Principal’s Words of Praise
Below is an excerpt of a letter from Principal Guthrie Fleischman of Betty Reid Soskin Middle School (formerly Crespi), whose students have been coached since 2017:
Betty Reid Soskin Middle School is a Title 1 school in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. We serve a student body with over 80% of our students receiving free and reduced lunch. 21% of our students are English Language Learners. 16% of our students are in Special Education. Additionally, the majority of our students enter middle school reading and writing below grade level. We at [Soskin] have implemented numerous interventions to build a more equitable school and to increase academic outcomes for our students. They deserve the best that education has to offer.
One such intervention has been our four years of partnership with the Writer Coach Connection (WCC). Beginning in the 2017-18 school year, we partnered with coaches from WCC in all of our mainstream 7th Grade English classes. The team from WCC was fastidious at the outset in building a support that was tailored to our needs and based on teacher input. The site representative has always gone the extra mile to pair up students with coaches with whom they could relate and build strong relationships. They have also recruited and retained an amazing core of coaches who care deeply about not only the academic outcomes for students but also for the students themselves. They humanize the writing process and give the students an opportunity to delve into their own experiences as they improve their academic skills. The process allows students to strengthen their own voices.
The response to WCC from students and teachers has been universally positive. My own observations of the program showed me a room with 100% student engagement in either 1 on 1 or small group coaching. That level of adult attention is simply impossible without an intervention such as WCC. We have never doubted whether we wanted to bring them back for another year. The data generated from pre- and post-assessments has shown that most of the students made at least nominal gains and some students made tremendous gains in their writing over the course of the program. Nearly every student reported a positive experience and an increased joy for writing.
