Tish Howard, Washington Mill's new principal, needed some help. She was looking for an outside assessment tool and discovered the "Sing, Spell, Read & Write" (SSRW) program, a systematic, explicit phonics program, which uses a multisensory approach including rhymes, music, charts, oral, and silent reading of texts keyed to the program.
After studying the program and observing its use in other schools, Howard was enthusiastic about this program’s potential to improve reading skills for all students.
Research shows that structured systematic phonics, combined with a rich literature program, is beneficial to all children but is especially valuable to those from less advantaged or literacy-rich backgrounds. With the new federal "No Child Left Behind Act" requiring schools to compile and report testing data not only for the school as a whole but for every sub-group within the school, this tool was even more necessary.
However, with a price tag of almost $10,000, Howard needed some help to fund the project.
Howard turned to her neighbors — the school's neighbors, that is. She requested help from the Mount Vernon Civic Association, a group representing 900 homes in the area around Washington Mill Elementary School.
THEY ROSE TO THE occasion. Last week, president Dan Rinzel announced that the Association board authorized a contribution of $7,500 to Washington Mill Elementary School to help defray the cost of providing the SSRW program in the kindergarten and first grade. The Association had given smaller amounts to other causes in the past but discovered this need through Dan Rinzel's wife, Ann, who does substitute teaching at Washington Mill.
"The school's very important to us," said Rinzel. "Even though many of the residents are retired, they were still interested in supporting the school. It's important to the quality of the neighborhood."
Rinzel said that Howard has been very generous in letting his group and others use the school's facilities.
"We [the Civic Association and Washington Mill] have a good working relationship," he said.
Howard hopes to have the program in place for next year, although she said that shoehorning it into the limited time of half-day kindergarten will be a challenge.
"I'm thrilled. The Civic Association has been so responsive and supportive. This is what every new principal dreams of," said Howard.