“We’re teaching kids how to attack texts in ways they’ve never done before,” said Shiprock High School (SHS) Principal Larry DeWees. Shiprock, a rural school on a Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico, uses McREL’s Teaching Reading in the Content Areas (TRICA) series of teachers’ manuals with 850 Native American students in grades 9–12 as part of a no holds barred approach to improving literacy.
Shiprock’s reading scores have jumped 1.9 grade levels overall, with the average gain showing a 3.8 grade level increase per student in their first year at SHS. Shiprock is a school that models literacy and one where every student, whether he or she is in special education or in advanced placement, is showing gains of almost two grade levels in reading scores.
Prior to becoming principal at Shiprock two years ago, DeWees decided that literacy was going to be the school’s focus. He had studied the student data — test scores, demographics, dropout rates, etc. — looking at individual and group test scores that were disaggregated according to gender. Shiprock’s results on one nationally normed high-stakes test showed percentiles in the teens in all content areas. “It was shocking,” he said.
He also found that the grade distribution formed an inverted bell curve. The overall Grade Point Averages (GPA) were 2.8–3.2 for students in the upper grades and 1.6 for 9th graders, but the average composite ACT score for Shiprock students was only 16 compared to the average state score of 21. This showed a real discrepancy between grades given by teachers, GPA’s, and national test scores. DeWees concluded that staff members at Shiprock needed to get up to speed on the research-based courses that dealt with teaching literacy strategies and learning strategies.
After presenting the data to Shiprock staff members, they went to work to turn the situation around and began studying and sharing research about reading instruction and best practices. DeWees approximates that, as a staff, they read more than 5,000 articles in one year. Professional development also moved to the forefront, as DeWees identified opportunities to learn, such as McREL’s Teaching and Learning Academy on Teaching Reading in the Content Areas. During the McREL training, SHS teachers learned about the strategies that research indicates are most effective in improving student learning.
School-wide professional development is ongoing, and every Wednesday, staff members review an element or strategy from TRICA and its supplements — Teaching Reading in Mathematics, Teaching Reading in Science, and Teaching Reading in Social Studies. Throughout the school year, teachers write daily lesson plans that explain how they are using the strategies in their instruction. DeWees is well versed in strategy instruction and expects teachers and students to be as well. Every teacher has a complete set of the series of TRICA manuals. DeWees places frequent orders for the manuals because he’s always giving them away. “I even give them to parents when they stop by my office,” he said.
DeWees was named State Principal of the Year in 1999, Regional Athletic Director of the Western Region, and participated in the National Educational Leadership Summit 2000, then retired after serving in education for 30 years. “When I first retired I worked in the family tool business, where I could make a good living, but as time went on, I realized that tools just sit on shelves; they don’t chase each other around, playing pin the tail on my friend,” said DeWees. Rather than remain in retirement, he is applying a lifetime of knowledge, experience, and a love of kids to help improve student learning at SHS.