Pickerington Local School District, a diverse system made up of roughly 12,000 students outside of Columbus, is used to having visitors come around to see what's happening in literacy instruction.
District Demographics information from the 2022–23 Ohio Dept. of Education Report Card.
While Ohio lawmakers passed reforms last year requiring all elementary schools to adopt the Science of Reading, Pickerington has been following the evidence in reading—and applying it in classrooms—since 2017, when the district became an early adopter of Wit & Wisdom®.
Fast forward six years: Pickerington's progress is impressive, and district leaders are often asked to share their experience with others.
The district initially adopted Wit & Wisdom in grades K–4 and then added the curriculum in fifth grade in the 2022–23 school year. The district is piloting Wit & Wisdom in sixth grade this school year.
On the most recent round of end-of-year testing in Ohio, students in the grades that use the curriculum and take the state tests—so grades 3–5—made across-the-board gains. Around three-fourths reached the proficiency mark in those grades, as seen in the chart below. It's well above the state average.
- Third grade: Went from 70.6 percent proficient in 2022–23 to 72.9 percent in 2023–2024 in third grade
- Fourth grade: From 65.9 percent to 74.8 percent
- Fifth grade: 75.8 percent to 81.4 percent
In Pickerington, the growth is happening across subgroups. English learners, in particular, are excelling. That's been most notable in fifth grade. On the most recent round of testing, 72.9 percent of English learners hit the proficient mark, up from 49.5 percent the year before.
Pickerington teachers use the Multilingual Learner Resources aligned to Wit & Wisdom and preteach content, vocabulary, and language conventions before diving into complex texts in the curriculum. "That idea of frontloading some of that vocabulary work and other content prior to engaging with the texts increases comprehension," said Leslie Kelly, executive director of teaching and learning. "It's a practice that's actually good for all learners."
Kelly noted that the preteaching strategy is one of many strategies the district uses to ensure all students, including English learners and students with disabilities, have an equal opportunity to learn at high levels. "If you don't give them the opportunity to engage with grade-level standards, they won't be able to achieve at grade level," she said.
"The structures that are built into Wit & Wisdom, like turn and talk and think and share, are also really good for a lot of our students, especially English learners," said Sharon Caccimelio, curriculum coordinator for grades K–6. She noted that the writing components of the curriculum, in which kids write regularly and reading and writing are aligned, also have fueled literacy growth across student populations.
Kelly said the district has also worked hard to hire, retain, and nurture great literacy coaches who support teachers and ensure they understand the curriculum and the practices called for within it, including how to build in and eventually remove scaffolds for students who need them. Pickerington teachers also get strong training in foundational skills and the science of reading. "Resources are fantastic and high-quality instructional materials are fantastic, but teachers need to understand the pedagogy and the why behind the pedagogy because if they don't, they won't be able to implement the resource well and fully," she said.
Sometimes teachers who are new to the district or the curriculum wonder initially about the rigor of Wit & Wisdom and whether it's too much, but the coaches are there to support them, Kelly said.
Caccimelio noted that students like challenging material as long as they're supported in accessing it. She described a conversation she had with her granddaughter, a Pickerington student who was then in kindergarten and reading "Rap a Tap Tap: Here's Bojangles: Think of That!" She was enthralled and asked questions about the dancer at the center of the story, such as, "How come he danced in the street? Why does he have a top hat? What is Harlem?"
"She was just five years old and wanted to know all this. That's what happens when kids get involved in books," Caccimelio said.
More recently, she asked her granddaughter, now in fourth grade, what was happening in English language arts, to which she replied, 'We're studying the heart, both literally and figuratively.' She then proceeded to give her grandmother a lesson on the role of the heart in the circulatory system and the role of the heart, figuratively speaking, in love.
It's that deep knowledge and joy and enthusiasm that visitors from other districts are coming to see in Pickerington. They're very welcome here, Kelly said, adding, "Come and learn!"
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Topics: Wit & Wisdom Ohio
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