Making Changes to Drive Student Success With Dena Mortensen

“There's nothing that's going to change student achievement more powerfully than the teacher, but it's very difficult for the teacher to do that job if they don't have support from leadership at the top,” Dena Mortensen, Ed.D. explains in Episode 7 of All For Literacy™. 

 

Mortensen sits down with host Dr. Liz Brooke to discuss a boots-on-the-ground perspective about implementing the science of reading. An elementary reading and language arts supervisor for Waterbury Public Schools in Waterbury, Connecticut, Mortensen offers listeners a detailed look into how the school district is making changes to improve student literacy rates. Mortensen also discusses her involvement with the documentary “Hopeville: How to Win the Reading Wars,” directed and produced by All For Literacy Episode 6 guest Harvey Hubbell V. 

 

Mortensen and Brooke explore how to:

• Encourage teachers to adopt the use of progress-monitoring data
• Make a dedication to evidence front and center
• Repurpose balanced literacy and whole language materials
• Support teachers as they learn about the science of reading
• Make in-classroom coaching accessible to all

 

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