It really does take an entire village

When it comes to achieving students’ literacy and math goals, everyone has a role to play: teachers, principals, families, Community School Coordinators (CSC), community partners, aides, school staff, community members–you get the picture. Everyone means everyone. But all too often we don’t take the opportunity to engage a wide range of people in understanding and helping us achieve our academic goals. 

Let’s be real. Since the Covid shutdowns, reading and math scores across California have stalled or dipped, even with increased tutoring, better attendance tracking, expanded partnerships, and stronger belonging systems. Yes, those things matter and they help remove barriers and add support. And while these things are really important, they do not equate to skills gained.

There’s a myth we need to let go of with regard to anyone outside of the classroom: “I’m not a teacher–let alone a reading or math specialist–so I can’t directly impact academic growth.” Actually you can, you already do, and you can do even more with a few simple strategies.

When I taught in Oakland, our entire community embraced our literacy and math goals including teachers, families, big siblings and cousins, cafeteria staff, after-school partners, neighbors, and more. Our principal made it clear that if we want to change the trajectory of students in our zip code, we need to work differently under a shared set of values. This vision was held by all school staff and shared regularly at all the community events and with each child and family during conferences and updates were shared during brief encounters at pickup at drop off. And guess what?! Students’ scores improved. Not just a little – scores improved dramatically. The village embraced the schoolwide call to step up and support students to become the first generation in their families to attend college and embraced the role they could each play in literacy and math skill attainment, and students reaped the rewards of the collective effort.

Sounds good, right? Well, here’s what it looked like in practice:

• Everyone aligned behind the same vision: in order to make real achievement gains, reading and math need to be a daily, community-wide practice that lives beyond the classroom walls.
• Families received math fact practice games during teacher home visits or from family workshops. This helped make math practice fun, and an activity that the whole family participated in.
• Parents read with their students and used bookmarks with question stems to talk with kids about what they were reading. Reading together is a proven strategy to support literacy and the bookmarks provided an easy way for parents and students to talk about the books together.
• Cafeteria staff used weekly high-frequency words as the “password” for kindergarteners to receive their lunch. Repeating high-frequency words helps yield attainment and the use of a “password” made it fun for kindergarteners and school staff alike.
• Community partners came in for read-alouds, reading challenges, and math fact celebrations. They showcased how they use those skills in their daily lives.
• Students tracked visible progress toward their goals, talked about their “just right goals”, and celebrated growth for themselves and their classmates.

And here’s what I want to empower you with today:

• Use your relationships as instructional opportunities. You don’t need a lesson plan. You need curiosity, consistency, and encouragement to find authentic opportunities to highlight where literacy and math fit into real life in your village.
• Choose one literacy or math routine you can fold into your existing role (example: use vocabulary words in hallway greetings, host a 2-minute math fact challenge, ask students what they’re reading). Teachers can be terrific thought partners since they know what their students are working on.
• Does your school have established math and literacy goals for students across grade levels? If not, you may want to start there, aligning school staff and teams around goals first, and then connecting other interest holders in.
• If your school has established goals, ask students about their literacy and math goals and what they are working on to reach those goals. Encourage them! You might ask or say, “What word are you practicing this week?” Or, “congrats on completing your reading log!” “What math fact are you working on this week?”
• Adopt the mindset that academic growth is everyone’s lane. Shared ownership is how our students’ trajectories can truly change.

Students are at the heart of community school development, and as the CS Essentials Framework (we affectionately refer to it as “The Wheel”) reminds us, this work is everyone’s work. Community School Coordinators make this possible and are uniquely positioned to help an entire school wrap its arms around literacy and math growth. To put it simply, this is not extra work but rather this is the village’s work. 

It’s time to stop siloing and start collectively owning our goals as the village that holds the power of our students’ futures. Because it really does take a village to reach our literacy and math goals! A village is powerful because every single person counts. And yes, that includes YOU!

by Emily Grossberg

Emily Grossberg brings over 20 years of experience in education to CSLX. She began her career teaching elementary school in East San Jose and East Oakland, later moving to San Francisco to serve as an instructional coach and school administrator. After becoming a mother, Emily shifted her focus to mentoring new educators as a consultant, trainer, and NYU residency director. Alongside her work as a CSLX coach, she continues to consult independently. Emily lives in San Francisco with her husband and their two children, and enjoys outdoor adventures and spending time with family and friends.