AS SEEN IN DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION
Research-Based Program Helps Boost K-5 Word Study Efforts
Millingport Elementary School Seeing Promising Results from Using Scholastic W.O.R.D. ® F or one North Carolina elementary school, a new vocabulary program is garnering significant attention from both teachers and of achievement scores. We had made a lot of academic progress and by the 2018-2019 school year, we had improved from being a D-rated school to a B-rated
“W.O.R.D. brings all the elements of the science of reading together, centered around central themes.”
administrators for its effectiveness and impact in just a few months of use. Stanly County Schools in Albemarle, North Carolina serves more than 8,400 students in grades preK–12 and employs 750 certified teachers in 21 schools. The district places a strong emphasis on promoting career and college readiness, lifelong learning, and citizenship. Millingport Elementary School is a K–5 school located in a rural area of Stanly County and qualifies as a Title 1 school, with about 40 percent of its 190 students receiving free or reduced-price lunches. Bobbie Throneburg has been the curriculum coach at Millingport for the past five years and has had a 31-year career as an educator. “My role is to help teachers by sharing best practices, identifying which curriculum resources are most effective, looking at our achievement data, and sharing what I’ve learned from my years in
school,” she says. “Then the pandemic brought a lot of upheaval and dragged our academic scores back down again, unfortunately.” While Throneburg and Stanly County administrators were looking for strategies to get
that met our needs in this area. It turned out to be perfect timing for us, and I was excited to move forward with W.O.R.D.” Words Open Reading Doors (W.O.R.D.) Grounded in the scientifically- proven research of Dr. Elfrieda “Freddy” H. Hiebert, Scholastic W.O.R.D. helps K–5 students acquire core vocabulary while deepening comprehension through game-based learning. W.O.R.D. takes a thematic approach and teaches words in context across content areas like science and social studies, helping build background knowledge for core instruction. The digital program differentiates and personalizes learning based on students’ vocabulary knowledge and provides educators with robust real-time reporting in a dashboard to help monitor student progress and inform instruction.
students back on track, in April 2021 the state of North Carolina passed legislation mandating that K-12 literacy instruction be based on the science of reading and requiring the use of the research- based program LETRS ® (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) for professional development across the state. Throneburg joined other curriculum coaches in Stanly County in LETRS training in 2021. “We had just gone through the section of the training that was focused on vocabulary and comprehension when a representative from Scholastic met with us and told us about W.O.R.D., which is a vocabulary and comprehension program,” Throneburg says. “I was immediately interested in the program, because vocabulary has always been a point of weakness in our district, and we’ve struggled to find a solution
the classroom,” she says. Addressing setbacks and prioritizing needs
Like so many schools and districts, Throneburg says the pandemic interrupted what was a steady trajectory of improvement over the past several years. “We’ve been on a roller coaster in terms
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