A $100,000 state grant will help Lynn’s public schools bolster its early literacy screening program, allowing the district to select a screener that fully meets expectations as set by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The screener serves a dual purpose, first to identify or determine indications of growth in early literacy skills for students and to identify children who may be at risk of reading difficulty, with the results informing instruction for administrators and educators, Assistant Director of ELA/Reading – Elementary Michelle Winslow said in an interview. She said the district already has a screener that partially meets DESE expectations.

Winslow said the district has already taken several other steps to strengthen literacy development, including implementing a high-quality instructional ELA core curriculum for grades K through five. The district is also in the second year of implementing an evidence-based early foundational skills program that supports instruction.

To ultimately select the new screener, the district will assemble a committee of administrators, instructional coaches, and teachers to winnow down the choices from four to two based on a vision and priorities established for an early literacy screener.

The $100,000 award received by Lynn was the largest in the state, Winslow said, but more funds will likely be needed to support the implementation of the new screener, professional development, and training for the administration of the screener and how to interpret the results it generates. Training would begin at the onset of the 2024-2025 school year in a phased approach, Winslow said.

Winslow emphasized that implementing a new screener does not represent an indictment of the current program.

“We want to ensure that we’re using the best potential possible screener that we can use,” she said, noting that any new screener would likely feature components not in the current process. “The screening process will allow schools to have [an] indication of [students] at risk for not advancing in literacy growth.”

“We’re moving in the right direction,” Winslow added.

Winslow said much of the work in the district is centered on ensuring educators and administrators have “really good granular data” to support students and instruction.

“We want to make sure we foster and provide instruction … that really support[s] our students in getting to grade level mastery, but also in supporting those critical early foundational skills,” she said.