Rocky Mountain Classical Academy

Located in Colorado Springs, Rocky Mountain Classical Academy is a PK-8 school rooted in an academically rigorous, content-rich, classical educational program with Core Knowledge emphasis. Utilizing the RISE Grant, they hope to increase diverse learner engagement and achievement in ELA, shifting cognitive lift from the teacher to the students while also increasing emotional engagement. 

Instructional Coach Heather Ullrich explains “Our teachers care and are driven to challenge students but not overwhelm them and to teach diverse populations of students equally well and equally respectfully, but also acknowledge they may not have the skills and support needed to accomplish this.”

Because the overall definition of engagement mindset in their school was behavioral engagement, as a growth opportunity, they focused on cognitive and emotional engagement. ELA was found to be the subject in which the most students were below benchmark from an engagement perspective, and ultimately they believe engagement across content areas relies on literacy. This led them to choose Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) to support the professional development of teachers and engagement of students. 

Based on current research into what, when and how language skills need to be taught, LETRS provides guidance not only on best practices for instruction but also instructions for differentiating that instruction to meet the needs of all students. By increasing teacher knowledge and confidence, that passes to the student, leading to increased cognitive engagement. 

In addition, providing teachers with knowledge of brain development provides a safe environment for students, leading to increased emotional engagement. “One of the biggest pieces of LETRS is really understanding what has to come first and if you teach above the gap before the gap is closed, then that gap grows and they never continue to build that gap,” says Heather.

This program normally takes two years to complete, but with teacher buy-in, they are condensing the program into one school year while ensuring teachers are able to digest the information. “It's a lot of information that we're putting into their brains,” explains Ashlynn Smith, Instructional Coach. “One of the challenges is not just going through the motions, but really taking the time to learn them and be confident to implement those strategies.” 

Adds Heather, “It's a lot of learning really quickly, but we care so much about our students and their learning and the fact that they feel engaged in our classrooms, that teachers are really just digging in and getting so much out of it. We're really keeping it fresh in their minds and following through to make sure that language and learning is sticking with them.” 

Their goal is for 80% of K-3 teachers to regularly apply the language essentials through LETRS in both the whole group and intervention instruction. In turn, that will increase cognitive engagement as measured by at least a 15% increase in at-or-above benchmark scores in spring 2022.

To get there, Classical is utilizing their in-house PLC process and teacher video reflection as well as collaborative planning, co-teaching and model teaching with the school’s two instructional coaches. The school is hoping for an immediate impact in grades K-3 with fewer READ plans, and a lasting impact on grades 4-8 with fewer students having gaps or needing reading intervention and all feeling safe, supported and successful.

“The teachers are very committed,” said Ashlynn. “They have participated very well in all of the online training sessions with our presenter, and they are really pulling away those ideas and starting to implement them before we're even talking about them.”

Said Heather, “We believe what we are doing is going to have a sustainable impact on our preschool through eighth grade academy. It’s important to us that this is not going to be a drop in the bucket, but that this is going to have a lasting impact on all of our students.”