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Math and Reading Remediation Coming to Richmond Public Schools

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by James C. Sherlock

I spent the past couple of days writing about thousands of human tragedies playing out in Richmond Pubic Schools (RPS), their complexity and the large bureaucracy responsible for fixing it.  

Half of the Black kids in fourth grade in RPS schools could not read in 2018-19.  Nine year olds. Half could not multiply. Discipline problems were severe. Ten percent of black RPS middle schoolers who started school in the fall of 2018 were arrested for in-school violations of the law. Large numbers of kids, 13% on the average day, were absent. Now two school years interrupted by COVID.

Someone has to start somewhere. RPS is starting with a program to mitigate deficient student reading and math skills.

In Virginia, as in all states, the syllabus calls for children to learn to read in K-3 and then read to learn for the rest of their lives.  

In math, that same syllabus requires them to learn to multiply by the end of the third grade. Multiplication is fundamental to the math syllabus for the rest of their time in school.

I simply cannot imagine how illiterate and innumerate children experience school. Now ask yourselves why are they truant. Why they get into trouble in school? Why they drop out?

The 4th graders from 2018-2019 will be entering 7th grade in the fall after two years of COVID-interrupted instruction. How is that going to work out for them?

I have been communicating personally for about six months with Jason Kamras, RPS Superintendent. The subjects have been remediation of COVID learning losses and literacy and math intervention. We discussed the possibility of year-round school and the outstanding progress shown by Mississippi schools in mitigation of historic reading shortfalls among their schoolchildren.

He is committed to both paths.

The math and reading intervention programs are underway. He introduced me to a very impressive woman, Autumn Nabors, Ed.D, his Director of Curriculum and Instruction. I interviewed her for this column.

RPS is funding administrators and teachers to get additional (online) credentials as Reading Specialists from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia. There will be two positions eventually filled at each elementary and middle school:  a Literacy Coach and a Reading Interventionist. 

The Literacy Coach will work with the teachers to support their classroom skills,  The Reading Interventionist will work with small groups of students to teach them to read at grade level. This program will extend from kindergarten through middle school.

To quote Ms. Nabors:

“We are developing a PreK-12 Literacy Plan to create a vibrant culture of literacy that cultivates a joy for reading, writing, and learning and inspires parents and teachers to contribute to and participate in the overall success of our students. The mission will for all RPS students to be reading on grade-level in 3rd grade and all RPS graduates to have the reading, writing, and communication skills to be college, civic, and career-ready.”

VCU had an RPS cohort that just finished for the Reading Specialist degree and UVA has a cohort that will finish next summer and we are starting another cohort this fall. The Reading Specialist degree will be a requirement for all of our Literacy Coaches and it is preferred with our Reading Interventionists.

The new math Coach and Interventionist programs are similar. Each elementary and middle school will have one of each for math and one each for literacy.

The qualifications for the jobs are tough. From a current RPS job advertisement:

“POSITION TITLE: Academic Interventionist – Elementary QUALIFICATIONS: Must have a postgraduate professional license with a degree in elementary education or other content specific area (i.e. reading or mathematics) and a minimum of three years successful teaching experience. Reading or mathematics specialist licensure or equivalent coursework and bilingual skills to include Spanish are preferred.”

Now this program, like every other in RPS, must convince the rest of the bureaucracy, the principals, the parents and the kids that it is worth doing. The parents will have to make sure their kids show up, behave themselves and do the work.

If the programs make converts, the in school headwinds are a hurricane. The current levels of academic achievement for thousands of RPS kids are far below grade level. Discipline is a huge problem and truancy an epidemic.

But we cannot but wish Ms. Nabors and her intervention programs success. They are part of the solution if supported. If those programs save even a couple of hundred kids a year from a desolate future they are worth every penny.

RPS is lucky to have Ms. Nabors and administrators like her who are, indeed, starting somewhere.  

Now for the discipline and truancy problems.

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9 responses to “Math and Reading Remediation Coming to Richmond Public Schools”

  1. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    Thanks for this report, Jim. It sounds like Richmond City schools are finally investing their resources in a way that could make a real difference instead of chasing mirages like rejiggering the racial mix of schools. I don’t expect miracles, but, like you, I am hopeful that focusing on the basics can bring about meaningful improvement to the lives of many of Richmond’s children. Who knows, maybe truancy rates and violence will decline in their later years.

    1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      “Now this program, like every other in RPS, must convince the rest of the bureaucracy, the principals, the parents and the kids that it is worth doing.”

      Do you not think the racial mix of schools and teachers will have a bearing on the success of this program – especially the last bit above (where it counts)…?

  2. Kathleen Smith Avatar
    Kathleen Smith

    This is an example of how ending systemic racism should be interpreted. I hope that it succeeds. Unfortunately, we have had almost 35 years of ESSA Title I programs that have not resulted in any real systemic change. Richmond City is correct in their effort but an altruistic outcome would be all students, not 200. I have no answers but know that 200 kids lives is worth the effort. Maybe accepting that is the problem, why accept correcting a few when all are at risk.

    My point here is this:

    If we want to level the playing field, it begins here, with exactly the same goal, educating children across all divides including race AND poverty. We have been attempting this for years with some -but mostly- limited impact. Wherein lies the problem? Too little, too late? I don’t know the answer but I do think it is time to change the approach.

    What good is hiring medical equity officers, governor’s equity chiefs, education equity specialists, agricultural equity specialists, environmental equity directors, and the list goes on, if we can’t fix and haven’t been able to fix the problem that Richmond City Schools is tackling. If we need an equity think tank – this is the reason.

    Has Richmond been limited in their solution by how Title I is designed, or how the state determines accountability, or by the number of teachers per pupil, or by limited pre school program for the poor, or by limited parenting skills of those not at-risk, but already identified as risked, or by lead contamination, or………….

    I applaud their effort. What was it that Einstein is noted as saying- or something similar: Keep going to the same solution when it fails every time is insane?

  3. Steve Gillispie Avatar
    Steve Gillispie

    Excellent post but dangerously optimistic.

    Truancy and violence won’t decline until there are consequences for student and parents and black leaders and the media grasp and have the courage to trumpet that inner city black culture is broken..

    And then there is teacher competence and the teacher’s unions to make a sea change.

    And then there is the pernicious practice of pushing kids on in later years who are not qualified for the next level.

    And then there is the dumbing down of courses and tests so incompetent kids won’t appear incompetent and bad teaching won’t be exposed.

    It is a very broken system.

    1. JAMES Avatar
      JAMES

      I have not only acknowledged that, but written what I think is the definitive assessment of the problems. In other words, I am RPS’ worst public critic.

      But Chicken Little I am not. They are trying to do something, and that is better than trying to do nothing.

  4. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    Ms. Nabors strategy of achieving on grade reading levels by 3rd grade will bear lasting fruit. It is a noble and I think achievable goal. But she cannot do it alone. A system wide commitment is needed.

  5. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    I applaud the effort by Kamras to put reading and math specialists in each school. However, I have reservations about having those specialists trained at VCU and UVa. To project how successful these specialists might be, we need to look at the way that VCU and UVa approach the teaching of reading. If it is the same way that they have been using in the past, this effort is doomed to achieve little. You mentioned the progress made by Mississippi. The key to that state’s success is adopting their method of teaching reading to reflect what research has shown is the best method: phonics. Most schools of education do not teach that. https://tnscore.org/knowing-better-doing-better-mississippis-story-in-literacy-success/

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      An excellent point, sir.

    2. JAMES Avatar
      JAMES

      I agree with you, but the fields are not all barren.

      I now have a member of the NAACP engaged. In my experience, members tend to be very smart. He has asked specifically about teaching methods. The right questions.

      He favors phonics in reading and drills (multiplication tables) in early math. We may be getting somewhere.

      I have asked Ms. Nabors to answer his questions. I will report what she responds.

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