Leaders at Pittsburgh Public Schools are putting their weight behind improving third-grade reading scores — an indicator for long-term student success.
But superintendent Wayne Walters told board members Wednesday that the district needs more trained reading specialists to move the needle. He noted that teacher vacancies have made upward progress difficult to achieve, despite PPS implementing a new data-informed approach to reading instruction at K-5 and K-8 schools districtwide.
“And in some of our spaces, to give kudos to some of our principals, we have principals stepping in [and] teaching because we can't find teachers,” Walters said.
In November, PPS leaders pinpointed a set of new strategies — determined by evaluating the most recent third-grade state test scores — to boost third-grade reading proficiency throughout the district.
The plan included placing literacy coaches in district elementary schools, identifying and sharing best practices across buildings, and differentiating student instruction to address persistent racial and economic achievement gaps.
It’s too soon to tell just how effective these methods have been: the district has yet to release the scores from a mid-year assessment conducted this month, and PPS was only just beginning to implement its new strategies when students took a similar evaluation in November.
But Walters said the district has more capacity-building to do before substantive change can be seen. He said that while literacy coaches would ideally be employed at every building, the district has only 13 on staff to cover its 34 schools serving K-5 and K-8 students.
Each instructor is assigned three schools to rotate between, helping teachers improve their instruction on visits.
“I think there's a space where they all have the potential, but I'm not sure if we've invested the core structures and strategies to build their capacity in ways that are truly transformative at high, high levels,” Walters said.
“We try to dispatch more time to the students [and] the schools that have the highest needs,” he continued. “But it's certainly not fulfilling an equity objective and certainly not one to build a capacity that I would like to have.”
Leaders want to mirror progress elsewhere
Walters told board members that the district will be emphasizing professional development in lesson design and teacher observations as it moves forward in monitoring third-grade reading scores.
He said a review of the past few months’ data showed teacher observations had been conducted more informally, without dedicated time for preparation, feedback and reflection.
Administrators will also use information gathered during classroom visits this year to refine and ramp up its literacy coaching practices during the school day. Between classroom prep, grading and periods spent covering vacancies, many teachers have limited time for professional learning.
“And so we need to do some things differently to really give elementary teachers who have a very large plate… time and space to learn from others, to have job-embedded professional learning experiences and not spend their full day just covering classes,” Walters added.
Just 46.2% of PPS third graders scored ‘proficient’ or above on last school year’s state reading exams. That’s compared to 55.5% of the district’s third graders in 2018.
Elementary test scores in both reading and math have dipped below pre-pandemic levels across Pennsylvania and nationwide, according to the latest results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
PPS adopted a new K-5 reading curriculum last school year to ensure students have access to materials supported by the latest research in reading instruction. Open Court Reading stresses foundational skills like phonics and builds off a body of research known as the ‘science of reading.’
States like Mississippi have declared their commitment to this approach, requiring teacher training in its core components and funding targeted interventions for struggling students. These efforts have resulted in Mississippi jumping ahead in nationwide rankings of reading proficiency, and the state’s fourth-graders performed better than their Pennsylvania counterparts on the 2024 NAEP exam.
Walters said Wednesday that he’d like to emulate Mississippi’s progress “to the extent that we can” without additional funding for their efforts. The recently-launched Pennsylvania Literacy Coalition and state lawmakers have pushed to include a $100 million literacy program, modeled on the one in Mississippi, in the next budget.
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed into law a bill last year requiring the state’s Department of Education to create a council of 20 literacy experts. The panel is tasked with creating three lists of evidence-based resources to improve student literacy, due to districts by June 1, 2025:
- Reading curricula for K-3 students aligned with the science of reading
- Training programs for school teachers in structured literacy
- High-quality universal screeners that help identify struggling readers, as well as proven strategies for intervention.
But while earlier versions of the legislation would have mandated schools to adopt curricula from the list and screen K-3 students three times a year, lawmakers dropped the requirements from the final version after failing to secure funding for it.
PPS board member Sala Udin, who will be stepping down at the end of his term, urged his colleagues to prioritize third-grade reading improvements as they craft future budgets.
“We have high goals, but I'm not sure that we're going to reach those goals if we keep just doing it the way we've been doing it,” Udin said.
Director Tracey Reed said the district must also continue to learn and make adjustments as it monitors its ongoing strategies and future test scores.
“We don't want kids to just be able to pass a standardized test,” she said. “We want them to excel way above that.”
“But we have to get to that point,” Reed continued. “And if we use the test to change teaching and to change the way we think about schooling and to change the way that principals interact with teachers, if we use the tests in that way, then we will improve outcomes for kids.”
