Children at Winona Elementary School participate in a summer literacy camp which is funded by the Texas Turnaround Initiative at the University of Texas at Tyler. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Two of the biggest education organizations in the state are stepping in to help small, struggling school districts improve their literacy rates. 

The Texas Education Agency and the University of Texas System have teamed up to create the Texas Turnaround Initiative, which is designed to leverage the intellectual capital of UT schools of education to improve classroom environments. 

UT Tyler Department of Education Director Wes Hickey said TEA Commissioner Mike Morath was instrumental in the program’s creation.

“He believed that schools of education could step in and use their intellectual capital to help low performing kids,” Hickey said. “Morath has been very involved. He’s very passionate and wasn’t passing it on to someone else.”

The initiative uses a multitiered approach with intervention for the students and increased training for new teachers. The first year of the program will wrap up in October at Winona Elementary School. The TEA listed the school as “Improvement Required” last year. Winona is the first district the college has partnered with to implement a full program.

“They had a few first year teachers struggling. Students were having a hard time scoring what they needed to (on STAAR),” Hickey said. “We want to create systems and processes that will go on long after we’re done.”

Hickey said classroom management is key to the program’s success. The first part of the initiative is teacher training.

“How comfortable do teachers feel with classroom management? If you struggle with it, it’s a miserable place (for a teacher) to be,” he said. “If the environment is not set up in a way that students can learn, they won’t achieve.”

Hickey said if the classroom isn’t under control, students can’t learn. If students aren’t learning basic literacy skills, they won’t do well on anything, he  said.

The second part of the initiative is getting those students caught back up. To that end, UT has embedded an academic coach in math classes and partnered with the district to create a summer reading camp. 

Professor Joanna Neel said kindergarten through second-grade students read about 20 books and older students went through about 50 books during the summer program, which wrapped up on June 13.

“In K-2 they’ve been immersed in phonemic awareness and reading,” Neel said. “In third and fourth they have advanced two to three levels of text reading.”

Neel said keeping the students engaged is key to the success of any summer program. Project-based learning and critical thinking exercises are one way to keep students learning.

“In summer programs if it’s not fun you’re dead in the water,” she said. “Their imagination and creative skills needed attention so that has been a part that has really grown.”

UT Tyler education student Samantha Campbell has been working with the K-2 students over the summer. She said seeing the students’ progress makes the hard work worthwhile.

“The most rewarding part is when you see a child that lacks confidence and see their eyes brighten up,” Campbell said. “Sometimes they just explode with happiness.”

The project is made by funding from the UT System board of regents, which allocates $100,000 worth of funding per year for three years, for each UT Campus participating. Hickey said the team will evaluate progress and make adjustments going into the second year this October.

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