Fulton County Schools (FCS) is committed to combating learning loss due to the pandemic by prioritizing literacy skills, and making a transformational, multi-year investment to ensure that 95% of all FCS students are reading at or above grade level. To date, the district has invested 3.2 million dollars in the “Every Child Reads” initiative under its three-year federally funded plan called “Bridge to Success.”
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 35% of US students are reading proficiently or better, and only 51% of higher education teaching preparation programs include the science of reading. Because of this FCS District leaders believe a key component to the success of the “Every Child Reads” initiative is the LETRS® professional training program. LETRS®, which stands for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, is a flexible professional training program that helps educators and administrators gain deep knowledge to become literacy and language experts in the science of reading.
LETRS teaches the skills needed to master the 5 essential fundamentals of literacy and reading instruction which include: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. According to Amy Barger, FCS Assistant Superintendent of Learning and Teaching, post pandemic research has shown the greatest learning loss for reading occurred in the early years in kindergarten through 2nd grade, and while many students learned remotely during the pandemic without the benefit of direct instruction from teachers, they lost out on vital reading instruction related to phonemic awareness and phonics. Barger further says “the LETRS curriculum is important for teachers because it ensures that teachers understand the best practices for teaching phonemic awareness and phonics and can then help ensure that teachers understand any reading gaps that students might have and close them as students have come back to school in grades one, two, three, and four.”
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