Barbara Nemko, Napa County Superintendent of Schools reveals how NCOE’s partnership with Chartwell Teaching Institute gave educators a newfound sense of confidence when teaching their students to read:
As a former reading teacher in the NYC Public Schools, I did my dissertation at UC Berkeley studying how we teach reading and why the results haven’t met our expectations. No one could give me a definitive answer. Decades later, when I became County Superintendent of Schools, we were still struggling with dismal reading achievement. Two years ago, I was introduced to Chartwell School and Jodi Amaditz and saw specific, strategic and proven techniques being used in Chartwell classrooms. But as a New Yorker, I was skeptical. Chartwell School has small class sizes. How could these strategies possibly scale to work in a large, high-poverty school?
Jodi’s invitation to R.O. Hardin Elementary School in Hollister (a public school that Chartwell has been partnered with since 2018) dispelled my doubts. Their comprehensive approach, with everyone on the faculty and staff participating, collaborating, and innovating, gave me great optimism for the future. When our office was awarded a Lead to Literacy grant from the California Department of Education, Jodi was our first choice for professional development and academic support.
Our staff attended a week-long immersion program at Chartwell to fully understand the strategies and techniques they would soon implement in their classrooms. Jodi and Chantel Touryan-Schafer came to Napa for three days and hosted a professional development workshop for teachers from throughout Napa County. Their district superintendents attended the training as well, signaling its importance to the teachers and learning right alongside them. When everyone returned to the classrooms, the teachers, supported by their administrators, were much more confident and competent in teaching their students to read.
It may not be a magic bullet, but we are very excited to see the improvements in how our students are reading and how much more interested in books they are. Through our grant, we will do everything we can to share this with as many districts and teachers as possible. We hope you will join us in our journey towards a deeper understanding of the child’s learning process and support them to achieve literacy success.
Barbara Nemko, Chantel Touryan-Schaefer, associate director of CTI, and Napa County educators came together at a district partnership training this past August in Napa.
Barbara Nemko, Ph.D. has been the Napa County Superintendent of Schools for seven terms (since April 1997). She is currently the longest serving County-Superintendent in California. Read more about Barbara and her achievements here.
