The Cleveland Literacy System
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The Cleveland
Literacy System
A Comprehensive Approach
to Changing Instructional Practice
in the Cleveland Municipal Schools
Helen W. Williams, Ph.D.
Paper Prepared for:
The Aspen Institute Program on Education
Urban Superintendents' Retreat
“Linking Assessment and Instruction”
June 10-12, 2005
With the Support of:
This paper was prepared for the June 2005 meeting of the Urban Superintendent Network of the
Aspen Institute Program on Education with support from the Stupski Foundation.
The Aspen Institute and The
Program on Education and Society
The mission of the Aspen Institute is to foster
enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless
ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues. Through seminars, policy
programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, the institute and its international
partners seek to promote the pursuit of common ground and deeper understanding in a nonpartisan
and non-ideological setting.
The Aspen Institute's Education and Society Program provides a consistently neutral forum for
education practitioners, researchers and policy leaders to engage in focused dialogue regarding their
efforts to improve student achievement, and to consider how public policy changes can affect
progress. In addition to its core policy work, the Program has developed a variety of new networks
and intellectual frameworks for state and district policymakers for transforming high school. The
Program has also served as a resource on high school reform for groups such as the National
Governors Association, National Council of State Legislators, and Chief State School Officers. The
Program's most notable contribution lies in its ability to provide education and policy leaders with
new perspectives and new ideas that they can act upon.
The Stupski Foundation
The Stupski Foundation was established in 1996 as a non-
profit operating foundation to help ensure all children in
America, regardless of race or income, have access to a high-
quality public education. The Foundation believes that its most effective contribution to education
reform will be through support at the district level, providing expert resources and financial
investment in district partnerships. Resource teams include former superintendents, educational
leaders, and consultants who have led successful district reform initiatives, as well as organizational
development and data analysis and systems experts.
The Stupski Foundation and its partners believe fundamentally that all students can succeed and that
no student can be allowed to fail. Working together with district leadership, the foundation builds
district capacity to address root causes of failure and low performance, such as low expectations for
students and adults, skepticism about failed reform efforts, and institutionalized racism. The Stupski
Foundation acts as a trusted advisor, coach and investor to help create a culture for systems change
through a courageous and honest collaboration and a shared commitment to reform.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Background: Setting the Context for CLS
Chapter 3: District Focus: Building System Clarity and Coherence
Chapter 4: Classroom Focus: Aligning Assessment, Curriculum
and Instruction
Chapter 5: One Year Later: Progress and Challenges
Chapter 6: References
Chapter 7: Attachments
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
Acknowledgements
The Cleveland Literacy System
A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
Writer: Helen Williams, Ph.D., Associate Director, Cleveland Initiative for Education*
Researcher/Editor: Karen Herpel, President, Serenity Research Inc.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the following individuals who provided guidance, information,
comments and support.
Russell Brown, Ph.D., Director of Assessment, Cleveland Municipal School District
Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Chief Executive Officer, Cleveland Municipal School District
Myrna Elliot-Lewis, Ed.D., Former Chief Academic Officer, Cleveland Municipal School District
Sue Farkas, ECC.Desktop Project Manager, Cleveland Municipal School District
David Florio, Ph.D., Program Manager, The Stupski Foundation
Rosemary Herpel, Ph.D., Executive Director, Cleveland Initiative for Education
Joyce Hicks, Director of Data Planning, Cleveland Municipal School District
Sharon Valarie Hughes, Reading Project Coordinator, Cleveland Municipal School District
Rebecca Lowry, Ph.D., Chief Academic Officer, Cleveland Municipal School District
Nancy E. Pelz-Paget, Director, Aspen Program on Education
Susan Piper, Ph.D., Project Director, Ohio Department of Education Literacy Grant, Cleveland Municipal
School District
Paulette Poncelet, Ph.D., Director of Research, Cleveland Municipal School District
James E. Ray, Ph.D., Superintendent in Residence, The Stupski Foundation
Cheryl Shelton, Executive Director, Office of Professional Development, Cleveland Municipal School District
Donna Snodgrass, Ph.D., Director of Curriculum and Classroom Assessment, Cleveland Municipal School
District
Bob Schwartz, Director, Education and Management Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education and
Senior Advisor, Aspen Education and Society Program
Audrey Staton-Thompson, Manager, English Language Arts, Cleveland Municipal School District
Judy Wurtzel, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute Education and Society Program
*The Cleveland Initiative for Education (CIE), a non-profit organization, provides strategic support in the areas of literacy,
leadership development and school-business partnerships to the Cleveland Municipal School District. Local and national
philanthropic organizations fund the work of CIE.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
1 Introduction
“Our nation has a moral imperative to close the achievement gap between low-income students
and their more advantaged peers. The No Child Left Behind Act makes this a legal requirement
as well. Yet improving learning opportunities for all children will require more than individual
talents or school-by-school efforts. It will demand system-wide approaches that touch every
child in every school in every district across the nation.”
(Beyond Islands of Excellence: What Districts Can Do to Improve Instruction and Achievement in All
Schools, Togneri and Anderson, 2003, p. 1)
By every measure, the Cleveland Municipal School District has made steady progress since 1998.
In that year a significant change in school governance resulted in a new school board, appointed by
the mayor, and the selection of Barbara Byrd-Bennett as Chief Executive Officer. The CEO's stable
and focused leadership has resulted in increases in attendance, graduation rates and test scores,
particularly in the area of literacy.
Eighteen months ago, CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, in partnership with the Stupski Foundation,
began to examine how to build upon and accelerate this rate of progress. In April 2004, the District
launched a multi-year effort to systematically develop, introduce and implement the Cleveland
Literacy System (CLS). The primary goal of CLS is to ensure that all students are successful in a
rigorous literacy curriculum. The primary target is to build instructional capacity at the district,
school and classroom levels - resulting in a comprehensive and focused effort to improve teaching
and learning.
The District introduced the Cleveland Literacy System to schools in the beginning of the 2004-
2005 school year. The year one implementation plan operates on two tracks. At the District level,
efforts have focused on building system clarity and coherence. At the classroom level, the
concentration is on aligning assessment, curriculum and instruction starting with grade three.
This paper illustrates how Cleveland has positioned formative assessment, linked to a clearly
specified curriculum, as a core element of its efforts to improve teaching and learning. However,
Cleveland's work on assessment and curriculum is embedded in its Literacy System, the district's
comprehensive approach to improving instruction. Thus, this paper first describes how the Cleveland
Literacy System is attempting to lay the foundation for district-wide instructional improvement and
then examines how the district is using assessment and curriculum as key classroom-level levers for
changing classroom practice and student learning.
The Cleveland Municipal School District is comprised of 124 schools that serve 66,532 students. The
student body is 70.6% African American, 17.7% Caucasian and 9.5% Hispanic. One hundred percent of
the students are economically disadvantaged and 16.3% have a disability. Like other urban districts, CMSD
faces difficult challenges. The state school funding system was declared unconstitutional four times, but
has remained intact, resulting in inequity and financial burdens. This reality, coupled with rising health care
costs and decreases in local property tax revenues, has resulted in a $150 million budget cut leading to
school closures, massive layoffs, a reduction in transportation and the elimination of both academic and
extra curricular activities.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
12 Background: Setting the Context
Ten years ago, the Cleveland Public School District (CPSD) was a system in trouble. On March
3, 1995, U.S. District Judge Robert Krupansky disbanded the Cleveland School Board and instructed
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to assume immediate fiscal and operational
management of the CPSD. Judge Krupansky took this extraordinary action because by every
conceivable measure - educational, financial and organizational - the Cleveland Public School District
was bankrupt.
Only one third of CPSD students enrolled in 8th grade during the 1990-1991 school year graduated
in 1994-1995. Student test scores were among the lowest in the state; just 15% of 4th and 9th graders
passed the 1996-1997 State of Ohio Proficiency Tests. On any given day 20% of students were absent.
In addition, the District's financial situation was out of control. CPSD had accumulated a debt of $152
million and the cost of needed capital improvements was estimated at almost $600 million. District
leadership exemplified a revolving door. The average tenure for superintendents was 20 months and
school board members' average tenure was 2.7 years. Public confidence in the schools was at an all-
time low. In 1995, a public opinion poll indicated that 49% of those surveyed rated the quality of the
schools as poor.
Judge Krupansky's court-ordered state takeover resulted in a three year period of much needed
stability. Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White and the State of Ohio worked together to involve civic,
business and neighborhood leaders to establish and focus on critical District priorities. With assistance
from the corporate community and the State Auditor's Office, District finances were stabilized. While
under state control, the community approved the first operating levy in 26 years. Then, the Ohio
Legislature passed HB 269, mandating a new governance structure for Cleveland schools. As a result,
Mayor White gained control of the school system, and in September 1998, appointed a new school
board. After an extensive search and interviews by a diverse community committee, Barbara Byrd-
Bennett was installed as Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD)
in November 1998.
A. 1998 to Present: A Period of Progress
From the outset, CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett set a clear and strategic direction to improve student
achievement. In 1999, the District adopted a strategic plan, Educating Cleveland's Children (ECC). ECC
established six priorities and their associated action plans: high standards and a strong curriculum; a
committed and effective workforce; quality schools; financial resources, parent and community
engagement and the academic and non-academic needs of students.
ECC set in motion a comprehensive approach to teaching literacy throughout the District. CMSD
was the first district in Ohio to create academic standards for English Language Arts (ELA) in 2002,
followed by the development and implementation of a standards-based report card two years later. It also
updated curriculum materials and introduced a 90 minute literacy block in the elementary schools. ELA
staff developers were placed in every elementary school. The District helped individual schools obtain
grants for specific literacy programs (e.g. Reading First, American Federation of Teachers, etc.). Newly
created departments of research and evaluation, professional development, and technology helped
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
2Background: Setting the Context
teachers access and use student achievement data. CMSD involved parents and the community in this
effort through Family Literacy Nights, the ECC Newsletter and tutoring.
These efforts resulted in significant student gains. From 1998 to 2004 the percentage of fourth
graders passing the state proficiency tests improved from 34.4% to 55.1% in reading, 52.7% to 67.1%
in writing and 38.4% to 53.9% in math. A similar pattern occurred at the 6th grade level: reading scores
improved from 19.5% to 37.9%, writing improved from 62.6% to 78.7% and math scores from 15.3%
to 39.7%. The graduation rate also increased during this same period. By 2004, the District had met
enough state targets to move from the “academic emergency” to the “academic watch” category.
B. The New Challenge: Taking Literacy Deeper
Although these gains were impressive, CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett understood that sustaining and
accelerating this progress, particularly in the context of pending budget cuts, required a more intense
effort to take literacy deeper. Three factors guided her thinking.
• First, the accountability context was changing. The requirements of No Child Left Behind and the
introduction of a revamped state testing system, based on newly adopted standards, meant higher
stakes and higher expectations for students and teachers.
• Second, despite increased test scores, many of the District's students were not proficient in “powerful”
literacy skills. For example, two-thirds of the 9th graders taking the 2004 Ohio Graduation Test made
no attempt to answer any of the open-ended math or science questions. In addition, the graduation rate
still hovered at only 50% and the achievement gap between white, black and Hispanic students
remained significant.
• Third, two external reviews of CMSD's literacy efforts conducted at the request of the CEO,
independently found inconsistent levels of standards implementation and instructional rigor across
schools and within schools. In addition, the reviews reported a lack of connectivity and coherence
between schools. In many cases, teachers used their school's reading program or their basal textbooks
as their primary instructional starting point rather than CMSD's standards.
In response, CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, with the support of the Stupski Foundation, initiated a
multi-faceted planning process to build the Cleveland Literacy System (CLS), a systematic approach
that would ensure greater rigor, consistency and coherence. This resulted in a plan and timetable for
moving forward. Planning for the development and implementation of the literacy system began in
spring 2004. The CEO entered into the first of several year-long agreements with the Stupski Foundation
beginning in July 2004. The Foundation agreed to act as the District's partner in this effort providing
both human and financial resources. In addition, the State of Ohio Department of Education awarded the
District a large state grant to support the work. The work of Stupski and several local, state, and regional
foundations began to focus their support on the implementation of CLS.
The District adopted a multi-year phased in development and implementation schedule. The
implementation plan for 2004-2005 was two tracked. At the District level, efforts focused on building
system clarity and coherence (Chapter 3). At the classroom level, the concentration was on aligning
assessment, curriculum and instruction starting with grade three (Chapter 4).
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
3District Focus: Building
3 System Clarity and Coherence
The research is unequivocal. Teacher quality is the single most important factor in improving
student achievement (Rivers and Sanders, 1996; Marzano, 2003). Therefore, the Cleveland Literacy
System must focus on improving the capacity of every teacher (pre-K to 12) to implement the core
elements of a rigorous, standards-based literacy program. This is particularly problematic for middle
and high school teachers who see themselves as teachers of content, not teachers of literacy. The
question is not what to focus on but how to focus on it.
A. Theory of Action: Focus on School Capacity
CMSD’s theory of action for “how to focus” is adapted from a model (see Figure 1) introduced by
Newmann, King and Youngs (2000). Based on their two-year study of nine urban elementary schools,
the researchers concluded that a solitary emphasis on teacher professional development is insufficient
to systematically improve and sustain instructional quality across all classrooms and schools.
FIGURE 1: School Capacity Model
Schools that demonstrate and maintain rigorous instruction in every classroom have developed a
level of capacity characterized by five critical elements: coherent focus/strategy; instructional
tools/resources; principal leadership; teacher quality and leadership and professional community.
Michael Fullan (2005) describes this concept of ‘school capacity’ as “the collective power of the full
staff to improve student achievement.”
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
4District Focus: Building System Clarity and Coherence
Newmann, King and Youngs strongly suggest that a district’s instructional improvement approach
must include all five school capacity elements. CMSD adopted this comprehensive approach as its
long term process, which includes:
• Coherent Focus and Strategy: Develop a shared view of rigorous literacy learning and teaching
throughout the District. Focus on consistent classroom use of CLS standards and CLS curriculum
model to drive instruction in all classrooms.
• Instructional Tools and Resources: Ensure teachers have the instructional guidelines, assessment,
planning and curriculum materials and access to technology they need to provide equity of opportunity
for all students.
• Principal Leadership: Ensure principals have the knowledge, skills, expertise and dispositions they
need to provide direction, guidance and support for effective implementation of CLS in their buildings.
• Teacher Quality and Leadership: Ensure teachers have the knowledge, skills, expertise and
dispositions they need to plan and execute standards based rigorous literacy instruction using the CLS
curriculum framework.
• Professional Community: Ensure school staff routinely participates in building wide and grade level
collaborative structures and processes to reflect upon and improve their practice.
B. Development of a Common Vision and Framework
To be compelling, the Cleveland Literacy System must be grounded in a well articulated picture
of powerful literacy teaching and learning. This picture needs to become a shared mental model that
informs daily classroom instruction. Therefore, developing a common vision and framework was the
first stage in the development process. In spring 2004, the CEO, in consultation with the Cleveland
Teachers’ Union, convened a team of District teachers and literacy specialists to begin the
development process. They initially focused on three areas: helping teachers make sense of standards;
providing a clear picture of quality instruction and linking CLS to the District’s vision.
Helping Teachers Make Sense of Standards
In the world of standards, teachers are confronted with long and sometimes disconnected lists of
discrete benchmarks and grade level indicators. In Cleveland, teachers were additionally faced with
two sets of very different ELA standards – the District’s original standards and the State’s newly
adopted standards. As a first step, the District recognized that it had to help teachers conceptualize
these two sets of standards in the same way for instructional purposes.
Utilizing well established processes (Ainsworth, 2003, McTighe and Wiggins, 1998) the
development team identified the range and variety of concepts, skills, and levels of thinking
embedded in the state and local benchmarks and grade level indicators, as well as hidden patterns
within and among the standards. In addition, the team identified the important ideas and processes
(i.e. “enduring understandings”) that are central to literacy and that have lasting value beyond the
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
5District Focus: Building System Clarity and Coherence
classroom. These umbrella-like concepts describe what students should remember not only at the end
of the school year, but also thirty years from now. As a final step, the team identified the “essential
questions” related to these broad concepts. These questions became organizers for teaching and
learning as well as a checkpoint to assess students’ learning.
This “deep thinking” about standards and subsequent alignment work is at the core of the
Cleveland Literacy System. It serves as the foundation for all future product development. It provides
teachers with a more articulated picture about what the standards actually mean and what are the
implications for assessment and instruction.
Providing a Clear Picture of Quality Instruction
The CLS instructional framework (see Figure 2) provides teachers with a clear vision of what
instruction should look like. It incorporates and integrates several components with which Cleveland
teachers are already familiar. The framework’s four elements, implemented together, characterize
rigorous standards-based literacy instruction.
FIGURE 2: CLS Framework for Instructional Practice at the Elementary Level
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
LITERACY BLOCK
Assess
90 minute Reading Block
50 Minute Writing Block
Clear Expectations
Accountable Talk
STANDARDS
Te a
an
ch
Pl
Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum
• Revised English Language Arts Standards: The Cleveland Literacy System starts with a revised set
of English Language Arts standards. These standards integrate CMSD’s original ELA standards into
the recently adopted State of Ohio’s ELA standards framework. These revised standards are
completely aligned with the state’s testing system. The ELA standards framework includes:
standards (reading, writing, research and communication), benchmarks (grade band expectations of
progress) and grade level indicators.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
6District Focus: Building System Clarity and Coherence
• Assess-Plan-Teach Model: CLS incorporates the “assess-plan-teach” model advocated by the State.
Teachers are expected to adopt this instructional approach moving from an input to an output model.
Teachers begin with assessment data (i.e. screening, diagnosis, progress monitoring), then decide on
relevant instructional strategies and interventions, followed by appropriate instruction. This model
is iterative, with ongoing assessment constantly informing instruction.
• Literacy Block: CLS instruction relies on a 140 minute literacy block – 90 minutes for reading and
50 minutes for writing. Team members developed a template that integrates key components of
balanced literacy within this block. They use this template to design curriculum units (see
Attachment 1).
• Principles of Learning: Developed by the Institute for Learning (University of Pittsburgh), these
guidelines for organizing learning and instructional environments were introduced to a cohort of
CMSD schools in 2003-2004. These Principles challenge the old assumption that inherited
ability places a ceiling on what a student can learn. CMSD has chosen three of the nine
Principles upon which to focus: Clear Expectations, Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum
and Accountable Talk.
Linking CLS to the District’s Vision
Researchers stress the importance of helping teachers understand the big picture of standards-
based education, particularly connecting this reform to the larger vision of their schools and districts
(McREL, 2000). CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett underscored this concept from the beginning of the
process. She cautioned that CLS needed to be positioned as the next logical step in the District’s
strategic plan. Teachers, students, parents and the community should see CLS as a continuation and
deepening of current work, not as something new. This connection is reinforced in several ways.
Integration into Strategic Plan
First, as part of the CLS planning, CMSD has adopted the following clear and concise definition of
literacy that complements the District’s current vision statement:
“Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, view, listen-and the thinking involved in each of
these abilities. A literate learner is able to derive meaning, reason, create and apply learning in
a variety of contexts and across subject areas.”
In addition, CMSD’s strategic plan has been updated to include the language and action steps
associated with CLS. The Cleveland Municipal School Board adopted this revised plan. District staff
systematically integrates the CLS planning into other strategic documents as well (e.g. State of Ohio
Continuous Improvement Plan).
Focused Communications
As Figure 3 illustrates, District communications consistently emphasize the continuity between
CLS and past efforts. A major priority in 2005-2006 will be communicating with parents and the
community about the Literacy System.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
7District Focus: Building System Clarity and Coherence
FIGURE 3: Excerpt from CLS Teacher’s Resource Notebook
(August 2004)
CLEVELAND LITERACY SYSTEM – WHAT IS IT?
The Cleveland Literacy System (CLS) is not a new program. It is the natural
next step in the work the District has accomplished under the umbrella of
Educating Cleveland’s Children. The Cleveland Literacy System, with its
singular focus on developing student learners who are truly literate, is just
what its name says, a system that encompasses:
– Rigorous standards aligned with the state accountability system;
– Quality curriculum and instruction;
– Consistent tools and materials for principals and teachers in
every school;
– School and District based support capacity;
– Good assessment data that will be used to drive decisions;
– Timely and personal professional learning that’s embedded
in the classroom;
– Interventions when the data and student work tell us that
the learning process is starting to go off course; and
– Timely and effective reporting.
In the Cleveland Literacy System, every school will implement a rigorous,
standards-based literacy program. Everyone-inside and beyond the
District-will share an understanding of rigorous literacy and will agree on
the core elements that should appear in every school’s literacy program.
All will understand the reciprocal responsibility of schools, the central
office, and external resource partners.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
8District Focus: Building System Clarity and Coherence
C. Introduction of the Cleveland Literacy System
Starting at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year, the District mounted a major effort to:
• Build understanding of and support for CLS at all levels of the organization.
• Develop a common vision of rigorous curriculum and instruction.
• Introduce and support classroom use of revised ELA standards, CLS curriculum
framework and CLS planning tools.
This effort involved the design and distribution of CLS orientation and planning material as well as
coordinated professional development at all levels of the organization.
CLS Orientation/Planning Materials
In 2004-2005, the team developed a range of CLS orientation and planning materials to support
the introduction of the Cleveland Literacy System. These include:
• Teachers’ Resource Notebook: Provides an overview of The Cleveland Literacy System, the CLS
implementation plan, the curriculum framework, the core elements that should appear in every
school’s literacy program, instructional guidelines and procedural lessons for implementing the
routines embedded in the literacy block.
• ELA Standards Matrix: Visually organizes the standards, benchmarks and grade level indicators in
a developmental progression for pre-kindergarten through grade 12. This approach allows teachers
to see where they fit into this continuum as well as what students should know and be able to do at
specific times to be on track for graduation.
• ELA Standards at a Glance: Provides a condensed view of all the English Language Arts standards
and indicators for a particular grade for reading, writing, research and communications.
• Pacing Charts: Reading and writing pacing charts for grades pre K – 7 organize the grade level
indicators by quarters, identify the most critical skills and provide a research-based, developmental
framework for determining the appropriate timing of instruction.
School Focused Professional Development
CMSD adopted a comprehensive “train-the-trainer” program to build understanding and support
for CLS at the school building level. A network of literacy point people has been identified at every
school. Where the position exists, the ELA professional developer serves this function. In schools
without professional developers, principals designated a school leadership team to coordinate
implementation of the literacy system. The professional development approach includes:
• Integrated Series of CLS Learning Modules: These focus on key aspects of the Cleveland Literacy
System. Topics covered include: overview of CLS, review of CLS planning and instructional tools,
using data to inform instruction, differentiated instruction, and building rigor into the literacy block.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
9District Focus: Building System Clarity and Coherence
• Coordinated Delivery System: Each month, specific learning modules are customized and
introduced to targeted levels of the organization.
– CEO Seminars: Staff and team members meet monthly with principals to provide an overview of
the CLS learning module and to discuss the relationship of its content to improve teaching and
learning. Principals are expected to support their school literacy point people and provide teachers
with direction and opportunity to understand and integrate CLS into classroom practice. The CEO
and principals’ supervisors reinforce these expectations.
– Semi-Monthly ELA Developers/School Leadership Team Sessions: At the first session, they
explore the CLS module in depth. They are expected to take back what they learn to their own
buildings and work with their principals and teachers to integrate the content into classroom
practice. At their second session, the ELA developers/school literacy leadership teams review
student work using Critical Friends protocols, discuss progress, and address challenges.
• School Team Training-Principles of Learning: Teams from 56 schools are being trained by the
Institute for Learning in how to integrate the Principles of Learning into their CLS implementation
using learning walks, peer coaching and study groups. Thirty of the schools are in their second year
of training.
District Leadership Development
CLS implementation efforts also include a series of initiatives aimed at developing understanding
and obtaining support from key district leaders:
• Cadres for Change: This is a new initiative to strengthen the individual and collective capacity of
20 central office leaders to implement and sustain the Cleveland Literacy System. The program
consists of four one and a half day sessions scheduled between March and July 2005.
• School Board Work Sessions: Two separate sessions have been held to educate the Board about
CLS, address their questions and gain their support.
• Executive Administrators Training: Monthly sessions with this group of exemplary principals focus
on ways in which they can support those principals they mentor with CLS implementation.
_____________
Under the leadership of the CEO, with the support of the Stupski Foundation and other external
resources, the District has created a well conceived development and implementation plan to
introduce and apply CLS to all levels of the organization. However, as stated previously, it is the
classroom teacher who has the greatest influence on student achievement.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
10Classroom Focus: Aligning Assessment,
4 Curriculum and Instruction
The Standards Matrix, Standards-at-a-Glance and CLS Pacing Charts help teachers understand
what their students should know and be able to do at each grade level. The curriculum framework
begins to paint the picture of what rigorous literacy instruction looks like. These are important
planning tools. They provide teachers with the “what” of the Cleveland Literacy System. But, by
themselves, these tools are insufficient. Teachers can not be held accountable for rigorous literacy
instruction if they haven’t been given the appropriate materials and support.
Classroom teachers need a systematic plan that guides instruction and assessment and ensures
equity, access and quality curriculum to all students. Teachers need common assessments and
common curricula that provide coherence across the system and consistency between schools. This is
vital in a district like Cleveland where students frequently transfer from school to school. Common
assessments and lessons reinforce the vision of quality teaching and learning, clarify learning goals
and ultimately help jumpstart and support a change in teacher thinking and practice.
From the outset, the District understood that standards and their logical pacing needed to drive
curriculum development rather than the sequence and content of the basal textbooks, the traditional
determinant of CMSD curriculum. After examining exemplary curriculum models from around the
country that fit the CLS emerging framework, CMSD adopted an approach and instructional materials
created by Montgomery County, Maryland as its starting point for CLS curriculum development. In
addition, the District realized that the development of grade level assessments and curricula was a
significant, long term commitment. Therefore, the District adopted a four year timeline (see
Attachment 2). In the 2004-2005 school year, the District introduced common assessments and
curricula in grade three.
A. Building an Integrated Grade Level Assessment-Curriculum System
The decision to start with grade three made strategic sense for two reasons. First, grade three is a
crucial transition time. It is the grade where cognition, decoding, comprehending and fluency come
together. Third graders deal more frequently, deeply, and widely with nonfiction materials in a variety
of school subjects. Therefore, students must learn specific strategies for navigating, comprehending
and mastering progressively more difficult, dense, varied text. Third grade also requires students to
demonstrate their knowledge of these subjects through writing. By the end of grade three, students
need to have mastered the art of learning to read so that they can read to learn.
Second, grade three students must now prepare to take state mandated high stakes tests in reading
and math as the state phases in its new testing system in 2004-2005. The majority of third grade
teachers were using outdated textbooks that were not aligned to the new state standards nor based
upon newer research on reading. Teachers needed new curriculum materials that focused on what
students were expected to know and be able to do.
In the summer of 2004, the Curriculum Development Team started the process of developing
common grade three assessments and curricula. This work continued throughout the school year. In
August 2004, classroom teachers began to receive these newly developed materials as they were
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
11Classroom Focus: Aligning Assessment, Curriculum and Instruction
completed. As the following descriptions illustrate, these materials are explicitly designed to help
teachers implement the assess-plan-teach model and literacy block components of the CLS
framework.
Common Grade Level Assessments
Standards-based instruction demands a fundamental rethinking of the role of assessment in
instruction (Black and Wiliam, 1998; Stiggins, 1999). Standards-based education requires teachers to
shift from evaluation to diagnosis, from assessment of learning to assessment for learning. In a
standards-based classroom, assessment becomes an integral part of daily instruction.
This fundamental shift in philosophy reflects a core value of the Cleveland Literacy System. In
addition to the classroom assessments that are embedded in everyday instruction, the District also
developed a variety of common assessments that serve different useful purposes and are administered
at specific times during the school year.
Benchmark Tests
Three District benchmark tests, created by a team of Cleveland teachers, are being
administered to third grade students during the 2004-2005 school year. These benchmark tests,
which are statistically reliable and valid (MetriTech, Illinois) mirror the content, form and
difficulty of the new high stakes State of Ohio Achievement Tests, which will be used to assess
District and school accountability.
The Grade 3 Benchmark Tests are not designed by the District to evaluate students. These tests
are designed with the express intent of helping teachers locate the instructional needs of
students. Shortly after each administration of the benchmark tests (September, December and
May), teachers receive a user-friendly report that details the results of the test by class and by
individual student.
These benchmark tests provide educators with useful information about each student’s current
overall mastery of the academic content standards that will be measured on the State
Achievement Tests in March. The test results enable classroom teachers and district personnel
to track student progress, identify areas of weakness, and target needed instructional
modifications and interventions.
Dipstick Assessments
“Dipsticks”, like those used to check the level of oil in a car, are short periodic checks of
student progress on a variety of skills that research suggests can predict overall literacy
progress and achievement. This year at the third grade level, dipstick tests have been created
for sight words, cloze passages, prefixes and suffixes, contractions, and dictionary multiple
meanings. The dipstick assessments provide teachers with frequent data to use to make
instructional modifications and interventions (see Attachment 3).
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
12Classroom Focus: Aligning Assessment, Curriculum and Instruction
Some of the key literacy skills, however, (e.g. making inferences, monitoring comprehension
by adjusting speed, and establishing a purpose for reading, etc.) are more difficult to measure
with a formal “dipstick” assessment. Therefore, teachers observe and monitor these kinds of
skills on an ongoing basis during classroom instruction. Teacher insights about student progress
help to inform instructional decisions on a continuous basis.
Common Grade Level Curricula
The literacy block, which includes 90 minutes for reading and 50 minutes for writing, provides
the established framework for literacy work at all grade levels. To effectively utilize the literacy
block, teachers move student groups in and out of whole group instruction and offer opportunities
for small group instruction, partner engagement and independent work. “Doing” literacy instruction
in this way creates significant change and several challenges for many Cleveland teachers. The
curriculum units are designed to help provide third grade teachers with the framework and materials
that push them to make this instructional shift.
Curriculum Unit Framework
The curriculum team produced nine curriculum units and distributed them to grade three
teachers. These units were mapped out over the course of the year based on the grade three
pacing chart. Each unit is organized around a particular focus (e.g. informational text, literary
text, etc.) and a set of relevant enduring understandings, essential questions and grade level
indicators, which are summarized at the beginning of each unit.
Each instructional unit contains five days of planned 140 minute literacy blocks. Originally
intended to be a week’s worth of instruction, teachers report that the units often take two to
three weeks to complete. CLS dipstick assessments are appropriately placed in the units, with
time for their administration included in the lesson template design.
Description of Daily Literacy Block/Lessons
Each day’s materials begins with a daily literacy plan, a completed literacy block template. The
template delineates the specific focus for each of the components (i.e. warm-up, whole group
mini-lessons, small group guided reading, independent/buddy work and centers; whole group
fluency; writing block and wrap-up and read-aloud) including the materials to be used and
amount of time allocated. This format allows teachers to see how the components fit together
within the day and across the week (see Attachment 4).
The literacy block template is then followed by specific lesson plans for each of the
components. These lesson plans are very detailed and include: list of relevant essential
questions and grade level indicators; delineation of time required; list of materials needed;
required teacher preparation; description of instructional procedures; relevant assessments;
intervention lessons/ideas; suggested homework and appropriate technology connections for
teachers and students. The lessons are not scripted. They are designed as a powerful means to
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
13Classroom Focus: Aligning Assessment, Curriculum and Instruction
organize the materials, which highlight the relevant research and appropriate instructional
strategies teachers need to help students master the targeted content and skills (see Attachment 5).
Resource Materials
The curriculum units are designed to ensure that teachers have the materials they need to
implement the lessons. In many cases, the lessons utilize materials teachers already have (e.g.
stories in basal texts, etc.). When there are not sufficient materials, as in the case of informational
text, the curriculum team develops the needed resource and provides enough copies for each
student (e.g. The Gray Wolf, LeBron James books). In addition, materials teachers need to carry
out specific activities (e.g. graphic organizers, student activity sheets) are also included in the unit.
By ensuring teachers have a full complement of materials, the District increases the likelihood that
teachers will implement the lessons (see Attachments 6 and 7).
_____________
As Figure 4 illustrates, the District has created integrated sets of materials that
provide grade three teachers with the tools they need to implement the assess-plan-teach
approach in their classrooms.
FIGURE 4: An Aligned System – Cleveland Literacy System Tools
State Assessments
Benchmark/Dipstick
Assessments
Classroom
Assessments
Assess
Standards Matrix
Curriculum Units/
Pacing Charts
Lesson Plans
Literacy Block
Ongoing Assessment
Template/Framework
Intervention Activities
Resource Materials STANDARDS Instructional Guidelines
Curriculum Units
Te a
an
ch
Pl
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
14Classroom Focus: Aligning Assessment, Curriculum and Instruction
B. Supporting Classroom Implementation
“If you build it, they will come” might prove prophetic in the world of movies, but not necessarily
in the world of education. There are hundreds of examples where districts have introduced promising
initiatives only to see them wither away and die in the face of teacher apathy and resistance. The
District took the first step to support classroom implementation by laying the district-wide foundation.
Grade three teachers now have a grounding in standards and the CLS curriculum framework. Support
for classroom implementation must build on and reinforce this foundation. The District has embraced
a series of strategies to encourage teachers’ acceptance, deepen teachers’ understanding and promote
classroom use of these common assessments and curricula units.
Solicit Teacher Feedback
It is simple, but true. Teachers use materials that they find useful. CMSD has set up multiple
mechanisms to get direct feedback from classroom teachers as materials are developed and used including:
• Convened a focus group of teachers in spring 2004 to review and evaluate potential curriculum
materials. Feedback from this session helped to finalize the framework and format of materials.
• Distributed evaluation forms with each curriculum unit asking all 300 third grade teachers for their
suggestions about improving the unit and related lessons. The format and content of the units have
evolved over time based on teachers’ feedback.
• Identified a cohort of 13 “study schools” to identify and develop materials and processes to
address implementation issues. Data collected from these schools will improve CLS
implementation in 2005-2006.
• Contracted with Metis to complete a year-end evaluation to gather data about teachers’ perceptions
of CLS and reactions to the planning, assessment and curriculum materials. Survey data will be used
to improve CLS implementation in 2005-2006.
Develop and Utilize Teacher Leaders
As previously described, principals, school leadership teams and District leaders are involved in
an integrated professional development program that is designed to build the capacity of schools to
support implementation of the Cleveland Literacy System. In addition to this approach, the District
desires to develop and expand teacher leadership.
• Grade Level Team Leaders: The District/Cleveland Teacher’s Union collective bargaining
agreement requires grade level teachers in grades K-5 to select a grade level chairperson. In most
buildings, these leaders are responsible for convening weekly grade level meetings. The District
views the grade level team leaders as pivotal to the implementation of the CLS curriculum. Monthly
professional development sessions are held after school with grade three team leaders to review
instructional units, discuss appropriate instructional strategies and examine the integration of
Trophies, CMSD’s adopted textbook for grade three. Participants are expected to share session
content with third grade teachers in their buildings and facilitate grade level planning and reflection.
Monthly attendance at these sessions has been consistent, averaging about 70 participants.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
15Classroom Focus: Aligning Assessment, Curriculum and Instruction
• Curriculum Development Team: Approximately 30 teachers have been involved in the creation of
grade three curriculum and assessment materials. These teachers have developed deep knowledge
about the content and execution of rigorous literacy instruction. As the year progressed, their own
classroom practice has improved. Increasingly members of the curriculum team are asked to model
the literacy block and its components.
Link CLS Directly to the Accountability System
Teachers need to see the linkage between the Cleveland Literacy System and the state
accountability system. The team developed two grade three curriculum units to help teachers prepare
students for state achievement tests. These units address student learning needs identified as a result
of the September and January Cleveland Benchmark Reading Tests (e.g. prefix/suffix, homophones,
homonyms, synonym, antonym, contractions, compare and contrast, main idea, finding relevant
details). This effort avoids the traditional “test prep drill and kill” and encourages teachers to address
student learning needs based upon reliable data in the context of the literacy block.
In addition to these targeted instructional units a small team of District staff and classroom
teachers has also developed a variety of companion instructional materials that align to the Cleveland
Benchmark Reading Tests and assist teachers in moving from data to information to action. The
benchmark tests come with two companion manuals:
• Intervention Activities Teachers Can Do When Kids Can’t: The activities in this manual are part of
the Cleveland Literacy System and are designed to provide an array of interventions to help students
who are having difficulty with multiple-choice items on the Cleveland Reading Benchmark Tests.
Each multiple-choice item on the Cleveland Reading Benchmark Tests is constructed to measure a
student’s mastery of end of year Ohio standards and benchmarks.
• Scoring Camp for Kids: This manual provides examples of annotated student responses at various
point levels to each of the open-ended test items from the Cleveland Reading Benchmark Tests. It is
designed to help students learn to write high quality responses to open-ended test items. The
material in this manual is based on the premise that providing students with exemplars of what
constitutes high quality work facilitates the student’s ability to produce high quality work. Scoring
Camp for Kids teaches children to jury the work of others to learn to better jury their own work.
Emphasize Classroom Assessment
CLS needs to continually and relentlessly reinforce with teachers a new understanding of
assessment that is embedded within the sequence of instruction, rather than occurring after
instruction. Given this change in assessment theory and practice, the lessons provide and identify
ongoing classroom assessments that occur naturally and unobtrusively as part of instruction and
learning. These assessments provide teachers with the opportunity for re-teaching and intervention
based upon student results.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
16Classroom Focus: Aligning Assessment, Curriculum and Instruction
As the units have developed, assessments have been consciously and deliberately emphasized and
interwoven into the fabric of daily teacher instruction and planning. Classroom assessments
embedded in Cleveland Literacy System lessons and materials include: Checks for Understanding,
Exit Cards and Student Reader’s Response Journals. These assessments occur at multiple points
during each day’s literacy block.
Promote Technology As A Teacher Tool
The Cleveland Literacy System promotes the use of technology as an instructional tool. The ECC.
desktop/SchoolNet functions as CMSD’s online student records and assessment and curriculum
content management system. This system soon will become the electronic home for all of the CLS
tools and materials. Given the financial constraints of the District, it is imperative that electronic
copies become part of the way teachers access the Cleveland Literacy System.
In 2004-2005, CLS focused on the use of technology to gather, organize, interpret and act upon
assessment data. In January 2005, each principal and one third grade teacher from every CMSD K-8
school were invited to attend an all-day training on the use of the grade three dictionary dipstick
assessment. Participants were given an overview of the research base for, organization of and
instructional responses to this assessment. Then they were trained in how to use the SchoolNet system
to access the dictionary dipstick assessment, generate scannable scoring sheets, use the scanner to
enter student answers, and use the SchoolNet system to review and analyze individual and class
results. Over 150 principals and teachers participated.
Based on recent data, it appears that this training had an impact. An April 2005 status report from
CMSD’s Department of Technology indicated that at least two-thirds of CMSD elementary and
pre K – 8 schools have utilized SchoolNet to administer the Dictionary Assessment. Helping teachers
link technology and assessment is important in two ways. First, technology allows teachers to quickly
and easily unify the data to the actual assessment items, and provides the teacher with a more
complete and honest understanding of what the data actually reveals about a student’s capacity.
Secondly, the relational capabilities of technology provide teachers with access to patterns and trends
about student performance over time. These patterns and trends provide constant feedback that can
help teachers adjust instruction at any point in the instructional process.
In addition, the ECC.desktop/SchoolNet will enable lessons and assessments to be linked to
standards. This process allows teachers greater access to both track and use standards-aligned
resources. Staff is currently developing a preliminary procedure for entering Cleveland Literacy
System lessons and materials into SchoolNet. Sample CLS units will be entered in time for the first
rounds of teacher training in the use of ECC.desktop/SchoolNet, which will be held in the summer
and fall of 2005.
_____________
The literacy block and the assess-plan-teach model frame the core of the implementation of the
Cleveland Literacy System. Common assessments and curricula are vital in schools to ensure rigorous
literacy instruction. In the 2005-2006 school year, the successful practices gleaned from the third
grade pilot will inform literacy implementation throughout the District.
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
17One Year Later:
5 Progress and Challenges
Eighteen months ago, the Cleveland Municipal School District in partnership with the Stupski
Foundation, launched a multi-year effort to systematically develop, introduce and implement the
Cleveland Literacy System. The goal of CLS is to ensure that all Cleveland students are successful
within a rigorous literacy curriculum. Literacy was chosen because of its gateway status and
importance in all content learning. It was also designed to demonstrate standards-based learning
across the curricula. The primary focus of CLS is to build the necessary instructional capacity in
every classroom across the District. This section describes the progress made and the challenges
identified based on year one implementation.
A. Implementation Progress
The 2004-2005 CLS implementation plan integrates two approaches. At the District level,
efforts focused on building clarity and coherence by increasing awareness of and support for CLS
at all levels of the organization, communicating a common vision of rigorous literacy instruction
and encouraging the use of CLS planning materials including the revised ELA standards. At the
classroom level, the District targeted the alignment of assessment, curriculum and instruction at
grade three through the introduction of common assessments and curricula. After the first year of
implementation, there are positive signs that these approaches are having an impact.
The Cleveland Literacy System is Gaining Traction
• Use of Revised ELA Standards: This past year, CMSD revised its original ELA standards to
integrate them into the State of Ohio’s recently adopted standards framework. School and classroom
observations indicated that the majority of teachers at all grade levels are using these revised
standards. The CLS standards-related materials (i.e. Standards Matrix and Standards-At-A-Glance)
have helped teachers see the connections between the two sets of standards and the importance of
aligning instruction to the new state standards-based testing and accountability system.
• Use of CLS Curriculum Framework and Planning Materials: Teachers’ awareness of and
support for CLS concepts and instructional framework are increasing as schools wrestle with
how to integrate these into classroom instruction. This is particularly true in elementary and pre
K – 8 schools. In previous years, teachers in these schools were exposed to several of the
concepts that under gird CLS (e.g. literacy block, research based reading strategies). In
addition, the third grade common assessments and curricula provide other grade levels with an
opportunity to see these concepts in action.
• Use of Grade Three Common Assessments and Curricula: Grade three teachers appear generally
positive about the common assessments and curricula. Those teachers who are fully utilizing the
assessments and curriculum units report that their students are thinking more deeply about the
text, engaging in richer conversations and reading better. However, as expected, use of the
materials across classrooms has varied. During the year, curriculum unit production occurred at a
slower pace than anticipated. In addition, the instructional demands of the CLS materials required
many teachers to operate outside of their comfort zones. However, classroom use of materials
The Cleveland Literacy System: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Instructional Practice
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