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The Beacon Fall 2021
News Around Windward
Windward Establishes Promise Project Partnership
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wo major goals within year one of Windward’s three-year diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging plan were to increase the diversity of the student body and to establish ongoing outreach and resources for underserved communities. To meet those goals, in the fall of 2020, The Windward School and The Windward Institute partnered with Promise Project, a nonprofit organization that serves New York City schoolchildren from low-income backgrounds who are struggling with learning and attention issues. Through their program, PROMISE at Columbia, children receive, at low or no-cost, state-of-the-art neuropsychological assessments, clinical recommendations, and the necessary follow-up to get the services they need to learn.
Windward’s ThreePronged Approach Since the inception of its partnership with the Promise Project, Windward has taken steps toward advancing equity in education in underresourced populations. 1. Increasing opportunity for Promise students to benefit from Windward’s instructional program: The Promise Clinic and Windward’s Admissions teams have regularly collaborated to identify and admit students who would benefit from explicit, structured, sequential literacy instruction. For the 2021-22 academic year, Windward committed to offering scholarship assistance.
2. Expanding the reach of instruction and faculty expertise through a collaborative tutoring project: This spring, The Windward Institute and Promise Clinic teams launched a pilot program to pair Windward faculty with students already participating in the Promise Clinic programs. Windward tutors worked with students virtually throughout the summer, noting the progress made in students’ reading using Windward’s instructional program. The tutors shared that they enjoyed the opportunity in partnering with the Promise Clinic to cultivate relationships with more students across New York City, beyond Windward. This tutoring project, which expands upon The Windward Institute’s pillars and mission, will continue throughout the 2021–22 academic school year. 3. Targeting the needs of older students through Windward’s renowned summer program: Members of the Promise Clinic and The Windward’s School Summer Program leadership team identified older students to participate in the four-week academic and social program. Through this partnership with Promise Project, Windward’s aim is to truly embody its mission, to live its vision of a world where every child with a language-based learning disability is empowered to achieve unlimited success.
Wyoming Educators Called to Disrupt the Status Quo
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t the Wyoming Department of Education Embracing Literacy conference on July 20, Special Projects Advisor to The Windward Institute, John J. Russell, EdD, gave a presentation, “Disrupting the Status Quo: Advancing ResearchBased Practices,” to an audience of more than 500 attendees, including educators, administrators, and legislators on how they could improve literacy rates in Wyoming through changes in preservice programs and certification. The state is reevaluating its reading curriculum and teaching models, as research shows significant room for improvement for students. The latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) worldwide ranking of average scores of math, science, and reading ranked the United States as 31st in the world for students’ scholastic performance. Meanwhile, The Nation’s Report Card indicated 59% of Wyoming fourth grade students were reading below the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) proficient level and 66% of Wyoming eighth grade students were reading below the NAEP proficient level.
In his presentation, Dr. Russell outlined six strategies for disrupting the educational status quo in Wyoming: clarifying terminology, establishing the components of scientifically-based reading programs, improving teacher preparation, strengthening licensing requirements, using data to drive decision making, and advocating the Science of Reading in all classrooms. Dr. Russell was then invited by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow to meet with additional Wyoming educators on September 21 at the Wyoming Education Summit “Pursuing Excellence Together: Moving Forward.” He joined fellow speakers, including psychologist David Yeager and authors Frederick Hess and Pedro Noguera, to share Read more on the six knowledge on education, strategies to disrupt the leadership, and instruction educational status quo in in K-12 education. Inside the Institute penned by Dr. Russell on page 14.
