Dalton Local Schools’ Focus on Reading Science: “We’re All Reading Teachers!”

“With literacy being a huge focus in the district, we really are supporting the fact that all teachers are reading teachers. This represents a huge overall collaboration in this district; from K to 12, we're all reading teachers. It doesn't matter what subject you're teaching; you are a reading teacher in some form,” said Lisa Zona, Dalton’s Director of Student Services, Curriculum and Instruction.

“The One Plan is our strategic plan, slash district plan. We’ve started bringing in professional development and that’s basically what our plan is centered on, and driving all of the work through data,” explained Mrs. Zona.

Consistent implementation across the district is facilitated through clear communication and the use of the Ohio Improvement Process (OIP) and an interconnected set of teams at the district (District Leadership Team or DLT), school (Building Leadership Teams or BLTs), and classroom (Teacher-based Teams or TBTs) levels. Mrs. Zona credits use of the OIP and One Plan with helping the district to focus on what’s important for all children. “That's due to the One Plan and the OIP process; it has really focused us in on what we need to do,” she said.

Samantha (“Sam”) Giammarco, a Research Associate with the Dublin-based University of Cincinnati Systems Development & Improvement Center (UC SDI), works with Mrs. Zona and other staff at Dalton Local to use evidence-based literacy practices commonly known as the science of reading (SoR). “The one thing that I've seen consistently since a year ago is that the messaging is very clear from the superintendent to Lisa (Zona), to all three school principals, and to Kara as the literacy coach. You're all saying the same thing. You're all saying every student will learn to read and write, every student is capable of learning to read and write, and every teacher will teach students how to read and write. It's very clear; I see it at all levels and that's very rare,” she observed.

Kara Good, Dalton’s Literacy Coach, agrees: “communication is where I’ve really noticed the difference in the last couple of years; we now know what's going on, where it's coming from, why we're doing it, and what we need to do next.”

Intentional focus on instructional improvement. Not only has clear communication about the purpose and function of Dalton’s DLT, BLTs, and TBTs made a positive difference, but so has ensuring that instructional improvement is the sole focus of team meetings. Giammarco observed that “the TBT structure was changed a little bit this year to allow for more of an instructional focus across grade levels and content areas.” This increase in effective team functioning was evident at all schools, including the high school, where establising TBTs was described by Mrs. Zona as “tricky.”

Giammarco recalls a conversation with the high school principal who relayed that TBTs didn’t seem to be as productive at the beginning of the school year as they are now, particularly after teachers participated in professional learning on reading science. “He said, ‘I walked in and saw a group of teachers talking for 40 minutes all about vocabulary.’”

Leadership to build the instructional capacity of teachers in all schools has also led to a shift in focus – away from a focus on compliance (i.e., going through the steps in the process and checking them off) to a focus on improvement for each child, including those receiving special education services. “We were so focused on compliance and IEPs and minutes and everything else, which we have to be, but oh my goodness, taking time and being involved in this process is essential to making sure all students learn and are successful,” said Mrs. Zona.

Dalton Local’s rate of identification of students with disabilities in need of special education support is lower than the state average (i.e., about 10% as compared to the state average of about 16%), suggesting that special education is not viewed as the only recourse for addressing student instructional needs. As Mrs. Zona explains, “that has been a mind shift in this district. I can't really say if we've had higher numbers or not in the past, but I can say we are being more resourceful and intentional in providing strong core instruction and Tier 2 and 3 interventions before we just jump to special education. All kids can learn; they just might learn a little differently. The expectation in this district is that all students will read.”

All Ohio Literacy & Learning Science

In Fall 2024, Dalton Local signed on as a partner district in the Ohio Virtual Literacy Improvement for Teachers and Students (OH V-LIFTS) project, a project developed and implemented by the UC SDI Center with support from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW), Office for Exceptional Children. The intent of the project is to build the capacity of teachers serving as district-school literacy coaches and districtschool teams to improve the literacy achievement of all children, particularly students with disabilities and learning challenges.

Dalton’s involvement in the partnership has included a K-4 Core Team and a 5-12 Core Team focused on many of the same evidence-based literacy practices (e.g., explicit vocabulary instructional routine) across the entire district.

OH V-LIFTS provides high-quality literacy professional learning grounded in the science of reading and aligned with Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement (2025). It supports the state’s strategic priority in literacy (i.e., that EVERY student reads at/above grade level). Districts commit to a three-year partnership that uses a train-the-trainer model in order to build the foundation for sustainable and scalable literacy improvement.

“We knew we had to focus on the core issues in our literacy program across the district because if your core instruction isn’t strong, your tier 2 and 3 won’t be effective because all students will need intervention. So our V-LIFTS partnership had a huge Tier 1 core focus,” said Mrs. Zona. “You can't do anything without a strong MTSS structure. Your students aren't going to grow; your interventions aren't going to be the right targeted interventions. And we rely on that. We have a great team of Title teachers that 100% live our MTSS structure,” she added.

All Ohio Literacy & Learning Science. V-LIFTS professional learning draws on resources developed by the UC SDI Center, collectively housed on the All Ohio Literacy website. All resources are aligned with Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement and the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s 12-Hour Reading and Literacy Core Standards and include more than 36 comprehensive, asynchronous literacy learning modules, including 10 OCCRRA-approved modules, organized into the following five series:

• Foundational Literacy Topics Series
• Early Childhood (Birth to Age 5) Series
• Primary Literacy Series
• Adolescent Literacy Series
• Multilingual Learner Series

Giammarco serves as the All Ohio/V-LIFTS project director, providing professional learning to Dalton faculty and staff. “We had everyone in the room. We had specials teachers, we had band, we had everyone in the room and we did the MAZE assessment, which is a part of the DIBELS 8 screener. Everyone administered it to a friend and then graded their colleague’s test. I asked them if they could help with this process and the band teacher said ‘yeah, I could do this with my whole band.’ And so we were able to get that buy-in from everyone in the building,” recalled Giammarco.

“Sam used our actual data during the PD and that made it relevant for teachers and, I think, helped 100% with buy-in because they were seeing their students up there on the screen. We then moved to vocabulary, instructional routines and checklists for both of our core teams – elementary and grades 5-12. Developing common terms and commonality in language across the district was key,” said Mrs. Zona.

A veteran educator having served in many roles (teacher, intervention specialist, director of special education, director of federal programs, director of curriculum and instruction), Mrs. Zona is looking forward to continuing to make improvements in teaching and learning on behalf of each child in the district. “I’m excited about our plans for next year,” she said. “We’ll continue to build that background knowledge, to build that ‘why,’ to ramp up coaching, and putting it all together!”

References

Joyce, B., & Showers, B. (1982). The coaching of teaching. Educational Leadership, 40(1), 4–10.

Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement. (2025). Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

Pierce, J.D., & Buysee, V. (2014). Effective coaching: Improving teacher practice & outcomes for all learners. WestEd, National Center for Systemic Improvement.