The Story:

 

As evidenced in the data from Mastery of Knowledge and Skills claim 1, our students have demonstrated a remarkably high level of reading and writing skills for many years. While math scores have been above state and District average, it was our reading and writing scores that led the charge. However, for us at REALMS, Mastery of Knowledge and Skills has always been about more than just test scores. Our students’ ability to employ high-level literacy and math skills in the service of completing meaningful work matters most. As we look at the work that students at REALMS complete, we are always impressed with their ability to tackle complex texts and complete high level writing tasks.

We have a strong “reading culture” at REALMS and we were excited to see how the Common Core State Standards emphasized deeper, more challenging and more active reading for students, and not just in their Language Arts classes. Our staff jumped into the Common Core standards with gusto, lead by two of our teachers who worked on the development of EL’s Engage NY curriculum. We spent time as a staff really getting to know the “heart of the standards” and weaving these standards throughout the grades and throughout the content areas. Everyone got on board to become teachers of reading and writing. The result of this is student work that shows evidence of exceptionally strong literacy skills.