The Early Literacy Center (ELC) is part of an aggressive school improvement effort to increase student achievement in literacy skills. The center operates as a school-within-a school, serving early learners in grades Prek-1 within a high school feeder pattern who are identified as experiencing low literacy growth. While the center’s main focus in on improving student literacy skills, the center also addresses student numeracy skills.

FBISD launched its first ELC at Ridgemont Elementary in August 2018 to serve students in grades PreK-1, as well as three-year-olds, in the Willowridge Feeder Pattern. As students enter the ELC, the District assesses their early literacy and numeracy skills at the start of the school year, using a universal screener. Campus teachers and leaders use the data to align Tier 1 instruction to student literacy and numeracy needs, identify students who require intervention and create targeted intervention plans to help students improve in those areas.

Within the first year alone, students at all grade levels served at the Ridgemont ELC made significant progress, based on yearly assessments. Students who were identified as experiencing low literacy growth when entering the program, made notable progress due to the support they received at the ELC. An increased number of students at all grade levels improved their literacy skills, being able to detect and manipulate sounds in spoken language, including syllables and rhyming words. An increased number of students also improved their numeracy skills, sharpening their ability to successfully identify and count numbers, and name and discriminate between shapes. The majority of ELC kindergartener and first grade students were also identified as probable readers, which is the grade level benchmark students are expected to reach by the end of their grade level.

Because of student progress made, Ridgemont Elementary went from an Improvement Required Campus per the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to a Met Standards campus, due in part to the overwhelming academic success of our ELC early learners.

The Early Literacy Center has intentional focus in five key areas: hiring quality staff; comprehensive job embedded professional learning for staff; co-teach partnerships to ensure meaningful teacher student ratios in each classroom; engagement in team building to establish high expectations and build relationships among staff and with students; and a strong community engagement plan to engage parents and community members as partners in learning.

The ELC model prioritizes support and learning for staff, students, and families to ensure a learning environment capable of meeting the needs of its diverse student population. The ELC model offers a non-traditional staffing option that: 1) places two qualified educators in each classroom, 2) provides additional specially equipped instructional staff to address identified needs of students, 3) offers ongoing parent engagement opportunities, and 4) has a job embedded professional learning model built into the school day to support the development of high-quality teachers.

The staffing model uses a co-teach approach in each classroom. In PreK, there is one certified teacher paired with an instructional aide. In kindergarten and first grade, there are two certified teachers within each classroom. These models allow for built-in time for intervention and enrichment along with ongoing feedback to students and their parents about their progress and growth.

The unique staffing model and co-teach approach to classroom instruction also allows students to receive targeted interventions with minor disruptions to instruction. Intervention practices include push-in support from math and literacy intervention teachers and pull-out targeted intervention (to include both small group intervention in the classroom and one-on-one support outside the classroom as needed).

The Ridgemont Elementary Early Literacy Center is preparing for its third year of implementation, and with the success students are experiencing, demand for seats has increased. In order to continue to support current ELC students currently in first grade as they rise to second, FBISD will add additional teachers to the second-grade level as a part of the ELC expansion.

Because the first ELC is already established with an instructional leader in place, and this expansion is limited to one grade level, the district continues to have the training capacity and other resources to support the effort in the upcoming year.

Due to the success of the Ridgemont ELC, FBISD received a Texas Education Agency grant to fund the opening of a second Early Literacy Center. Because the Marshall High School feeder has similar challenges as the Willowridge High School feeder, it was proposed that an ELC be created to serve the Marshall feeder.

The Department of School Leadership held several meetings with community members in the Marshall High School Feeder pattern in the fall to request input and feedback during the visioning process for the next ELC. Community members responded favorably and provided critical input to support the alignment of the Hunters Glen ELC with needs of students and their families.

When complete, the center will serve all PreK students within the Marshall High School feeder pattern and will be open to all kindergarten and first grade students at other elementary schools in the feeder pattern.

All Prek students zoned to elementary schools within the Marshall High School feeder, as well as Prek-1 grade students zoned to Hunters Glen elementary, will be served at the new ELC. Families of kindergarten and first grade students zoned to schools within the Marshall feeder other than Hunters Glen will have the option of attending the ELC or their zoned campus.