MPSD Staff Trained on New Reading Curriculum / Reform Program
To improve student literacy and other student achievement, MPSD is getting ready to roll out a new reading curriculum and whole-school reform program called Success for All (SFA) for the 2023-2024 school year.
In mid-July 2023, 27 staff members from MPSD's eight elementary and middle schools attended SFA's New Leaders Institute in Baltimore, MD. They learned how to bring more focused reading, student teamwork and fun, cooperative learning to their classrooms. MPSD elementary and middle school teachers will be trained in-depth
by SFA during their first week back, August 21-25, before students return. (
Learn more about SFA here).
Monroe Elementary's new Principal Alexandra Nugent-Timfeeva told the MPSD School Board July 25: "We were all trained very well.... There was a lot of fun in the SFA (curriculum) itself. Despite it being change and difficult, it's really framed around collaboration and teamwork.... so I felt empowered when I was there. I feel prepared to bring that to my staff and I have a really positive outlook on this year."
Dean Sleger, who will be moving from the classroom after 22 years to become a SFA facilitator at Jackson Elementary, said he looks forward to helping and coaching fellow educators with the new materials that were recently delivered to MPSD. The new 90 minutes of reading instruction tailored to each student's level is not scripted as some teachers feared, he said, and will be a big benefit to students. "I'm very excited for our students," Sleger said.
Nugent-Timfeeva said SFA's student differentiation and data-driven instruction is "taking the really great parts of teaching and putting it into a system that everyone can do."