General Issues

Questions Articulated by Districts

Question: What is the Leadership Triangle?
Answer: The Leadership Triangle is the group at the state level charged with the oversight and implementation of Reading First in Florida. It consists of the Just Read, Florida! Office at the Department of Education which is responsible for the management of the Reading First program, the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) at Florida State University, which is responsible for Curriculum and Assessment, and the Reading First arm of FLaRE at University of Central Florida, which is responsible for Professional Development.

Question: What is the Leadership Triangle?
Answer: The Leadership Triangle is the group at the state level charged with the oversight and implementation of Reading First in Florida. It consists of the Just Read, Florida! Office at the Department of Education which is responsible for the management of the Reading First program, the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) at Florida State University, which is responsible for Curriculum and Assessment, and the Reading First arm of FLaRE at University of Central Florida, which is responsible for Professional Development.

Question: Is spelling, writing, language part of the 90-minute block?
Answer: Yes, as long as the activities relate to each of the five major reading components in a cohesive manner and do not detract from the explicit, systematic instruction that is part of the comprehensive core reading curriculum.

Question: Can students who are currently pulled out during the reading block be pulled out during the 90-minute required reading block under Reading First?
Answer: ALL students are part of the classroom 90-minute reading block, and the students typically pulled out should be pulled out at a different time, or the pull-out teacher should participate in the 90-minute classroom block with the classroom teacher by doing small group instruction in the classroom.

Question: Will LEP and ESE students be included in the 90-minute block?
Answer: Yes. ALL students are part of the classroom 90-minute reading block, and the students typically pulled out should be pulled out at a different time, or the pull-out teacher (LEP and/or ESE) should participate in the 90-minute classroom block with the teacher by doing small group instruction in the classroom.

Question: What types of activities can be described to show evidence of strong district leadership?
Answer: Strong district leadership can be demonstrated by describing recent district sponsored initiatives to improve reading outcomes or new programs or procedures developed to improve reading achievement within the last several years and implemented district wide. If the district had a successful Reading Excellence Award, that would also be evidence of district leadership. The draft Reading Program Specifications, Strand 2, describes other ways the district or school administration can provide strong leadership in support of reading.

Question: May districts provide names of staff that they would like to go through the training to help deliver sessions at the Reading First Academies?
Answer: In the near future, districts will be contacted and provided an application for staff in their district. Reading First regional trainers and those providing the summer professional development academies will be selected by the leadership triangle based upon their credentials in the area of reading and experience as a trainer.

 Professional Development

Question: Can the districts pay stipends from the Reading First grant for the summer academies?
Answer: Yes. Districts can use Reading First funds to financially support teachers attending the summer Reading First Academies.

Question: Do we have dates for the summer Reading First Academies yet?
Answer: No. Since we will be offering the summer Reading First Academies in the locations where Reading First grants have been awarded, the times and locations will not be announced until after the Reading First grants are awarded in March. The Reading First application only needs to specify that the teachers are committed to attend the summer Reading First Academies and that districts will promote their attendance at the Academies through stipends or other support. Academies will be held all summer all over the state, so if a teacher has to miss one, there will be multiple other opportunities.

Question: Will there be another Just Read, Florida! Leadership Conference for Principals in the summer of 2003?
Answer: Yes, probably in the Orlando area. There are several hotels and dates under consideration.

Question: What funding source do districts use to provide professional development to Reading First teachers?
Answer: Funds from Reading First awards, Title II, State Professional Development funds, and the 100 hours from publishers can all be used to create a comprehensive professional development program for Reading First.

Question: Can the Reading Academies be tied to the reading endorsement requirements?
Answer: This fall, the districts will receive communication about add-on professional development programs from the Department of Education's Professional Development Office in preparation for submitting their Master Professional Development Plan for annual approval. Through a district's approved Master Professional Development Plan, teachers will be able to begin earning inservice points toward a reading endorsement as they attend the 2002 Reading First Academies.

Question: Can principals participate in the summer Reading First Academies?
Answer: Absolutely. We encourage principals to participate in the Reading First Academies in addition to the Just Read, Florida! Leadership Conference.

Question: How can the district provide professional development for paraprofessionals?
Answer: The 100 hours of publisher-provided professional development is an excellent resource to use to train paraprofessionals. In addition, districts can use Reading First funds to provide professional development to paraprofessionals.

Question: How do we handle the issue of Year Round Schools when it comes to teacher attendance at the summer academies?
Answer: We will work with service providers to offer the Reading First Academies during school breaks. However, if having a Reading First Academy during a year round school's break is not possible given the year round school's and service provider's schedules, then the Reading First Academy will be offered during the year round school year. The district should compensate teachers by providing substitute teachers.

Question: Must a district provide professional development for all K-12 ESE teachers?
Answer: Yes. The legal interpretation is that the district must provide reading professional development in Reading First districts to all K-12 ESE teachers. In Florida, the logical parameter is to provide reading professional development to all K-12 ESE teachers who are responsible for providing reading instruction to K-12 students.

Question: What are the state requirements for providing professional development to ESE teachers?
Answer: The state will be providing professional development to all K-3 Reading First teachers including K-3 ESE teachers. This professional development will be focused on scientifically based reading research and will be consistent for all K-3 teachers.

 Eligibility and Funding

Question: Are Reading First funds flexible in a charter district?
Answer: No. Reading First grant funds are not flexible. All districts awarded a Reading First grant must expend funds as described in the approved Reading First grant application.

Question: Which count will be used for determining the number of students in the eligible school?
Answer: October 2002 for students in grade K, 1, 2, and 3.

Question:How do we know if we are applying on behalf of the appropriate number of schools in order to meet the Title I subgrant minimum?
Answer: The district grant writers are responsible for contacting the Just Read, Florida! Office to ensure the appropriate number of schools are applied for in the application.

Question: When will funds be made available for those successful in either the January 2003 or April 2003 competition?
Answer: Districts who are awarded Reading First grants in the January and April 2003 competition will receive funds no later than May 2003.

Question: Can one school failing to improve student reading achievement result in the whole district having funding discontinued?
Answer: Not likely. The district must include in the Reading First plan a way to discontinue a school, or schools, if the school is not making progress in reading. However, if only one school in the district is eligible for Reading First and the school is not making achievement gains in reading, this district will have their Reading First funding discontinued.

 Private School Participation

Question: Who transports the private school students who want to participate in the 90 uninterrupted minutes of reading instruction at the public school?
Answer: The private school is responsible for transportation.

Question: How should a district determine private school eligibility?
Answer: Districts determine private school eligibility in one of two ways:

1. the private school is in the attendance zone of the eligible Reading First school
2. the private school serves students who live in the attendance zone of a Reading First eligible school Districts must consult with the officials of eligible private schools to determine if the district will be providing Reading First funds and services to students in the private school.

Question: Are districts required to ask for-profit private schools if they are interested in participating in Reading First?
Answer: Yes.

Question: How do we determine eligibility of private school students since they don't take the FCAT?
Answer: Eligibility of private school students to be served by Reading First is determined by the district. The district may use the results of an alternate form of assessment currently used by the private school.

Question: Do private schools get a grant award?
Answer: No. Private schools are only able to receive Reading First services provided by the district.

Question: Are private schools involved in the district writing of the grant?
Answer: No, the private schools are not involved in the grant writing process. However, the district is required to consult with the private school officials during the design and development of the district's Reading First plan only when determining eligibility of private school children; identifying the children's needs; what services will be offered; how, where, and by whom services will be provided, and how the services will be assessed.

 Assessment

Question: Has an outcome assessment been named yet? And, how much are the outcome assessments going to cost?
Answer: According to Florida's Reading First Assessment Plan: An Explanation and Guide by Dr. Joseph K. Torgesen of the Florida Center for Reading Research, the cost of testing materials for the year end outcome assessments in vocabulary, reading comprehension and reading vocabulary - FCRR estimates these costs to be $3 per child for children in kindergarten, $6 per child for first graders, and $8 per child for children in second and third grades. This assessment guide can be located on FCRR's website at: http://www.fcrr.org/assessment/assessmentplan.htm.

Question: Are the districts responsible for paying for test scoring?
Answer: This is included in the cost assessments provided by Dr. Joseph K. Torgesen of the Florida Center for Reading Research in Florida's Reading First Assessment Plan: An Explanation and Guide. This assessment guide can be located on FCRR's website at: http://www.fcrr.org/assessment/assessmentplan.htm.

Question: Can the district hire a data entry person to enter the required student assessment data?
Answer: This is not a prohibited expense but there may be other individuals in the district who could enter the assessment data, including the reading coach, district assessment team members, school psychologist, etc.

Question: Will the state develop a position description for reading coaches?
ANSWER: No. The district must develop the reading coach position description. However, Florida's Reading First Application provides the following MINIMUM qualifications for a reading coach: minimum of a Bachelor's degree; teacher certification; at least three years experience in elementary teaching; and, preferably, advanced coursework in reading.

Question: Is it necessary for districts to find an additional vocabulary and comprehension progress monitoring assessment to add to the DIBELS process?
Answer: No. Districts are not required to administer any additional vocabulary or comprehension assessments beyond those described in the Florida Reading First Assessment Plan. The development of vocabulary skills will be monitored by the assessments at the end of kindergarten through third grades. It might be useful for Districts to add a screening instrument for the development of vocabulary skills at the beginning of kindergarten, particularly if schools plan to offer extra support for vocabulary development to students who are lagging behind in development. The development of reading comprehension skills will be monitored by outcome assessments at the end of first through third grades.
The progress monitoring tests used in Florida's assessment plan represent a compromise between the desirability of frequently monitoring progress in all the critical elements of reading growth and the need for efficiency of assessment. The DIBELS subtests used in our plan are relatively strong predictors, by themselves, of difficulties learning to read. Thus, they will allow schools to identify children who are being "left behind" in early reading growth without placing an undue burden on teachers and schools for assessment activities alone. In conjunction with the year end outcome assessments in vocabulary development and reading comprehension, they will insure that we identify, in a timely manner, all children who need extra assistance in learning to read. Please refer to the Reading First Assessment Plan on the Reading First technical assistance CD for detailed information.

Question: Will FCRR provide ALL materials (examiner scoring sheets, stopwatches, etc.) for the DIBELS system?
Answer: Yes. The FCRR will be providing all materials for the progress monitoring assessments.

Question: Will teachers be able to administer DIBELS at the schools?
Answer: No. The district assessment team will conduct the first assessment in the fall. To limit disruptions for the classroom teacher, the school level teams will conduct all remaining assessments. A consistent school team conducting all assessments in the school will maintain a higher degree of integrity and objectivity, since the same team will be assessing all students.

Question: Do the same measures have to be delivered if child passes first DIBELS measure?
Answer: Yes, the DIBELS measures will be given to all students four times a year, regardless of the student's previous score on each test. Teachers need to know if their instruction is sufficiently differentiated to stimulate progress in reading among students at all levels of ability. We desire to know if good readers are becoming better readers, as well as learning whether our weakest readers are making good growth in reading skill. If we simply knew that a student was at or above the 40th percentile, valuable data would be missing.
For every test and for every measurement point, FCRR has established the benchmark for grade level performance at the 40th percentile based on a large national sample of children. That is, if a student achieves a score on one of the DIBELS or outcome measures that is at or above the 40th percentile, they are considered to be reading at grade level. Over the years of implementation of the Reading First projects, we will hold these benchmarks constant, so that progress toward the goal of having every child reading at grade level can be evaluated against a consistent standard. The data-based measurement system will eventually permit teachers and others to know the student's actual percentile from the norms that will be established from the performance of the full range of students.

 Evaluation

Question: Where in the application should districts state the benchmarks for each school?
Answer: Districts should address benchmarks set for each school as part of Question 11 on the district application. Question 11 of the district application refers districts to section J-11 of the guidance document where the question is more thoroughly addressed and explicitly states: "Districts are required to present a table of yearly achievement standards for each school in their proposal."

Question: How do we factor in those students who come in midpoint during the year? What effect they will have on our benchmarks for each school?
Answer: The benchmarks that are required for each school in the application as goals of yearly achievement standards should reflect the current levels of reading achievement in each school. The benchmarks should also propose a schedule of improvement that reaches the state's goal of 100% of children at or above grade level within ten years. These benchmarks will not be used to determine if funding for the remaining three years of Reading First should be continued. Continuation of Reading First funding is contingent upon improved student performance in reading, not meeting the prescribed benchmarks.

 Curriculum and Instructions Materials

Question: Do consortia districts all have to use the same core reading curriculum to receive a competitive priority?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Can districts use information found on the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) website to justify the research base of the specific reading programs the district would use for Reading First?
Answer: Yes. It is sufficient for the districts to say that FCRR reviewed the curriculum and found it to be aligned with Reading First and with the principals of scientifically based reading research. Districts should also say something like, "In our own review of the curriculum, as determined by XXX process, we found that it provides both materials and procedures, as well as sufficient guidance to teachers, to help ensure that systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies will be provided to all the children in our kindergarten through third grade classes. In addition, the student materials are well aligned with instruction, provide ample practice and review opportunities, and its scope and sequence is clear and thoughtfully designed." In other words, districts should make original comments in support of the selected curriculum to show that the district has also examined it carefully, and are not relying solely on FCRR's judgment. The district analysis does not need to be as detailed as FCRR's analysis, but the district should just describe their process of examination to reflect that they have examined the curriculum themselves.

Question: If the core curriculum is aligned with Reading First, is it all right to use the intervention materials for that core curriculum?
Answer: Yes, as long as the district has examined the intervention materials and found them to provide the extra depth of instruction that is necessary. The district should substantiate that the use of these materials will help to ensure that the immediate intensive interventions provided to students lagging behind will be consistent with the instruction the students are receiving in the classroom and will help to integrate classroom instruction with these interventions.

 Reading Coaches

Question: Can a Reading First reading coach work with the students?
Answer: The role of the reading coach truly is to provide the teachers and principal with expertise in reading. The coaches can assist in providing leadership to Reading First efforts at both the district and individual school level. The first responsibility of the coach is to provide direct, classroom-based professional development for teachers through modeling of instruction and feedback to teachers. Reading coaches can also assist districts in identifying specific needs for professional development across schools in the district, and coaches can participate in planning such district or multiple school professional development experiences. Coaches can also assist principals in developing grade level instructional teams at each school to monitor individual and classroom level progress in reading and to make data based decisions about instruction. Finally, coaches can assist principals and teachers by helping to coordinate the screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring, and outcome assessments that will be part of Reading First programs at each school. Districts are asked to describe how the district will use Reading First coaches to help manage the implementation of Reading First programs in the district.

 Initial Instruction

Question: Can teachers exchange students to deliver initial instruction to students who are in not in their homeroom?
Answer: Yes. However, there needs to be flexible grouping and students must be monitored to determine if they should be moved to another classroom during the school year based on their progress. In addition, the reading block still must be 90 uninterrupted minutes.

Question: Could an ESE teacher teach the 90 uninterrupted reading block?
Answer: No. The ESE teacher may go from classroom to classroom providing small group instruction but cannot teach the 90 minute block.