In The News: Joan Austin Elementary School honored for reading program

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic

Elementary school honored by the Oregon Reading Association for its approach to teaching literacy

Joan Austin Elementary school has been recognized as the state’s Exemplary Reading Program for 2016 by the Oregon Reading Association.

The award is a program of the International Literacy Association and is given to one school in each state.

Along with the award, the school received a $1,500 cash award and sent five teachers to the ORA’s winter institute Feb. 13.

Principal Terry McElligott filled out an extensive application, which was assessed by the International Literacy Association before being forwarded to the ORA.

McElligott did not tell the staff she had applied for the award until the ORA arranged to do a site visit, upon which it bases its evaluation.

“It’s a big shift in the thinking we’ve done over the last few years and that’s not always easy,” Learning Resource Center teacher Nicole Hyatt said. “I think she was appreciative, so she did all that work to nominate us.”

Among the strengths of Joan Austin’s program recognized by the award review committee was its focus on connecting reading to writing and integrating writing across subject matters.

“Every student piece of work — whether art, science or literacy — was accompanied by a writing piece,” said committee chair and ORA President Katherine Inman. “Students were able to write in many genres.”

The school was also recognized for offering a wide variety of intervention options for struggling students and participating in reading-focused events like Battle of the Books and the Million Minutes.

Joan Austin is a Title I program and has focused those resources on interventions with students in grades K-3, which has paid big dividends according to fourth-grade teacher Jeannie Buck, who also serves as chairwoman for the school’s site council.

“They serve huge numbers at the lower grades, so they’re coming in a lot higher readers,” Buck said. “I have to give a lot of credit to our Title I teachers. They do a great job.”

McElligott has made reading instruction a school-wide effort that emphasizes a team approach to supporting each student.

“The main thing we’ve done as a staff is to work together and have the same words in reading and writing, so that we’re using the same vocabulary and same ideas,” Buck said. “We’re not having to reinvent the wheel every year.”

McElligott added that the school is in the midst of adopting new language arts curriculum that will be introduced for the 2016-2017 school year and that she may spend some of the prize money for upgrades in that area.

“She is a good leader,” Hyatt said. “She was a beloved teacher before she came here and you can see that in the way she leads. Students are most important. As a staff, we really appreciate that.”