West Virginia
Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
IA •
ERA
VIR
G IN
LIT
W EST
Creating a
20/20
Vision
CY
County Action Plan
LEADE
F
O
RS
Tranformative System of Support
for Early Literacy
West Virginia Department of Education
Division of Teaching and Learning
Office of Early Learning
Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
WVBE Policy 2512: A Transformative System of
Support for Early Literacy
The provisions established by the refocusing of West Virginia Code §18-2E-10 have resulted in a repeal
and replace of WVBE Policy 2512 (currently on public comment) to ensure county boards of education are
provided a framework to support a transformative system of support for early literacy. This policy includes
key national and other researched-based components of a comprehensive system to support early literacy
development. The framework is inclusive of the components evidenced below:
West Virginia’s Campaign for Grade Level Reading:
A Transformative System of Support for Early Literacy
Measurement and Support of Children’s Trajectory
for 3rd Grade Literacy Proficiency
A Systemic, Comprehensive Approach
WV Early Learning Reporting System
• Data reporting based on the formative
assessment process
• Family communication resources
• Outcome resources for data-driven decision
making
• Comprehensive P-3 data profile
• 3rd grade achievement gap data analysis
High-quality, Standards-based instruction and
learning
• Personalized learning
• Standards-focused instruction
• Relationship between learning and teaching
Emphasizing high-quality school readiness efforts
Promoting early childhood school attendance
Providing supports to eliminate summer learning loss
Increasing family engagement
Ensuring high-quality instruction and learning
The infrastructure to develop and implement a state wide campaign to close the reading achievement gap is
found in WVBE Policy 2512:
• WVBE Policy 2512: Tranformative System of Support for Early Literacy
• WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade Level Reading
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
A Comprehensive Approach to Reading Success
by the End of the Third Grade
School
Readiness
Too many children from low-income families begin school already far behind. The research shows that these
children are less likely to be read or spoken to regularly or to have access to books, literacy-rich environments,
high-quality early care, and pre-k programs. As a consequence, these children may hear as many as 30
million fewer words than their middle-income peers before reaching kindergarten. Research also shows that
such interactions are critical for language development, an important precursor to literacy.
61 percent of low-income children
have no children’s books at home.
The
Attendance
Gap
A child’s vocabulary as early as
age three can predict third grade
reading proficiency.
Too many children from low-income families miss too many days of school. Research has found that one in
10 kindergarten and first grade students nationwide misses nearly a month of school each year in excused
and unexcused absences. By fifth grade, children with chronic absences who are from low-income families
achieve lower academically.
One in ten kindergarten students
miss nearly a month of school
every year. In some districts it runs
as high as one in three.
Summer
Learning
Loss
Poor children hear as many as 30
million fewer words than their more
affluent peers.
Kindergarteners who miss 10
percent of school days have lower
academic performance when they
reach first grade.
Among children from low-income
families, who lack the resources to
make up lost time, chronic absence
in kindergarten translated into lower
fifth grade achievement.
Too many children lose ground over the summer months. Without access to the enriching activities available
to more affluent peers, research shows that children from low-income families lose as much as three months
of reading comprehension skills over the summer. By the end of fifth grade, they are nearly three grade levels
behind their peers.
Low-income students lose an
average of more than two months
in reading achievement in the
summer, while their middle income
peers tend to make gains in
reading.
By the end of the fifth grade,
disadvantaged children are nearly
three grade equivalents behind
their more affluent peers in reading.
Studies show 6-week summer
learning programs can produce
statistically significant gains in
reading performance.
Family
Engagement
Parents are the first teachers and most important advocates for their children. Research shows that students
are most successful academically and socially when their parents are involved and engaged in their learning.
Encouraging family engagement can help turn around the state’s achievement problems, starting with making
significant progress against the milestone of grade-level reading by the end of third grade.
Healthy
Readers
Learning begins at birth and healthy development greatly impacts children’s ability to learn. Children who
are on track in their physical, social and emotional, cognitive, and verbal development are more successful
learners from their earliest years, and they are more likely to become proficient readers by the end of the third
grade.
State Level
Outreach and
Professional
Development
The WVDE works with child and family advocates to help assure a seamless system of care, services, and
supports from birth through third grade. This includes policy and practice that promotes children’s optimal
social, emotional, and cognitive development; improves professional development for the early childhood
education workforce, and supports parents as their children’s first teacher and best advocate.
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
West Virginia County Action Plan
The purpose of this toolkit is to provide support that encourages and assists counties as they determine the
unique strengths and challenges currently present at the local level that impact the Campaign for GradeLevel Reading. This is STEP 3 in the four step process of establishing a transformative system of support
for students to meet grade-level proficiency in reading by the end of third grade, targeting a comprehensive
system of support for early literacy in grades kindergarten through third grade.
STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Community
Engagement
Complete the
County Needs
Assessment
Submit an
Early Literacy
County Plan
Implement
and Support
Take the initial steps for
ensuring the right
partners are involved.
Determine your
community’s unique
strenghts, opportunities
and challenges
Identify what you aim to
achieve and the steps
needed for success
Embed a culture of
literacy in your
community to help
close the literacy
achievement gap
This plan should describe in great detail how the county’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading intends to
make progress on school readiness, school attendance, summer learning and grade-level reading by 2020.
Guide to completion of the County Action Plan:
• Be sure to complete Step Two (County Needs Assessment) prior to completing the County Action Plan.
For a list of resources to help determine potential partners who can assist with literacy development at
the local level, visit: County Needs Assessment.
• While many individuals will collaborate on the development of the County Action Plan, the County
Superintendent (or his/her designee) will need to assure the County Action Plan is completed prior to
engaging in Step Four, Implementation of the County Action Plan.
• •One component of the County Action Plan is inclusion of the County Needs Assessment. The template
for the County Needs Assessment is found at: County Needs Assessment.
• Questions regarding completion of the County Action Plan may be directed to: Charlotte Webb,
ctwebb@k12.wv.us.
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
Considerations for the County Action Plan
Plan Development Considerations
Please consider these factors as the County Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Team completes this Plan of
Action.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration—How effective will this process be at providing elected officials and other
key leaders of public, business, civic, and philanthropic organizations with a meaningful opportunity to
share in the development of the plan and commit to its implementation?
• Stakeholder Engagement— How effective will this process be at providing parents and caregivers,
service providers, program operators, and funders with a meaningful opportunity to share in the
development of the plan and commit to its implementation?
• Community Outreach and Involvement (with special attention to diversity and inclusion)— How effective
will this process be at providing the community as a whole (including English language learners and
hard-to-reach families) with a meaningful opportunity to learn about the process and have their views
and voices heard on the framing of the problem and the solutions proposed?
• Have you taken advantage of technical assistance provided by the WVDE Office of Early Learning for
these areas of work?
• What type(s) of assistance would be most helpful going forward?
»» Webinars
»» Phone consultations
»» Publications/resource guides
»» Peer learning opportunities
»» Face-to-face meetings
»» Online community
• Does the plan propose:
»» One or more “out-of-the-box” but replicable solutions?
»» Especially energizing ideas, new formulations or more compelling re-framing?
»» Creative ways to align and/or integrate different programs and interventions?
»» New approaches to braiding and blending resources and funding streams?
»» Promising models for deploying and using technology?
The next pages will guide your team through the process of examining the extent to which components of
the campaign are currently in place in the community, as well as identify areas where challenges and/or
opportunities exist.
As your team works through this process, create your plan in a Word document. This document will be
submitted as your application for funding of the proposed projects and initiatives.
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
County Plan Part One: Current Status
*All of this information can be gathered from the narratives included in the County Needs Assessment.
Current Data
Provide a data-rich description of the current situation and recent trend lines for (1) school readiness, (2)
grade-level reading (3rd and/or 4th grade), (3) student attendance, (4) extended learning (during/after/
summer learning opportunities), and (5) high school graduation. Where possible, please disaggregate the
data to illuminate the performance of children from low-income families, including race/ethnicity and English
language learners, if available, and to spot outliers, as well as trends and anomalies that could inform the
thinking and work.
Current Services and Supports
Provide an overview of the range of services and supports currently focused on addressing aspects of the
areas listed above. Where possible, it would be helpful to identify where key supports and services are
missing and/or unavailable.
Conclusions
What conclusions have you drawn about the extent to which some, most, or all of the following contribute to
the performance gaps between children from low-income families and their peers?
(Some examples of conclusions may include: too little attention; too little information about what works;
insufficient coordination among the key stakeholders and actors; inadequate resources; ineffective use
of available resources; insufficient access to otherwise available resources; or mismatch between the
interventions and the needs.)
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
County Plan Part Two: Desired Goals and Impact
Identify what your county has set as ambitious but achievable goals, targets, and milestones for school years
up to and including 2020. Provide a detailed vision for where your county will be for school readiness, third
grade reading proficiency, student attendance, and extended learning.
As you determine your desired outcomes and impact, consider these guiding questions:
• Have we established a baseline number and percentage of low-income children who are reading at the
proficient level by the end of third grade?
• Is there widespread knowledge of the problems we face related to grade-level reading proficiency in
our county?
• Have we established baseline numbers and percentages of low-income children who are:
»» reading at the proficient level by the end of third grade?
»» ready for early learning programs as defined by the Ready, Set, Go, WV?
»» chronically absent from school in kindergarten? First grade? Second grade? Third grade?
(Missing 10 percent or more days per year)
»» experiencing summer learning loss in reading in grades K-3rd?
»» not receiving extended learning opportunities during the regular school year?
• Have we disaggregated our data by race, ethnicity, gender, and zip code and have detailed information
on where the greatest needs exist? If so, what are the key findings based on this data?
• What are our current priorities in terms of targeting particular subpopulations, schools and/or
neighborhoods?
• How might this plan support the School Improvement Plans for individual schools in regards to closing
the reading achievement gap?
• What are our needs in regards to ongoing teacher professional learning supports to ensure high quality
instruction?
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
County Plan Part Three: Strategy
Outline the set(s) of coordinated activities, programs, and initiatives designed to respond to each of the core
challenges (readiness, attendance, summer learning loss, and grade-level reading) and indicate the extent to
which the efforts focus on:
• Strengthening, expanding, scaling, and coordinating existing programs and interventions;
• Importing, replicating, and adapting promising practices and model programs from outside the county;
and
• Developing and inventing new and innovative approaches.
Remember: All activities, programs, and initiatives are to be based on your county’s data collected in the
Needs Assessment.
As you determine your strategy, consider these guiding questions and examples:
• Which school readiness strategies will we utilize?
»» Home visiting and other programs that offer messages, tools, and supports to help parents
and caregivers succeed in promoting early language and literacy and healthy on-track child
development
»» Universal comprehensive health, social-emotional and developmental screening with appropriate
follow-up, intervention and supports
»» Community-wide efforts to create language-rich and book-rich environments for children before
they start school to help them build vocabulary
»» Policy supports, resources, and programs to improve availability of and access to high-quality
early care and learning opportunities for children across a variety of programs and settings
• Which school attendance strategies will we utilize?
»» Community-wide attendance awareness campaigns to help parents understand and own the
importance of good attendance and find out about supports that address barriers to getting to
school
»» School-level messaging, modeling, and incentives to nurture a culture and cultivate the habits of
excellent attendance
»» Positive early outreach starting at the beginning of the school year to prevent chronic absence
»» Cross-sector coordination to identify and ameliorate the health challenges that are the major
contributors to chronic absence
»» Home visiting to help strengthen the parent/teacher relationship
»» Broader, ongoing efforts to build early warning and rapid response systems to reduce and prevent
chronic absence across schools
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
• Which summer learning strategies will we utilize?
»» Community-wide messaging about the importance of summer learning, including parents and
caregivers reading to and with their children over the summer months, and about programs,
services, and opportunities that are available
»» Summer reading campaigns to encourage children to read over the summer and to increase
access to books
»» County and community partner integration of early literacy skill development within high-quality
summer programs of all types
»» Cross-sector coordination to ensure access to summer meals, physical activities, and health and
nutrition information in a variety of settings
• Which parent engagement strategies will we utilize to help parents achieve success?
»» Promote and track early childhood developmental milestones and recognize early warning signs of
potential developmental delays
»» Provide their children a wide range of age-appropriate books and reading materials in the home
and in the community
»» Close the word gap by talking, singing, and reading to their children
»» Engage in nurturing and responsive interactions with their young children
»» Build the trusting relationships that will allow partnering with providers and teachers to co-produce
good outcomes (attendance, academic performance and behavior) for their children
»» Access and engage their children in summer activities and summer programs that match up with
their children’s academic needs
• Which strategies will we utilize for healthy readers?
»» Access to high-quality prenatal care, adequate nutrition, and home visiting programs for lowincome mothers to reduce high-risk for poor birth outcomes, social-emotional, and developmental
screening, follow-up and support
»» Partnerships to provide low-income children with vision, hearing, and oral health care services
»» “Healthy homes” programs to address environmental hazards in homes and communities that lead
to elevated blood lead levels, childhood injuries, and triggers for asthma and other respiratory
illnesses
»» Summer nutrition programs that reach more children and serve as community anchors for literacy
enhancement and physical activity
• Which strategies will we utilize to improve high-quality instructional practices?
»» Provide access to literacy specific professional learning opportunities for instructional leaders,
coaches, and teachers
»» Track progress of students using authentic evidence gathered during the formative assessment
process
»» Provide research-based interventions to accelerate student learning
»» Increase summer learning opportunities that encourage children to read over the summer
»» Design learning opportunities that honor the whole child and meet individual student needs
»» Craft instruction using Next General Content Standards and Objectives
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
County Plan Part Four: Data
Explain the steps that will be taken to ensure ongoing availability of and access to the data needed to set
baselines, track progress and ensure accountability. It would help to provide specifics on the following:
• From whom do we obtain pertinent data?
• Where can we go to access data?
• What understandings have been reached and what agreements have been made to ensure ongoing
access to needed data?
As you determine your potential to ensure ongoing availability of, and access to, the data needed to set
baselines, track progress and ensure accountability, consider these guiding questions:
• Do we monitor data regularly and use it actively to guide implementation and track progress?
• Do we have data-sharing agreements in place with all the necessary agencies? (Public health, Local
government, Other)
• What will we use to gather relevant data on key campaign indicators?
• Which of the following indicators (or others) will we track?
Readiness
Percent of children from low-income families in accredited child-care settings, including publicly
funded programs, Head Start and home-based providers
Percent of children from low-income families ages Birth–5 whose families read to them three days or
more per week
Percent of children from low-income families ages Birth–5 whose families talk or sing to them every
day
Percent of children from low-income families ages Birth–5 who receive a developmental screening
Percent of low-income parents participating in home visiting programs
Attendance
Percent of PreK–3 students from low-income families who are chronically absent
Percent of students from low-income families in publicly funded pre-K and Head Start who are
chronically absent
Summer/Extended Learning Opportunities
Percent of children from low-income families who participate in PreK high-quality summer/extended
learning opportunities that include a literacy or pre-literacy component
Percent of children from low-income families who participate in a summer/extended learning reading
program
Percent of children from low-income families who participate in summer meals programs
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
Grade-Level Reading
Percent of third graders reading on grade level
Percent of second graders reading on grade level
Percent of first graders reading on grade level
Percent of kindergartners reading on grade level
Additional Indicators
Number of hours of professional learning opportunities for teachers specific to reading and/or literacy
Availability of books to children and families
Quality and quantity of books in school and community libraries
Percent of children eligible for free and reduced price lunch
High school graduation rate
Percent of kids in full-day kindergarten
Total investment in grade-level reading
• Which indicators will be most challenging to track?
• Will we share relevant data with parents and the community about key campaign indicators? If so,
how?
• Is there shared accountability across our community for making progress on school readiness, school
attendance, summer learning, and grade-level reading by 2020?
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
County Plan Part Five: Success and Sustainability
Explain the steps that will be taken to ensure confidence that this effort will have the broad-based support,
capacity, and resources to succeed and endure. Considerations include:
• Mobilizing key stakeholders and important constituencies;
• Identifying the venues and forums for conversation, ongoing joint planning, tracking progress/making
improvements, and collective action; and
• New and re-directed public, private, and philanthropic dollars as well as dedicated citizen service and
volunteer contributions.
As you determine your potential for success and sustainability, consider these guiding questions:
• Does our County Leaders of Literacy Team view the campaign as a top priority and have the capacities
needed for this leadership role?
• Is there a solid core of partners that will take the lead in managing strategy implementation and will
perform effectively in their roles?
• What key organizations will be consistently involved in our County Campaign for Grade-Level Reading?
»» Businesses
»» Mayor’s Office or Other Political Leader
»» Chamber of Commerce
»» Media
»» Community Foundations
»» Museums
»» Community Program Providers
»» Faith-Based Organizations
»» Parents as Mentors
»» Philanthropic Organizations
»» Public/Private Health Partner(s)
»» Save the Children
»» Higher Education
»» County Library
»» United Way
»» Literacy Coalition
»» YMCA
»» Others
• How will we secure funding to support the infrastructure and management of our campaign?
• How will we engage parents and caregivers in our campaign?
»» They will be members of our County Leaders of Literacy Team and/or subcommittees
»» Surveys and/or focus groups of parents/caregivers will inform our work
»» Parents/caregivers will be co-designers (from the very beginning of any activity) of our work
»» Every campaign goal or strategy will have an explicit focus on parents/caregivers
• How will we identify and become affiliated with one or more change initiatives underway in our
community? (Community Schools, United Way, School Improvement, PBIS, Family Resource Network,
etc.)
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Step 3
West Virginia County Action Plan
• What evidence of support will we need for our campaign from elected officials and civic leaders?
• How will we mobilize volunteers to support the goals of the campaign?
»» Tutoring
»» Mentoring Reading
»» Offering targeted outreach and supports using academic and attendance indicators
»» Data analysis
»» Family engagement and education
»» Classroom support
»» Advocacy
»» Fundraising
»» Contributing to school readiness
»» Contributing to summer learning
»» Contributing to school attendance
»» Other
• Which community partner(s) do we need the most help engaging?
• What benefits do we anticipate from connecting our campaign to other change initiatives?
• What challenges do we anticipate from connecting our campaign to other change initiatives?
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