Phelps County Community Foundation

Phelps County’s five school districts will be part of a pilot program beginning this fall that aims to train literacy coaches and 50 kindergarten and first grade teachers in those districts, Phelps County Community Foundation announced in a press release today.

The pilot project is named the Rural Schools Early Literacy Collaborative-Phelps County and spans three years.

Working alongside the state Department of Education and Secondary Education and the South Central Regional Professional Development Centers, the collaborative in Phelps County will serve as an incubator from which the state can adopt an effective coaching model to improve literacy.

The training will be done in the Phelps County school districts by The New Teacher Project (TNTP), a national not for profit that offers direct consulting, research and advocacy work in schools and districts across the country.

During the school year, a team of 10 TNTP staff will visit Phelps County monthly for four to five days. The team hails from across the country (Arizona, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, etc.). Each member has a strong foundation in literacy and a successful track record of coaching teachers and/or administrators. 

“I’ve been talking with several foundations across the state about early literacy work in rural Missouri for almost a year now,” said TNTP partner Jon Richard of Kansas City. “We’ve garnered a lot of interest from other regions, but The Phelps County Community Foundation has been the most active in aligning this work with the goals in its strategic plan, leveraging relationships with the districts and getting buy-in, and of course – contributing to the cost of the program.”

The goal for the work in Phelps County with kindergarten and first grade students is to not only improve literacy in the county by training those closest to the kids, but to create a coaching model that will work in other regions in Missouri. The literacy improvement for students will happen at the same time 50 educators in Phelps County will be receiving individual guidance and training to ensure these educators have a solid understanding. This program gives Phelps County the skills to cross-train and continue the training even after TNTP has completed our three-year coaching program.

“A chance meeting at the Rural Philanthropy Summit in April 2023 was pivotal sparking a collaborative effort among TKD Foundation, a private partner and TNTP,” said Kim Day, PCCF board treasurer and TKD Foundation president.

“With the formation of Phelps County Community Foundation and our shared focus on early childhood, this organization emerged as the essential leader for our rural county. Together with every Phelps County school superintendent, we've paved the way for the launch of this impactful educational program in all local elementary schools. The excitement around this collaborative effort has brought the entire Phelps County educational community together to focus on our children today and for future generations to come."

To assist in the state's development and hiring of future literacy coaches, as part of the program TNTP will partner with Missouri University of Science and Technology to develop a literacy certification program, ensuring the collaboration will provide future literacy coaches trained in the science of reading.

TNTP will conduct this work over a three-year period from July 1, 2024 through July 1, 2027.

“TNTP is thrilled to partner with the five Phelps County school districts, the South Central Regional Professional Development Center and Missouri S&T,” said Richard. “Together, our collective impact will create long lasting, systemic change and ensure all children across Phelps County are reading on grade level by third grade.” 

With a staff of 650, TNTP publishes original research, including “The Opportunity Myth” in 2018, the mainstay of its current strategic plan. Since its publication, TNTP has reached over 10,000 school systems and 34 million young people nationwide.

Background

The pilot program grew from a need for literacy in Missouri, including rural districts such as those in Phelps County. The 2022-2023 Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) showed that 58% of third graders are scoring below proficient in English Language Arts1. The state addressed literacy with The Missouri Read, Lead, Exceed initiative, a plan to dedicate $25 million in state funding and over $35 million in federal relief funding to support student literacy.

As part of the state’s plan, nearly 10,000 K-5 educators have received training in Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS).

In 2023, DESE deployed 50 literacy coaches across the state to take learnings from LETRS training and help teachers apply it in their classrooms. In the fall of 2024, DESE requested funds to hire 125 more literacy coaches to serve more than 10,000 literacy teachers in Missouri’s 556 school districts.

While The Missouri Read, Lead, Exceed initiative is a step in the right direction, it is not enough to reach all Missouri students. Of the nearly one million students attending K-12 public schools in Missouri, over 400,000 attend school in a rural community. More than 440 rural districts enroll fewer than 2,000 students, meaning training with the Missouri literacy program is not enough.

Enter the Phelps County Community Foundation, TNTP and the five Phelps County school districts, Rolla 31, St. James R-I, Newburg R-II, Phelps County R-III and Dent-Phelps R-III.

All Phelps County schools have been preparing this summer for the pilot program, which will see an influx of literacy trainers from all across the country to help local school districts build their own teams.