Districts, schools, and teachers are being held accountable for year-to-year growth in a time of ever-changing assessments. As you prepare for assessments for next spring, now is the time to explore effective schoolwide strategies for improving student achievement! Join ThinkCERCA’s Director of Professional Learning and School Design and former Boston Public Schools district leader, Kavita Venkatesh, Ph.D., to learn how to win big on assessments using a simple, schoolwide approach to literacy instruction. You will leave with five strategies for rolling out a comprehensive literacy program for ALL learners to assist in closing the achievement gap in your school and district.

• Common Language - Develop a shared language for talking about schoolwide literacy instruction.
• Collaboration - Teach literacy skills across subjects so teams can actually talk about kids, not just data.
• Rigorous Instruction - Design rigorous tasks and questions that reinforce close reading and argumentative writing to improve learning, not just prove learning.
• Personalization - Differentiate instruction using authentic and engaging informational texts.
• Argumentation - Encourage peer-to-peer discussion and debate among students.