measured to provide evidence that the intervention work was successful. This was accomplished through the use of district standardized testing along with literacy assessments and observational notes that the interns and volunteers created. The classroom teacher’s perspective was also a valuable tool in monitoring the success of the program. Each year in order to monitor the innovation and its long-term sustainability, Dr. St. George considers the collected quantitative data provided by the testing results, the qualitative data provided through teacher feedback and volunteer and intern notes, while taking into account the students’ emotional/social needs, the Warner interns’ needs, and remaining access to funding.

Ensuring long-term sustainability and/or bigger impact

Project READ has been very successful and is currently in its 12th year of implementation.  Every three years Dr. St.George has submitted a request to the same local foundation to continue to support the project, and so far has continued to receive funding.  At some point in the process School #36 closed, but she was able to move the initiative to other schools in the same urban district (elementary School #33 and a middle school, the East Lower School).

Value added by this initiative

Since the program’s launch, it has brought over a hundred Warner students into classrooms to gain experience working directly with students. Hundreds of RSCD students have had their literacy supported by Project READ. These students benefited from participation in the program in a multitude of ways. At School #33, 100% of the students were observed to have gained confidence in their own abilities as students, especially as literacy learners. Data from NWEA and Fountas & Pinnell running reading records indicates that participating students showed improvement in reading, some showing dramatic growth. On average, when compared to their peers who did not receive the intervention, Project READ students often made twice as much progress during the same period, generally at least one full year of reading growth. This dramatic progress enabled the students to catch up to their peers and successfully complete first grade on par and often exceeding their peers. Increased student engagement was demonstrated by improved attendance, especially on days when students worked with interns, classroom teachers reported improved behavior and classroom participation. At East Lower School, students also made progress on their reading goals, though it is difficult to pinpoint each individual’s progress using this year’s focus of classroom support.  Dr. St. George, literacy interns and classroom teachers believe that Project READ helped lead to the success demonstrated by improvement in the end of the year state ELA testing scores when compared to the previous year. Reading and literacies Interns themselves also benefited greatly from Project READ. Over the years, more than a hundred of interns have worked collaboratively in the schools with district teachers and administrators to support student literacy learning and gained real life experience. Interns were engaged in administering assessments such as running reading records, analyzing data, problem solving, designing and implementing individualized lessons, attending and providing professional development, communicating with families, and providing materials for home support. As a result, the interns have developed excellent skills as reading teachers and literacy specialists and have been highly sought after for employment. The vast majority of these interns have chosen to work as reading specialists in urban settings, many currently in the RCSD. Although Dr. St. George predicted that her innovation would be a success and positively impact many lives, she could not have foreseen all of these indirect benefits of her entrepreneurial endeavor.

Observations and lessons learned

As I continue my journey towards becoming a school counselor, many themes have become transparent. One of these themes is the importance of mentors. Reflecting on the reasons as to why I chose to enter the school counseling field, I am reminded of the many individuals who have made an imprint in my life by providing support and guidance. Although the inspiration and encouragement that these role models offered me was not always verbal or even intentional, the behaviors they modeled are characteristics that I strive to embody to this day. Perhaps someday I will fill this role for a future student, however, today I continue to look to those who I perceive as leaders for direction. After completing an interview with Dr. Carol St. George, a veteran educator and true entrepreneur, I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from such an established professional. I now have a deeper understanding of the entrepreneurial skills that educators use to act as agents of change and my desire to enter the education career field myself has been amplified.

Through this interview, I have gained insights into the process of initiating value-adding innovations in education. Looking at Dr. St. George’s innovations, I can see that identifying areas that are in need of support is the first step towards being able to add value. It is Dr. St. George’s knowledge of the essential role that literacy plays in living sustainable and fulfilling lives and her awareness of the lack in literacy support within the RCSD that led to her creation of Project READ and partnership with UR medical school. Project READ started with a group of volunteers who had the goal of helping students graduate a class grade. Through this initial group’s good intentions, evolved a long-term sustainable program that has benefited countless lives. I see now that groundbreaking innovations do not always require substantial financial investments. A team of determined volunteers can be the key factor in an innovation’s success. Entrepreneurial educators do not generally aim to produce revenue. Their innovations produce positive life changes. The education industry is ultimately about improving children’s lives. Although human determination can be a leading factor in this pursuit, as Dr. Carol St. George’s innovations show, a vast entrepreneurial skill set ranging from using data to evaluate a program’s effectiveness to establishing buy-in can also be required to produce successful value adding innovations.