MCP’s Erica Badger and OpenLiteracy’s Sarah Scott Frank | The Tory Lowe Show

Thank you for joining me for the second hour of the Tori Lo show.

And we got guest truth nation.

We got Erica Badger, Chief Academic Officer at Milwaukee College Prep.

And we got Sarah Scott Frank, Ph.D.C.O. and Founder of Open Literacy.

Came, came in from Pittsburgh.

How y'all doing?

Great.

Hey, look, I love it when we talk education.

I love it when we talk about plans for the youth.

I love it.

And I appreciate y'all for coming in today.

Thank you for having us.

Well, first, Erica, can you tell me a little bit more about Milwaukee College Prep

and your partnership with Open Literacy?

Yeah.

So, Milwaukee College Prep is a network of four schools that serves about 2000 scholars on the north side of Milwaukee.

All four of our campuses are K-4 through A-3D, and we also have a K-3 program, a three-year-old kindergarten program at our north campus.

And so, our partnership with Open Literacy started last year.

We had about 80 seats between two campuses.

And this year, we were able to expand our partnership to have 200 seats across all four campuses.

So, each campus has 50 seats in first and second grade.

And Open Literacy is a high-quality one-to-one virtual tutoring program that our kids are getting three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for 30 minutes every week.

And it's based on exactly where their reading level is and where they need to have intervention.

That's powerful.

Yeah.

Hey, look, also, I've been hearing about literacy crisis, literacy crisis.

What does that actually look like, Sarah, in a dealing with this?

So, if you look across the country, about one-third of students are reading a grade level.

So, that means that two-thirds, the vast majority of kids aren't reading a grade level.

So, that's obviously not great.

Right.

And, you know, the test scores have not overall test scores in Milwaukee, you know, with the youth, with the Milwaukee Public Schools have been low over the last,

I guess, um, 10 years, but at the end of the day, how do we address it?

How do we attack these ideas?

Yeah. So, if you look at the scores, I mean, many people want to say, like, all of the pandemic, the scores went down the pandemic, but they weren't exactly great before the pandemic.

That's what I'd say.

We weren't knocking it out of the park before the pandemic hit.

And so, yeah, the scores have been continually declining or just staying flat, despite working really hard to try to change reading outcomes.

And Milwaukee sits, if you look among cities in the US around the size of Milwaukee, Milwaukee sits pretty low on that list in terms of reading achievement.

So, Cleveland and Detroit sit below Milwaukee, D.C. in some grade levels, but there's work to do, lots of work to do.

And what we're seeing at MCP is really an amazing attempt and successful attempt to really think systemically about how you can use partnerships like Open Literacy,

how you can think differently about what's happening in the classroom every day, how you can think about small group instruction,

to have all those pieces work together in a system that works for kids, that provides that targeted instruction, that says, this is what you need right now, and I'm going to give it to you.

And it's a powerful model, because kids feel good, and the data shows that it's working, it's kids are moving.

And when kids struggle to read, you know, what are some of the long term effects, because I heard that many times children will graduate and get degree, you don't get a high school diploma or they're like, well, I don't know how to read, they still don't know how to read.

I mean, what are the long term effects from not being trained to properly read and comprehend?

Well, you can imagine it impacts every single aspect of their life, from the types of jobs they can get and the types of opportunities they have after high school, to the amount of money they make, their health outcomes are tied to literacy.

Their overall life expectancy is tied to literacy, it's tied to so many key aspects of life that we really have to think critically about what can we do to shift outcomes.

Now, Erica, I've been hearing about one tier, two tier, but now I'm hearing like three tier.

What is three tier, what are, explain all these tiers, what is three tier, why is it important?

Yeah, absolutely. So tier one is getting that high quality curriculum execution from a teacher in your classroom.

So everybody has access to tier one, and it's super important that you have highly qualified teachers in front of our students, and it's using a high quality curriculum.

Everybody is getting to your one, right? Tier two is when you're having a smaller group.

You're seeing maybe some foundational reading gaps, you're seeing some gaps within maybe some missed instruction and that they're needing a little bit more support.

So that would be a small group instruction. And then tier three is when you're getting even more targeted where it's a smaller, it's usually one or two.

That's where open literacy comes in in our model, in our MTSS, our multi-tiered system of support model is that with our tier three, we're able to give 50 kids at each campus that one on one tutoring exactly on their level.

So that tier three is that high intensive exactly what our kids need. That's where that tier three comes in.

And many times, a lot of kids need that one on one. They are in a group, but they kind of fade out.

But it seems like when they get that one on one, that more direct teaching model, they improve.

Yeah, well, and imagine being a teacher and having 26 students in your classroom and trying to meet the needs of every single one of your learners.

Right. It's virtually impossible. And that's where at MCP, we do have a teacher in every classroom and an educational assistant in every elementary classroom, which we are so lucky to be able to have two adults in each classroom.

But now we also have virtual tutoring where they're getting exactly what they need as well. So we're able to run our MTSS system by having a small group instruction in one room while the other classroom is having one to one virtual tutoring.

Oh, wow. I know I needed a lot of one to one. I think that I excelled better when I got mentors. Yeah. Oh, it's. Yeah. It's so powerful. And it's a game changer of the relationships that they create with their tutors.

Because it's the same tutor that they're logging in with every time and throughout the year, they're building relationships with them.

They'll ask them about their siblings or what they did over the weekend. And they end up learning so much about each one of their kids. And they're excited to talk to their tutor. And if it's on that tutoring day,

it's why don't we have tutoring today because they want to talk to their tutor.

Now Sarah, what are the results you're seeing with tier three, this type of style, you know, because you get to see a lot of things across the country.

What are you seeing with this tier three model?

So one to one intervention, one to one tutoring is just really an amazing structure.

As Erica said, the relationship is really powerful. And the mentorship piece, there is a key piece where there's this adult who the student has their undivided attention.

And that adult really believes in them as a learner and is rooting for them and is doing everything in their power to make sure they become a really skilled reader.

We see kids move with two years of growth with one year of instruction and sometimes even more. So we're more than doubling what they would get in a single school year.

And if you're reading two or more grade levels behind, that's the sort of intervention we have to move on because we don't have time to waste.

So we need interventions that move kids quickly and efficiently towards grade level reading.

Now, this seems like an approach that can actually help a lot of these young people, especially in Milwaukee.

Now, was it easy to implement the tier three? Was it a huge difference from moving from tier two to tier three or how was the, how were you able to move into that space?

It doesn't just happen. I'll say that. We have incredible educators at each one of our schools. And then we also have amazing administration at all of our schools.

And without that, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be happening. So our academic deans every school has an elementary academic dean in a middle school academic dean.

But the academic deans in the elementary school have really helped with the implementation of having strong routines and procedures and making sure teachers knew what to expect and students knew what to expect to be able to maximize every minute.

That they were getting into their open literacy, but then also making sure that in that tier two group in the other classroom, that they are getting their small groups that each kid is getting exactly what they need.

And we were just a minute ago talking about data, seeing how it works. But I do just want to say that last year in the winter, Wisconsin implemented Wisconsin act 20, which is.

It is a law that is based on foundational reading skills and seeing if kids are proficient in where they're supposed to be and it's for kindergarten through third grade.

Last year we in the winter when we first implemented act 20 per AIMS web, we had 41% of our scholars that were flagged, 41% as flagged as not being proficient.

This year when we took it again one year later, we are at 25% of our scholars being flagged.

So that's a huge drop in kids that were flagged as not being proficient in reading.

That's 116 kids that are on their on track for reading where they need to be one year later.

That's amazing.

Yeah, so we're making some really great growth in our partnership with Open Literacy and then having our MTSS system working together.

Now, this sounds like a great thing that's happening many times when we have great ideas.

I want to know when we come back, how do we spread this idea across the board?

Sarah, when you deal with literacy and things like that across the United States, is this something that we can have just standard implementing?

I want to talk about that when we get back.

And look, Truth Nation, when we come back we'll have more conversation. Stay locked in.

101, Seven of Truth, Tory Low, Tory Low Show. We got guests in the studio.

We got Erica Badger, Chief Academic Officer at Milwaukee College Prep.

And we got Sarah Scott Frank, PhD CEO of and founder of Open Literacy right here in the studio, came all the way in from Pittsburgh.

That's true.

Hey, look, when we talk about just schools across the country, how can they, how can they get a lot of this implemented, a lot of this tier three style of education?

And you know, what are the different outcomes that can happen if that happens, especially in school districts where there's low reading scores and things like that.

I think there's a couple of key things that we need to think about as we enter that conversation.

The first is that if we're going to transform reading outcomes in an individual school or in a district or across the nation, the school leaders are the instructional leaders in the school.

So having leadership like Erica and the school leaders at MCP, driving this change is really critical knowing, naming that we have to do something differently.

Our reading outcomes are not what they need to be.

And then thinking about as a system, how can we do that differently?

So that I feel like is the first thing.

The second thing is that MCP does have the luxury of this being a donor funded effort.

So tier three tutoring is currently paid for through philanthropy.

It doesn't have to all be paid for through philanthropy, but it certainly helps.

And we have to think differently about how school funding can be allocated so that this resource is possible.

It's not cheap, but lifelong illiteracy is way more expensive.

And so how can we use philanthropic dollars, how can we use federal funding, title one, title four.

And how can we just think about that MTSS space, that reading intervention space, and how money is being spent so that we can organize it to get that one to one tutoring for the kids who need it.

Because it is the tutoring is the most powerful intervention we have available to us.

It's the most research intervention, research based intervention.

It's the most high leverage, and it's worth investing.

And how can listeners learn more about what's going on at Milwaukee College Prep?

Because Milwaukee College Prep is closing the read the learning gap for 2000 students right here on the north side of Milwaukee.

Yes, we are.

You can head to mkeprep.com and you can learn more about the amazing things that we're doing at MCP.

We are also recruiting for high quality teachers and educational assistants right now.

And we are enrolling for next year for scholars.

So if you go to mkeprep.com, you can learn all about all about the great things that are happening.

And what are some of the signs that a parent look for as a red flag that their child is falling behind in reading?

That's a great question.

Do you want to?

I would start asking schools those really tough questions.

Is my child reading at grade level?

Can I see their scores?

If they send a report home that you don't understand, ask questions about it.

What does this mean?

What does this percentile mean?

Should I be concerned?

Have those hard conversations?

Because you don't want your child to get to fifth grade or twelfth grade and learn that your child can't read.

So we have to start asking those questions given the reports that come home.

We have to have these transparent conversations so that we're aware.

Let's name the problem and we're resolving it.

And if you're not getting things sent home from your school, that should be a red flag for you too.

Right.

Keeping you up to speed.

Yeah, you should know how your children are doing and you should be sent home resources to be using with your children too.

I think a lot of kids are using these urn and these laptops.

But when you talk about just education period, many times, a lot of parents show up and like, I didn't notice what's going on.

Right.

But that may be, you know, like you said, a red flag as far as the school and the way that the teachers are operating.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You should be, parents have such a huge important piece of their child's education and they should be, it's a partnership.

That's the only way it works.

Now, what are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about why students struggle to read?

As we think about misconceptions, I think that most people assume that their child is reading a grade level.

Right.

I mean, I think that is the biggest misconception and then they're surprised to learn that their child isn't reading a grade level.

So I would name that as the biggest one.

And just getting more books, I would say, isn't going to solve the problem.

I mean, 60% of students need really explicit phonics instruction if they're ever going to learn to read well.

And so we have to make sure that they get that instruction.

Think on this 40% will learn to read no matter what instruction they receive.

But that's 60% that needs explicit phonics instruction.

If they're not in a setting where that's being presented, they're not going to learn to read well.

Right.

And what is some advice to parents when they have the children at home, they say a lot of times kids learn more from home, you know, 80% of their what they understand from the home.

How can parents help develop their child in reading?

Well, I mean, first of all, coming to school every day is so, so, so important.

Right.

Like attendance matters.

It really does matter.

And that consistency for children really matters.

So getting them to come to school.

But then that partnership at home is reading.

I am not a, I'm not a believer in spending hours and hours on homework.

I'm a believer in reading at home reading with your children, having a little bit of homework here and there to, you know, to brush up on skills that you learned during the day.

But it's so important as parents that you are, you're reading with your kids.

Family members are reading, going to the library and spending time with kids and letting them know that reading is not necessarily this atrocious task that they have to do.

Oh, man, here I go.

I got to read.

Yes.

You know, it should be fun.

When I was coming up, we had reading Rainbow.

We had people encouraging you to go to the library, get a book.

I did have some large library fees, you know, from not taking books back.

But I did get them back and I did pay the fee.

But that happens.

But when we talk about just effective ways to monitor your child when it comes to just reading gaps to help fight against it.

How do we keep tabs to make sure that we're in sync with what the development needs.

What development needs to happen for the child to stay on course on path?

I mean, I think a big piece of that is that communication with schools, really communicating with classroom teachers and asking the tough questions.

If you're not getting answers from your school to understand where is my child or why, why are the grades this way?

And how can I better support at school?

Because a lot of times schools have resources that they can easily send home for families to use.

But then really using those resources too.

But I guess like the biggest piece is that communication with families, family to school.

Well, if people want to get involved with what's going on at MCP, I always tell people, hey, get involved with what's going on at MCP.

It's amazing work being done, especially in my own neighborhood of North Avenue.

You know, that's where I grew up in those areas.

And like I said, I am so excited on the work that's going on over there. How can people get involved?

Yeah, they can go to mkeprep.com and you can learn more about the amazing things that MCP is doing.

We are recruiting for high quality teachers and educational assistance for next year.

And we're also enrolling for next year at mkeprep.com is also a spot for if you're interested in donating to our schools or coming to be a part of it.

So that website is a catch all for you.

And Sarah, how can we support what you're doing?

Open letters.

Well, you can spread the word about the impact of high impact of one to one high impact tutoring and the possibility.

Some people are very skeptical of virtual tutoring.

And I mean, if you asked me five years ago if I thought it was a good idea, I probably would have said no.

But I've seen the power of it firsthand and there's so many advantages of it.

So at mke, or walkie college prep, 50 kids get tutoring all in 30 minutes.

So 50 tutors couldn't show up at the school.

That'd be 50 adults where we put them.

So it's very efficient.

50 kids get one to one tutoring in 30 minutes.

That is amazing.

That's powerful.

It's so powerful.

And so, just thinking, you know, spreading the word about the power of this virtual model.

And then we're always hiring tutors.

So we hire certified teachers with classroom teaching experience at OpenLiteracy.com's last jobs.

So if this has sparked your interest in becoming a tutor, I've been working with the amazing kids at MCP and all across the country.

You can never have enough tutors.

And we love, we do have some Milwaukee based tutors.

And it's really powerful for those tutors to be able to talk with these kids and say, oh, yeah, I know your neighborhood.

Puff!

Hey, look.

Erica Badger, Chief Academic Officer at Milwaukee College Prep.

Sarah Scott Frank, PhD, CEO and founder of OpenLiteracy in the studio.

It's been an amazing conversation.

I appreciate y'all for coming through.

Hey, look, I cannot wait, you know, because like I said, we got a lot of things going on at MCP.

And I want to hear more of it.

As we continue, you know, with the journey of literacy, learning, education, reading.

This is just amazing.

This was a conversation that was needed many times when I get young people in here.

You know, I'd be like, okay, where are we going to get the help from?

Because they needed tutoring mentors.

Thank you for coming through.