At Tuesday’s Principal Meeting, the Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Early Learning awarded Person County Schools the 2023-2024 Science of Reading True Trailblazer Award, celebrating exemplary leadership in guiding the school system through the shift to the Science of Reading.
Person County Schools created a Literacy Roadmap to achieve aligned literacy goals, including school administrators participating in Literacy for Leaders professional development for a deeper dive into the Literacy Instructional Standards. The goals of this initiative included creating a monthly focus, collecting data across the district, and then developing aligned, targeted professional development based on the outcomes.
Collaboration across departments and roles is the norm in Person County Schools. Dr. Peterson and stakeholders understand the importance and urgency of children learning to read. For this reason, LETRS instruction, a focus on high-quality Professional Learning Communities, data discussions, and addressing student needs are all priorities within the district. The district is implementing a curriculum aligned to the Science of Reading and providing ongoing professional development, coaching, and modeling as needed.
Due in part to the reasons stated above, Person County Schools received the award, a letter of commendation from Catherine Truitt, Superintendent of the NC Department of Instruction, and will be added to the NC Promising Practices Map for all the work promoting early literacy.
The staff of Person County Schools would like to thank the Office of Early Learning with the NC Department of Public Instruction for visiting to present this award.