Clark County School District
Striving Reading Manifesto
General All-encompassing Beliefs:
We believe that:
1. All children deserve high-quality literacy instruction.
2. A shared and consistent expectation for Tier I literacy instruction and
accountability among teachers and administrators is critical to a culture of
learning.
3. Effective intervention is timely, targeted, and closely tied to classroom
instruction.
4. Collaborative problem-solving and data-based decision making, aligned
within an RTI framework, will enable teachers to intervene and improve
student outcomes.
5. A vertical alignment of tiered literacy instruction birth through grade 12 is
critical to success.
6. Improving our children’s literacy outcomes is a shared responsibility
between schools, communities, and families.
7. Library collaboration is a critical component of a comprehensive literacy
plan.
8. Ongoing job-embedded professional development drives change for
teachers, coaches and administrators.
9. In order for systemic change to occur, SRCL staff must be given the tools
and district support to work with school staff that are resistant to change.
CPD Literacy Services, 6/2012
10.The CCSD Striving Readers definition of literacy needs to be shared with all
stakeholders to clarify expectations for coaching.
SRCL Planks: Key Foci
1. COMPREHENSIVE LITERACY
We will strive to:
 Deliver comprehensive literacy through consistent implementation of a
CCSS, the Nevada Pre-K Standards, and the Nevada Information Library
Standards.
 Facilitate learning across all content areas of curriculum.
 Facilitate learning within the homes of Striving Readers’ children.
 Meet the needs of all students through a multi-tiered system of support.
 Employ purposeful conversations about high-quality instruction at every
grade level that leads to improved literacy instruction (Pre-K through 12).
2. DATA-BASED DECISION-MAKING
We will strive to:
 Help schools implement a sustainable system for collecting and analyzing
multiple types of data for decision-making and instructional planning.
 Effectively train all participants of the Striving Readers Data-Based DecisionMaking Teams on best practices for data based decision-making.
 Provide clear methods of documentation in order to establish systems of
solid accountability.
 Monitor each school’s data-based decision-making process.
3. COMPREHENSIVE COACHING AND ONGOING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
We will strive to:
CPD Literacy Services, 6/2012
 Deliver professional development based on research-based literacy
strategies aligned with Nevada Pre-K Content Standards and Early Learning
Guidelines, Nevada Information Literacy Standards, and the Common Core
State Standards.
 Support Striving Readers schools with professional development on
assessments, interventions, and data-based decision-making.
 Provide coaching that is differentiated to meet the specific needs of
teachers.
 Use a variety of coaching techniques.
4. INTERVENTION AND ENRICHMENT
We will strive to:
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Identify students in need of additional instruction.
Establish procedures for delivery of intervention and/or enrichment.
Provide necessary intervention materials and resources.
Ensure consistent assessments are given and used to drive instruction.
5. COLLABORATION AND SCHOOL/COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
We will strive to:
 Facilitate collaboration among CCSD Striving Readers participants, Nevada
Department of Education, libraries, community-based preschools,
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, University of Nevada Las
Vegas, and Vegas PBS.
6. INTENTIONAL USE OF TECHNOLOGY
We will strive to:
 Facilitate the use of state of the art technology in every layer of the Striving
Readers initiative for the purposes of networking and communicating,
reporting, instructing, and monitoring.
CPD Literacy Services, 6/2012