In this week’s second installment of the district’s “Superintendent Spotlight” video, Superintendent Anthony Soto speaks with Executive Director of Academics Rebecca Thompson and Associate Director of Early Literacy Caitlyn Rosazza about successes HPS students are seeing thanks to the district’s on-going focus on early literacy as well as recent grant-funded literacy initiatives.
“By focusing on early literacy, we are able to ensure our youngest learners in PreK to grade 3 are equipped with the skills needed to be successful readers,” Ms. Thompson said. “We definitely want to see all our students reading at grade level by the time they hit third grade, when we make that shift from learning to read to reading to learn.”
HPS is wrapping up year three of the district’s Early Literacy Strategic Plan with an eye on additional resources and program enhancements made possible through to two recent grant funders:
The Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, which awarded a $282,500 grant to Holyoke Public Schools in October 2024 to support Ignite Reading, a pilot program providing high-dosage tutoring for students at four of the district’s six elementary schools.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which awarded $20,598 to HPS through the Partnership for Reading Success in Massachusetts (PRISM) program in January. This grant is being used to launch a literacy leadership team of classroom teachers, special educators, English language development teachers, school leaders, and community PreK partners who will use their diverse range of perspectives and voices to create an action plan to further support early literacy for students in grades PreK-3.
“Ignite Reading offers high dosage tutoring by providing 15-minute, 1:1 sessions daily with a highly trained reading tutor,” Ms. Rosazza explained. “In each session, students receive differentiated, explicit instruction in foundational skills and have numerous opportunities for practice. This has filled an additional need to provide that ‘just-in-time’ intervention, specifically at grade 1 to grade 2.”
In addition, Ms. Rosazza noted that the PRISM grant funding will allow HPS to extend early literacy initiatives for PreK and kindergarten students, ultimately expanding to third grade and beyond.
The district’s efforts over the past three years have paid off, both in terms of student achievement data and in how younger students see themselves.
“In walking classrooms, we are seeing students who are saying, ‘I’m a reader. I am a reader.’ That just feels really great, and everyone should feel proud that we are moving in this direction, because this is just so incredibly important,” Ms. Thompson said.
“We’ve really leaned into the science of reading and have been able to provide our leaders, our expert teachers, our classroom teachers, our interventionists, our English language development teachers, and our special educators with training around the science of reading,” Ms. Thompson said, noting there is now much more alignment in teaching approaches across the grade levels, including in the Dual Language program.
Superintendent Soto credited the combined efforts of the Academics team, the district’s literacy partners—and especially the district’s K-2 teachers—over the past three years for improving literacy for students “so that when they get to third grade, and they get to fourth grade, and they get to seventh grade, they feel more confident and they are engaged in their learning. I am really excited about the long-term impacts of this work.”