Fifth year of partnership; new grant for high school efforts means entire K-12 literacy continuum being addressed in Charlestown

Most schools in the Commonwealth may be fortunate to possess “equitable literacy” – access to high-quality reading and writing instruction, regardless of one’s background, identity, or circumstances – but at Charlestown High School, equitable literacy is a goal, not a given. That’s because of the inherent challenges that come with schools serving diverse communities: a substantial number of students are new to this country, are new to learning English, have a learning disability, or represent a combination of these. 

Seeing literacy as a civil right, the high school is partnering with the MGH Institute of Health Professions, which will supply a team of faculty and graduate students from its Literacy and Language program over the next three year to give teachers and students the literacy tools they need to succeed. 

The partnership is possible thanks to a grant from the leading provider of assurance, tax and consulting services for the middle market, RSM US LLP, which has an office just outside the Charlestown Navy Yard and for five years has been a steady partner with the MGH Institute in its efforts to improve literacy in the Charlestown community. 

The grant for high school students completes Charlestown’s K-12 literacy continuum; RSM and the MGH Institute are currently partnering on literacy efforts at the Kennedy Center pre-school, the Harvard-Kent and Warren-Prescott Elementary schools, and now the high school, which admits students beginning in the 7th grade. 

“We just care about this community so much,” said Madison McCabe, President of the RSM Boston Foundation and Culture and Engagement Manager for the company. “Our mission is to give back to the community where we live and work. We really want to have an impact on the future of these children, who are right in our backyard, and give them the opportunity that they deserve to thrive in this world. And if we can have the smallest impact, that's what we want.”

A significant impact at the high school is what all parties are hoping for. 

“The MGH Institute will be helping design the student/teacher interventions in the way that's most efficient and then consulting on the actual instructional strategies and trainings that would benefit the staff before they're going into the classroom,” said Ajay Trivedi, Charlestown High School’s principal. “The folks at the MGH Institute are experts in a way that we are not when it comes to what's going to be the most impactful work and what models and strategies we should be using.”

The MGH Institute will design a multi-tiered approach that will start with teacher support. 

“Initially, we will observe in the classrooms,  review the curriculum, and meet with the educators to identify existing supports and barriers to literacy,” said Trish Kelley-Nazzaro, Director of the MGH Institute’s Literacy & Language Certificate Program. “We will help build and scaffold the curriculum that the school already has in place, making it accessible to all learners. That means helping teachers embed language and literacy supports in general education classrooms for all students as well as designing intensive intervention for those students who struggle with foundational reading and writing skills.”

MGH Institute faculty and graduate students will then turn their attention to the Charlestown High School students who need help with foundational reading and writing skills, reading comprehension and sentence structure, students learning English as a second language, and those who have a learning disability.

Trivedi estimates more than 500 of his 700 students fall into at least one of these categories, and that turning the tide on what he calls a literacy epidemic in this country is critical to changing the course of someone’s life. 

“Students are entering a world where others are very happy to make meaning of things for us,” said Trivedi, now in his fourth year leading Charlestown High School. “And if students are not literate, if they are not able to make meaning of text for themselves, then they will go through their lives where others will make meaning of text for them. We work in a school, and we serve students and families who have been disenfranchised by systems, and there's a real empowerment and agency that comes through literacy.”

Identifying and addressing literacy gaps means walking a fine line in how a student is categorized. 

“We want to be sure we utilize appropriate assessment practices, so we are not over-identifying students for special education. Sometimes, a language difference is misdiagnosed as a learning disability in multilingual students” points out Kelley-Nazzaro. “And the opposite can happen as well – we don’t want to attribute a student’s lack of progress to a language barrier, when in fact, they may have a learning disability requiring specialized instruction. Identifying a student's strengths and needs is critical to developing appropriate educational interventions.”

Equitable literacy may not occur overnight, but Trivedi is confident it will come thanks to a shared mission of caring from his partners, the MGH Institute and RSM. 

“I feel really lucky to be in the proximity of people who are ready and excited to put resources into Boston Public Schools and into kids, period,” noted Trivedi. “Beyond the resources, with the MGH Institute and RSM, there's a real alignment of the values and goals for what we see as futures for our individual students, our workforces, and future graduates. It's been exciting at that level to be connected with experts in the field and to feel the benefit of their work coming back here to support students.”

“The MGH Institute and RSM - I feel like it’s a match made in heaven,” reflected RSM’s McCabe. “We both are on this path to create a better future for these kids, and so why not partner up and just have an even bigger impact? The MGH Institute has the experts who can actually get into the schools and be boots on the ground, and we can help fund it. This is the perfect fit.”