About the Campaign for Model Classrooms.

About the Campaign for Model Classrooms.
Children’s Literacy Initiative has been increasing early literacy achievement in dozens of cities. Our aim is to create 20 more of our signature Model Classrooms in Philadelphia to mark twenty years during which Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) has been improving the lives of young children. We are a “grown in Philadelphia” nonprofit organization, and although we work in some of the country’s most impoverished school districts, we want to celebrate success by expanding our program in the city where it began.

Our goal is to close the gap in reading achievement between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers. We envision a society where all children receive the early literacy education they need for success in school and in life.

We have developed a scalable and sustainable project design that improves student literacy achievement. To address our nation’s literacy crisis, we target Head Starts, pre-kindergartens, and low-performing elementary schools.

Our project creates Model Classrooms to serve as examples of best literacy instructional practices so that teachers can see what is possible. Over time, the Model Classroom teachers develop into exemplary instructors who help improve the practice of their same grade-level colleagues. A school with a few Model Classrooms can be transformed into a community of learners, a place where children become readers and writers and teachers can become the teachers they always hoped to be.

In 2007-2008, our Professional Developers worked with 2,540 pre-k through third grade teachers to improve the reading and writing skills of 63,500 children. For years, we have partnered with the Philadelphia School District in various schools; we currently work with 100 Philadelphia teachers.

Research and our own experience in classrooms shows that investing in teachers is the key to improving student reading achievement. In fact, teacher quality accounts for over 90% of the variation in student achievement among students from similar backgrounds. CLI works classroom by classroom to transform teachers’ instruction and create a culture of literacy within schools so that more children learn to read at, or above, grade level.
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What is a Model Classroom?
In high-poverty schools, Children’s Literacy Initiative Model Classrooms demonstrate the achievement gains that are possible when teachers deliver excellent reading and writing instruction. We provide each Model Classroom teacher with coaching in the best instructional practices for early literacy development, plus the children’s books and other material resources needed to transform the learning environment.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Dr. Arlene Ackerman, and Verizon Pennsylvania President Gale Given recently observed lessons in Model Classrooms at the George Washington Elementary School in South Philadelphia.

Since 1997, Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) has established dozens of Model Class-rooms in various low-income school districts, including 34 together with the School District of Philadelphia. This work consistently helps more children develop literacy skills at or above grade level.

Furthermore, our Model Classrooms are unique in that the benefit does not end with one classroom. The teacher becomes a model of exemplary practice – a leader and resource that other teachers can visit and learn from. For other teachers, a visit to a Model Classroom raises expectations of what is possible for students just like theirs – key to changing beliefs about what children from low-income neighborhoods can achieve.

Philadelphia’s Office of Early Childhood Education has taken new kindergarten teachers to visit CLI Model Classrooms as part of their orientation. The classrooms are also excellent sites for new teacher preparation: colleges of education at Montclair State University, Penn State, Rutgers, and University of Pennsylvania place student teachers in CLI classrooms for their practica.

In addition, Model Classroom teachers are “teacher-leaders” who coach and mentor colleagues, creating grade-level learning communities in which to share best practices in early reading instruction. They work to standardize practice on their grade-level, ensuring that the school can weather inevitable teacher turnover. Most importantly, teacher-leaders expand the impact of their Model Classroom to raise the literacy achievement of all students on their grade-level.

Teacher-leaders improve the project’s sustainability by building the school’s capacity for in-house support and professional development. Projects like this can improve teacher recruitment and retention as well; teachers who are successful are more likely to stay. Many teachers tell us that they are re-invigorated by the training and coaching that CLI has provided.
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What makes CLI’s approach so effective?
Research shows that teacher quality is the lever that raises student achievement. We help teachers use research-based instructional practices to overcome what is often a disconnect between teaching and student learning. Our professional development program is unique in providing teachers with the tools they need to put newly learned strategies into practice: large collections of high-quality children’s books for reading aloud, for individual reading, and for home lending.

We change teachers’ knowledge
First, teachers attend CLI’s intensive 3-day Institute to expand their knowledge in literacy instruction: Intentional Read Alouds, Writing, Message Time Plus®, Classroom Environment, and Small Group Learning. Later in the year, full-day seminars are offered to deepen the understanding of these and other subjects.

We change teachers’ beliefs
Guided by CLI Professional Developers, who are experts in early literacy instruction, teachers visit Model Classrooms where they observe exemplary practices in a high-quality literacy environment with low-income students like their own. Visits raise expectations for what children can accomplish and also increase the teachers’ instructional knowledge.

We change teachers’ practice
We follow trainings with individualized, on-the-job coaching sessions for teachers over an extended period of time. This helps the teacher bring unfamiliar strategies out of the theoretical realm and into habitual practice. Together, the teachers and CLI Professional Developers work to plan and implement lessons. Effective teaching methods and behaviors are modeled by the Professional Developer and are gradually emulated by the teacher. We also help teachers transform their classrooms into literacy-rich environments, where students can work independently and have ready access to large collections of books.
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Why do teachers need more professional development?
Many teachers enter their classrooms ill-equipped to respond effectively to the needs of children from backgrounds with little early literacy experience. Teachers’ lack of training in early literacy instruction results in large numbers of elementary school students failing to gain the vocabulary and literacy skills they need to learn to read on grade level.

Colleges of education require few courses in teaching reading and learning about children’s literature. In urban schools, the quality, quantity, and intensity of instruction needed for each child to become literate can differ enormously, yet, except for only a very few states, teacher certification does not require that those responsible for teaching our youngest how to read prove their knowledge of reading instruction. Additionally, student teacher sites are not vetted; there is no system for ensuring that internships take place in good classrooms with quality teachers to learn from.

The vocation of teaching may be unique in that we entrust a new employee with the same responsibilities of a seasoned one. With a limited window of time – through third grade – in which to teach a child to read, teacher effectiveness is extremely critical.

Children’s Literacy Initiative is already partnering with the School District of Philadelphia and Chief Education Officer Lori Shorr is enthusiastically supporting CLI Model Class-rooms. We’re providing professional development to more than 100 Philadelphia kindergarten and first grade teachers, and we’re focused on finding more funds to increase our reach.
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Our city faces so many crises, why should I be concerned with what goes on in kindergarten?
By the time Philadelphia’s children arrive for their first day of kindergarten, 54% are behind in expected emergent literacy skills. Unfortunately, by the end of third grade, half of the children in our public schools are still not reading at grade level.1

At Children’s Literacy Initiative, we operate with a sense of urgency: academic trajectories tend to be established early in life, and it is vital that effective teaching begin at the youngest ages. Our teachers need high-impact instructional strategies and large numbers of high-quality children’s books to close the gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers. The sooner a child grasps the essentials of reading – the building blocks of literacy, such as vocabulary words and phonics skills – the more quickly all subsequent learning progresses.

Today, over 60% of Philadelphia’s adults are considered low-literate and only 20% have college degrees; about one-third of Philadelphia’s eligible adults are not working or looking for work.2 Baby-boomers are beginning to retire, yet the workforce to replace them is both unprepared and undereducated. The Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board calls this a scenario likely to stall innovation, stifle business and economic growth, and deplete the tax base.

Early literacy intervention is vital to addressing these issues. Research has shown that only one in ten students who are reading poorly at the end of first grade read proficiently at the end of fourth grade.3 Students not able to read basic textbooks by middle school are more likely to join the 45% who drop out before graduation. The Education Trust cites a study that showed by age 17, only 1 in 12 Whites, 1 in 50 Latinos, and 1 in 100 African Americans could read and gain information from specialized text (e.g., a science article in the local newspaper).4

The expense of remedial education, the frustration of students unable to comprehend textbooks, the crisis of school drop-outs to be followed by yet another generation left undereducated – all of these problems have their roots in a child’s earliest years. We can enrich these years or face the consequences of a low-literate city populace: unemployment, poverty, and crime.

1School District of Philadelphia, 2008 PSSA scores.
3Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board, A Tale of Two Cities, 2007.
3Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology 80(4), 437-447.
4Haycock, K., & Huang, S. (2001). Are today’s high school graduates ready? Thinking K-16, 5(1). Washington, DC: The Education Trust. Cited in Reading Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2008, from The National Institute for Literacy Web site: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/reading_facts.html, see ages 9-17.
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Is the problem of low literacy solvable?
The cost of failing to teach our children to read and write is high, yet the good news is that early intervention, high-quality literacy instruction, and good teachers can make a difference. We must counter the myth that children from disadvantaged homes have too many obstacles to overcome to achieve the literacy levels of their more privileged peers. The fact is that children not learning to read is a matter of teachers not effectively teaching how to read.

This is a problem we can solve. Our theory of action is centered on improving classroom literacy instruction, providing intensive professional development for teachers and large collections of children’s books for classrooms.

The professional development of teachers
Low-income schools are typically unable to attract the most experienced or highly qualified teachers. To raise the quality of literacy education children receive, CLI Professional Developers conduct training seminars and coach teachers one-on-one in the classroom. Our Professional Developers are experts in literacy instruction, and most hold master degrees in the field. They introduce teachers to research-based instructional strategies, model lessons, and promote meaningful, engaging learning activities.

The provision of excellent children’s books and other learning materials
Great children’s books are the heart of CLI’s programs. Teachers use carefully selected books to help children love reading for its own sake; learn letters, concepts about print, and vocabulary; develop an interest in authors and content themes, including math and science; and to invite children into the world of literacy. We also provide materials to create a classroom literacy environment ranging from learning games for small group work to furniture for cozy library corners. In these spaces children can read comfortably.

The establishment of Model Classrooms
To demonstrate the effectiveness of these best literacy practices, we develop Model Classrooms in high-poverty schools. Other teachers visit our Model Classrooms to study exemplary instruction in action and raise their own expectations for what low-income students can achieve. These visits are a key component of our coaching program. One teacher wrote about the impact of her Model Classroom visit: “My attitude has changed about the children’s vocabulary. I don’t water it down any more. I find myself conversing with my students as readers and writers.”
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Is there proof that CLI’s approach increases student literacy achievement?
The Philadelphia Kindergarten Literacy Intervention Project compared end-of-year achievement in CLI Model Classrooms to achievement in similar kindergarten classrooms receiving children’s books but no professional development training, and to kindergartens receiving no intervention of any kind.

Although the students’ rankings did not differ from classroom to classroom in September when the study began, by the end of the school year there were large achievement differences: children enrolled in the CLI classrooms receiving training and books out-performed their peers in the books-only and control classrooms in every measure.1 Children’s performance was measured using the nationally normed Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and Marie Clay’s Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (see chart at left).

Three years ago, CLI began working with 12 teachers to establish kindergarten Model Classrooms in 12 of Philadelphia’s lowest-performing schools. Data showed that children from CLI’s Philadelphia’s Model Classrooms entered first grade better prepared than their peers. In fact, 64% of CLI Philadelphia kindergarten Model Classroom students met the reading benchmark in first grade, compared with 48% of their non-CLI counterparts.

Further studies have shown that student achievement gains can be seen across the grade level in schools where CLI works, expanding beyond the Model Classrooms, with statistically significant numbers of more students meeting end-of-year benchmarks than in comparison schools. Please see the graph on page 6.

1McGill-Franzen, A., Allington, R. L., Yokoi, L., Brooks, G. (1999). “Putting books in the room seems necessary but not sufficient.” Journal of Educational Research, 93, 67-94.
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What is the CLI Model Classroom program design?
The Children’s Literacy Initiative Model Classroom program is a scalable plan that focuses resources on a Model Classroom that then becomes a sustaining professional development tool in the school. In schools selected by the School District of Philadelphia, our goal is to add 20 more kindergarten and first grade Model Classrooms to the 30 we’ve already established in those grades. Because it takes time for teachers to learn about and improve on best practices, CLI anticipates a year for visible change and three years to begin sustainable change.
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Year one
A $30,000 investment for each grade level provides all teachers in a kindergarten or first grade with training, coaching, and quality children’s books. A CLI Professional Developer is assigned to coach in the school. The teachers receive:

• the CLI three-day Institute and our Message Time Plus® instructional manual with videos of classroom lessons,
• bank of 108 hours for one-on-one coaching in the classroom, small group coaching, grade-level meetings, and/or guided visits to other CLI Model Classrooms,
• a classroom book collection consisting of fiction and nonfiction,
• a Message Time Plus board.

In consultation with the principal, the strongest teacher in each grade is selected to begin on the Model Classroom teacher continuum (a plan detailing progress from “developing” to “proficient” to “exemplary”). Model Classroom teachers receive a majority of the coaching hours and additional materials for the Model Classroom. They also attend monthly, half-day Model Classroom teacher meetings facilitated by CLI to further instructional knowledge.
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Years two and three
Annually, $10,000 provides ongoing professional development for the Model Classroom teacher. Schools are expected to contribute to increase the budget in order to provide:

• a bank of 50 coaching hours for the Model Classroom teacher and colleagues for one-on-one coaching in the classroom, small group coaching, grade-level meetings, and/or guided visits to other CLI Model Classrooms,
• additional books and literacy materials, monthly Model Classroom teacher meetings, and a stipend for the Model Classroom teacher.

Assisted by the CLI Professional Developer, the Model Classroom teacher holds grade-level meetings with school colleagues to disseminate learning, plan lessons, model techniques, and review student data together. The establishment of this teamwork helps overcome the isolation of the teacher in the classroom, and works toward developing a school community of learners, improving instructional practices among all.
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About our Executive Director
Linda Katz leads and oversees the development of all of Children’s Literacy Initiative’s programs. Before co-founding CLI in 1988, she served as the director of a public library for 10 years and the president of a children’s book sales company. She holds a BA from University of Pennsylvania, Masters in Library Science from Drexel University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Snapshot of the organization
Children’s Literacy Initiative has a staff of more than 40 full time employees and 50
highly-trained Professional Developers for training and coaching. In addition to our headquarters and training center in Philadelphia, we maintain offices in Baltimore and Chicago. With an annual budget over $6 million, we are proud of the fact that we maintain a low administrative/fundraising overhead of 13.6%, which translates into 86 cents on the dollar going to programs.
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Who supports and endorses CLI’s work?
Our work has been funded by federal and state grants and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Head Start); contracts with schools and school districts, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Camden, Newark, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC; and many generous individuals, corporations, and foundations.

Contributions from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Victoria Foundation, and the William Penn Foundation have totalled between $2 and $3 million each over the years. Other major donors include the Capital Group Companies Foundation, the Grable Foundation, the Hamilton Family Foundation, Lincoln Financial, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Prudential Foundation, and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. For a more extensive list, please see our annual report.

Dr. Arlene Ackerman, Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia, PA
"I speak for many at The School District of Philadelphia when I say that we deeply value the work of CLI and want to see it implemented in more schools. In CLI, we have a partner that matches our passion to lift children from inequity and underachievement. Increasing student reading proficiency is a key goal and we appreciate the work of CLI in equipping our teachers and students with the skills and tools that they need for success.

CLI brings to the classroom a research-based and field-tested model for teacher professional development that is a highly effective force on behalf of our students. My own visit to some Model Classrooms confirmed for me the important work happening in these schools."

Donna Piekarski, Office of Early Childhood, School District of Philadelphia
“The Model Classroom teacher provides new and experienced kindergarten teachers an opportunity to witness the powerful effects that a rich literacy environment, exemplary teaching, and high expectations can have on the lives of students. In that way, she is acting as an important change agent in our profession – one who models the very change that is hoped others will embrace, who illustrates for them what effective teaching looks like, and who inspires others to strive for what is possible for children.”

Dr. Gayle Griffin, Assistant Superintendent, Newark, NJ
“One of the reasons we continue to partner with Children’s Literacy Initiative is the long term capacity of its professional development for our teachers. One can always tell that a teacher was CLI trained. I see the practices in literacy years after the initial training. It is a contributing factor in the quality of our early childhood classes across the city.”

Dr. Margaret Dwyer, Assistant Superintendent, White Plains, NY
“When we began our work with CLI in 2004, about 49% of our children met our benchmarks in literacy at the end of Kindergarten. Over the next three years, we gradually involved every K classroom, special education, and ESOL teacher in a structured program of CLI professional development, with the result that last year, 81% of our children met the exit benchmark. Along the way, with CLI’s help, we built a more coherent curriculum, and we have embedded exemplary practice.”

Dr. Elizabeth M. Morgan, Superintendent, Washington County Public Schools, MD
“We adopted CLI’s program for pre-schoolers to build literacy skills early on and got phenomenal results. The research we have carried out has demonstrated that a majority of our kids leaving pre-k programs have acquired excellent, beginning reading skills. We have actually had to change and adjust the curriculum at both kindergarten and first grade, because what we normally would associate with end-of-kindergarten and beyond in reading achievement has now been brought down to the end of the pre-k year.”
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Can I really make a difference?
Yes! You will be funding a solution to a correctable problem, and you can visit your investment at work, right in the classroom. Unlike donations to many other nonprofits, funding the CLI Model Classroom program produces visible, tangible results locally.

We think you ’ll agree with us on one important truth about education in America: children who do not learn how to read will never do well in school, and they will rarely succeed in the workplace. This is a frightening five-alarm fire in our educational system backed by statistics showing that in some of our poorest schools, three out of four children won’t learn how to read.

We hope you share our sense of urgency; we want to add 20 more Model Classrooms by 2010 and help 1500 more children. We have a viable theory of action and ask your support in focusing resources where we get results: if instruction improves, children will learn.

Teachers, armed with effective instructional strategies, have the power to help all children become readers and writers. Once learned, these skills open the door to a future with opportunities; once learned, these skills can never be forgotten or taken away.
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The situation is dire; the problem is solvable;
the impact lasts a lifetime.

Literacy changes everything.