NINA MOINI: Public schools across Minnesota are in the process of overhauling their reading curriculum. You may remember in 2023, the state passed the READ Act. It includes requirements that students be taught the phonics method and requires districts to purchase specific curriculum.
At Saint Paul Public Schools, they began putting an emphasis on literacy even before the READ Act. And just last night, they premiered a docuseries that followed students over one school year and their literacy journey. Here's a clip of the trailer.
SPEAKER 1: Children don't have the reading skills necessary for lifelong learning. So I would say that we have a crisis, both in the country and in Saint Paul Public Schools.
SPEAKER 2: Most people that I talk to are not aware of any of the data related to reading, especially not in a place like Minnesota that has one of the best educational systems in the United States.
NINA MOINI: The docuseries is called All In, The Saint Paul Public Schools Literacy Journey. And joining me now is the literacy coordinator for the district, Jenny Davis. Thanks for being with us, Jenny.
JENNY DAVIS: Thank you so much for the opportunity.
NINA MOINI: Jenny, I'm sure a lot of work went into this. I want to start by just setting the stage for how the district began its literacy journey. Why did SPPS decide to start putting a focus on literacy?
JENNY DAVIS: Sure. Well, our journey began with the 2021-22 school year. And that was the year when we first implemented a new initiative, which is called WINN. That stands for What I Need Now. And as part of that initiative, we hired 84 teachers to support small group instruction for students who needed additional support in reading.
And another big part of that initiative was providing monthly professional learning for those WINN teachers. That was centered on evidence-based reading instruction. So that's initially when our shift started to happen. So I would say that's really the beginning of our journey.
NINA MOINI: So how does this literacy program work, that you're working on now as a vehicle for changing how reading was taught?
JENNY DAVIS: Sure. So as I mentioned, there is a great deal of professional learning that is provided to the WINN teachers. They also get one-on-one support from WINN coaches. And so through that, really, in addition to just the dedication of these educators, all of the teachers really want to do well by students. One of the things we talk a lot about is that when we know better, we do better. The urgency of knowing that we need to act. And this is one initiative that's helping us to do that.
NINA MOINI: And can you explain quickly for folks who may not understand the difference at a base level of how you're teaching kids to read?
JENNY DAVIS: Compared to how we were teaching in the past?
NINA MOINI: Yeah, like phonics versus how it was being taught before.
JENNY DAVIS: Yeah, so previously, the strategy, if you will, at the time was balanced literacy. And balanced literacy included a lot of different things but one of which was possibly having students guess at times when they were reading or having them rely on cues like pictures versus just focusing in on the print.
And so this new approach, which is aligned with the science of reading research-- in practice, we call it structured literacy-- really does focus on teaching students to go to print first to use their decoding skills.
NINA MOINI: I guess, what types of results have you seen, if you've seen any, in the past year that you were chronicling students? I mean, I don't know if that's something tangible that you're able to measure or if you see in other ways improvement.
JENNY DAVIS: Sure. That's a great question. So for example, last year, which was the year during which we were filming the docuseries, there were over 3,100 SPPS students that received WINN support. And our literacy screening data showed that between the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, 90% of those students made typical or aggressive growth in their literacy skills.
So we definitely have some data points. But we also know that even though we're four years in, it does take time for us to see data and the impact in terms of things like the MCA. So we also have a lot of anecdotal data. So we have families telling us that they have students making progress in their reading. We have teachers saying that they have never had kindergartners reading and writing at the levels they are at this point in the year.
NINA MOINI: So I'm curious, too, why you as a district decided to chronicle this through a docuseries and what you hope that folks will take away when they see it.
JENNY DAVIS: Sure. So All In, The SPPS Literacy Journey, basically, it's the latest chapter in an ongoing initiative that we have called SPPS reads. I'll just give you a quick little background on SPPS Reads. So it is a districtwide initiative. And it aims to improve literacy instruction by aligning our practices with the science of reading research.
It also aims to provide resources for families to help students improve reading skills at home. And then where the docuseries comes in is we're really looking to build excitement around reading through community events.
And so we saw the docuseries series really as an opportunity to chronicle our work, to really share our story. And in reality, it really is also a call to action, inviting everyone in our community to join us in this important effort because we know really this journey is just beginning.
And we know that we have a lot of work yet to do. But we're very confident and optimistic that the changes that we're making will continue and that we'll continue to see strides in improving reading proficiency for all students.
NINA MOINI: Well, Jenny, thank you so much. I wish you well with all of your efforts.
JENNY DAVIS: Thank you so much.
NINA MOINI: Well, that was Jenny Davis, Literacy Coordinator for St. Paul Public Schools. The district will be holding one more screening of the docuseries December 14 at their school choice fair. It'll also be available to watch online beginning December 16.
We want to turn the conversation now to someone very special joining us today as well. Joining me now to continue the conversation is APM Reports reporter Emily Hanford. And Emily was the reporter behind our Sold A Story Podcast, which has really spurred states like Minnesota to put new laws into place regarding literacy and really started a nationwide conversation. Emily, thanks for being here to talk about your very impactful reporting.
EMILY HANFORD: Thank you. I'm really glad to be here.
NINA MOINI: For folks who might be unfamiliar, what did you report in summary in Sold A Story?
EMILY HANFORD: Yeah, Sold A Story is a multiseries podcast that was first released in October of 2022. And it actually wasn't the first reporting I had done on this topic. I had done reporting on this question of, how do kids learn to read? And how are they being taught in many schools? I started looking into that back in like 2017.
And so the Sold A Story Podcast, it really investigated one idea that Jenny referred to a moment ago, that it was at the core of balance literacy, which is the way that the St. Paul schools and many schools across the country described their approach to early reading instruction for many years.
And it was this idea that, yeah, so you do teach some phonics. But you also teach kids these other strategies to figure out the words as they're just beginning to learn how to read. You teach them they can do things like look at the first letter, look at a picture, think of a word that makes sense.
And this is an idea that you can find in approaches to reading instruction going way, way back. And Sold A Story simply looked at that idea and showed how that idea was in conflict with a huge amount of research, much of it coming from cognitive scientists that's been done over the last 50 years, that shows us how we read and what all of us need to be able to do to become good readers, and that those strategies that were at the core of balanced literacy in classrooms across the country were not teaching kids the things that they needed to know and, in fact, were teaching kids the strategies of struggling readers.
So schools were actually teaching kids to read the way that someone who doesn't know how to read very well tries to get through text. Some kids are absolutely fine because some kids don't really need a huge amount of instruction. Learning to read is pretty easy for them. And they get a lot of support at home and in some cases tutoring at home. That makes the way that reading is taught in school not the big difference maker.
But there are many kids who may not have extra support at home or access to tutoring services or for whom learning to read really is quite hard. And there, the way that schools teach reading really, really matters.
So St. Paul is one among many schools that have really taken a hard look at the way they've taught reading. As she mentioned, St. Paul started this back in 2021, so there's really been a growing movement over the last many years, some of it since the Sold A Story Podcast.
But the Sold A Story Podcast, I think, was chronicling some of what was already beginning to change in American schools. So yeah, so it's been a long journey for me. I've been doing this topic for eight years now. And I'm really seeing quite a bit of change.
NINA MOINI: It does seem like though the tides are turning and lots of schools are making these adjustments along the way. What do you think about Saint Paul Public Schools chronicling these maybe growing pains through this series? What does that tell you about what people are experiencing?
EMILY HANFORD: I just learned about this docuseries a few days ago. And I was surprised by it. I haven't seen the series in full yet. But I saw the trailer. And it's an incredibly well-produced-- it looks like it's intensely produced. And I was surprised that they made it because I think it looks to me like it's taking a pretty hard look at the way that they used to teach reading and the fact that there was really an urgent need for change.
As you just heard in the trailer, one of the people said children didn't really have the reading skills that were necessary to become good readers. I think it's a big deal for schools and school districts to be reckoning with this and taking it on taking on the fact that there were some things that they weren't doing well enough or there were some things that they were doing that were actually contributing to some kids struggling to learn how to read.
In the many years that I was reporting this early on, often the story that I would hear from parents was a us versus them story with their schools and their school systems. The parents would notice that there was a problem. They would go to the school to ask about the problem.
And they wouldn't get the answers that they needed. They would in many cases get pushed off by the school, like, it'll be fine. She'll learn to read. He'll learn to read. It'll all be OK. And for some kids, it's not all OK.
And I really did hear a lot of this, that the schools didn't seem to understand what the parents were saying. And I think the fact that a school is making a series about how kids in their system struggled and how they're changing in order to change that is a really big deal. It's a system taking a hard look at itself. And that doesn't always happen.
NINA MOINI: It's like Jenny said, when you know better, you do better. And they're being pretty vulnerable and sharing this. Emily, before we let you go, I do want to know what's next for Sold A Story and how folks can check it out.
EMILY HANFORD: Sure. Well, you can listen to the podcast now. Six episodes came out originally, and there have been four more since. And we have more episodes coming. There will be a couple more episodes coming early next year.
So we are continuing to follow this story. Sold A Story, I think, helped to raise awareness about a problem. It really has forced many schools and districts to make big changes. And we feel that our job as journalists now is to chronicle that, to go find out what's happening, what's changing. Are these changes good changes? Are they as you were asking? Are they resulting in better achievement for kids?
So we're really trying to stay on this story, to follow the story. Many times journalists come in, investigative reporters come in and put the spotlight on a problem. And then they walk away and they go do a story about something else. And we really feel like we want to keep following this to show people what happens and to go find school systems that are really seeing success and asking the question, well, what are they doing? What could the rest of the nation learn?
NINA MOINI: Emily, thanks so much for being with us and sharing your reporting.
EMILY HANFORD: Thank you. I'm really happy to have been here. Thanks a lot.
NINA MOINI: That was Emily Hanford with APM Reports.
