Phelps County Community Foundation Logo
Phelps County’s five school districts will be part of a pilot program beginning this fall that aims to train literacy coaches and 50 kindergarten and first grade teachers in those districts, Phelps County Community Foundation announced in a press release today.
The pilot project is named the Rural Schools Early Literacy Collaborative-Phelps County and spans three years.
Working alongside the state Department of Education and Secondary Education and the South Central Regional Professional Development Centers, the collaborative in Phelps County will serve as an incubator from which the state can adopt an effective coaching model to improve literacy.
The training will be done in the Phelps County school districts by The New Teacher Project (TNTP), a national not for profit that offers direct consulting, research and advocacy work in schools and districts across the country.
During the school year, a team of 10 TNTP staff will visit Phelps County monthly for four to five days. The team hails from across the country (Arizona, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, etc.). Each member has a strong foundation in literacy and a successful track record of coaching teachers and/or administrators.
“I’ve been talking with several foundations across the state about early literacy work in rural Missouri for almost a year now,” said TNTP partner Jon Richard of Kansas City. “We’ve garnered a lot of interest from other regions, but The Phelps County Community Foundation has been the most active in aligning this work with the goals in its strategic plan, leveraging relationships with the districts and getting buy-in, and of course – contributing to the cost of the program.”
The goal for the work in Phelps County with kindergarten and first grade students is to not only improve literacy in the county by training those closest to the kids, but to create a coaching model that will work in other regions in Missouri. The literacy improvement for students will happen at the same time 50 educators in Phelps County will be receiving individual guidance and training to ensure these educators have a solid understanding. This program gives Phelps County the skills to cross-train and continue the training even after TNTP has completed our three-year coaching program.
“A chance meeting at the Rural Philanthropy Summit in April 2023 was pivotal sparking a collaborative effort among TKD Foundation, a private partner and TNTP,” said Kim Day, PCCF board treasurer and TKD Foundation president.
“With the formation of Phelps County Community Foundation and our shared focus on early childhood, this organization emerged as the essential leader for our rural county. Together with every Phelps County school superintendent, we've paved the way for the launch of this impactful educational program in all local elementary schools. The excitement around this collaborative effort has brought the entire Phelps County educational community together to focus on our children today and for future generations to come."
To assist in the state's development and hiring of future literacy coaches, as part of the program TNTP will partner with Missouri University of Science and Technology to develop a literacy certification program, ensuring the collaboration will provide future literacy coaches trained in the science of reading.
TNTP will conduct this work over a three-year period from July 1, 2024, through July 1, 2027.
