Literacy Growth Makes Emma Donnan a Standout

Adelante Schools, a public charter organization that operates Emma Donnan Elementary and Middle School in Indianapolis, is gaining well-deserved attention for helping students make significant progress in early literacy. 

Eddie Rangel, CEO of Adelante Schools, recently told the Indianapolis Recorder he was happy about the school's achievement gains but not surprised. “We did anticipate these types of scores,” he said, adding that investing in science of reading-aligned instructional materials and teacher training and development helped fuel the growth. 

Great Minds's Liz Rowoldt, on the sales team, and Nancy Zuckerbrod, on the marketing and communications team, recently sat down with Chrissy Franz, chief literacy officer at Adelante Schools, to learn more.  

Adelante Schools entered into an Innovation Network partnership agreement with Indianapolis Public Schools to operate Emma Donnan in August 2020, at the height of the pandemic when instruction was temporarily virtual. Today, the K–8 school is a joyful community where, in literacy, educators use the Fundations® foundational reading program from Wilson Language Training and Great Minds's Geodes® highly readable texts and Wit & Wisdom® for core ELA instruction. 

Franz explained that the focus initially was on foundational literacy skills and then layering in Geodes readables. Eventually, the school came up with a structured way to use Geodes that teachers and students enjoy and other schools might draw inspiration from.  

"We've created a structure so that throughout the week students are participating in different types of reading of a Geodes book. By Friday, they are able to read the text fluently and with expression," Franz said. She noted that the process now looks something like this:

• On Monday the classroom teacher typically reads the Geodes book aloud to students.  

• On Tuesday, the teacher reads a page, and the kids read the same page, using a practice sometimes referred to as echo-reading.  

• Then, on Wednesday, the class typically participates in a choral read, during which they all read the book together.  

• On Thursday, students engage in more independent reading practices like whisper reading or partner reading. 

• By Friday, the kids read independently and perform read alouds to the class.    

"We were trying to come up with different ways we can engage in these texts and provide students with real-time feedback on their reading," Franz said, adding that this approach with Geodes has been a hit with kids and teachers alike. 

Franz said other practices that have fueled literacy growth include the addition of a daily intervention block in grades K–8 to support struggling readers. "This is something we noticed we just really needed to commit to, particularly when students are younger so they will be successful readers as they go through the upper elementary grades and into middle school," Franz said. This year, there is also a focus on providing similarly consistent and strong daily intervention programs for older students who might still benefit from reading intervention. 

Franz noted that Wit & Wisdom instruction also supports this effort. "Most of our kids who struggle, struggle with fluency. That's why it's important that within Wit & Wisdom, there are critical opportunities to practice fluent reading. There are moments when kids are reading, and you're able to provide feedback. We're stressing that our teachers use those moments and not to skip over those," she said. 

Franz added that the school community is excited about the progress Emma Donnan students are making in writing, which is integrated with reading instruction in Wit & Wisdom. During a recent visit to a first-grade classroom, Franz observed kids talking about the characters of a book and then drafting sentences related to the story. She said the students who were at the school the year before, during their kindergarten year, were excelling. "They were able to write complete sentences. You could see the individual words. There was a subject. There was a verb. There was capitalization, and there was a period," she said. "We didn't necessarily see all that with the kiddos who were brand new to our school. They'll get there, but that speaks to the impact of being with us and the ongoing use of these programs."   

This school year, Franz and her team are working on fostering rich discussions in classrooms and building good speaking and listening skills. She said practices like taking kids on field trips to layer their learning can support this and other aspects of literacy development. For example, second graders at the school read the book Ruby Bridges Goes to School and then took a trip to an exhibit about Ruby Bridges at the city's children's museum. Similarly, Franz said embedded fine art in Wit & Wisdom can foster rich conversations and some of the same critical-thinking and analytical skills students need to read well. 

There is a big focus in Indiana, like in many states, on ensuring students can read proficiently by third grade. Emma Donnan students did well in reading on recent state assessments. However, we wanted to take a close look at third-grade performance by looking at the IREAD-3 state assessment, given to all students in third grade in Indiana, and the DIBELS, a foundational skills universal screener used in schools across the country. The data show the following: 

• 41 percent of third graders at Emma Donnan were proficient on the DIBELS assessment at the end of the 2021–2022 school year. Two years later, at the end of the 2023–2024 school year, 70 percent of students hit the proficient mark. It's a remarkable growth trajectory.  
• On the IREAD-3, 63.6 percent hit the proficient mark at the end of the 2021–2022 school year. By the end of last year, or the 2023–2024 year, 71.9 percent of students scored at the proficient level—also an impressive gain.   

These data tell a powerful story about educators and students working hard to achieve at high levels, even as schools nationwide struggled to rebound from the effects of the pandemic on teaching and learning. At Great Minds®, we're thrilled to partner with, support, and learn from the team at Emma Donnan and Adelante Schools, and we can't wait to see what comes next for them.