Courtney Shirk

Courtney shared some wonderful student achievement data today. She recently administered Curriculum-Based Measures (CBMs), which assess the number of words read correctly per minute. Typical yearly growth at her grade level is 30–40 words per minute; however, 12 out of 20 students exceeded 40 words per minute in growth this year. The expected end-of-year range is typically 80–100 words per minute, and one student reached an impressive 176 words per minute.

When reflecting on the factors contributing to these gains, Courtney noted several key influences. Early in the year, families stepped up to support reading practice at home using materials she provided. She also attributed growth to the implementation of the new curriculum, Wit & Wisdom. Courtney feels the rigor and quality of the texts students are exposed to have had a strong positive impact. While many students cannot yet independently access all of the texts, they are able to engage successfully with partners and during whole-group instruction.

Courtney also continued her explicit instruction in phonological awareness and phonics while adding a stronger writing component this year, which she believes played a significant role in student growth. In addition, she intentionally focused on comprehension and student engagement across output tasks. Her comprehension data reflected notable improvement as well. At the beginning of the year, 19% of students fell into the high-risk category; by the end of the year, that number decreased to just 5%. The some-risk and low-risk categories increased from 19% to 25%, and the high-performing category grew from 43% to 45%. Courtney noted that this category typically remains stable or even declines slightly, so seeing growth was especially encouraging.

For the final writing task of the year, students completed an entirely independent paragraph in order to demonstrate the transfer of skills from teacher-guided practice. The prompt focused on the digestive system. All but one student successfully responded to the prompt, and the class average was an impressive 84%.

Courtney expressed excitement and pride in the growth her students demonstrated this year. She also shared that she has greatly enjoyed and benefited from the coaching process and intends to continue carrying forward the goals and practices she focused on throughout the year.