New York City — Two years ago, 13-year-old Liam Seminara was struggling in school and transferred to St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy in Brooklyn looking for a change.
The eighth grader is now testing above grade level. He’s a member of the school’s robotics team and is a passionate reader who says he reads “way more” than he did prior to coming to St. Joseph.
Data released last month by the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that scores nationwide in reading among fourth and eighth graders have dropped on average five points since 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help.
Now, only 30% of eighth graders across the U.S. are proficient in reading, according to the NAEP assessment. But in the Diocese of Brooklyn, almost 70% of students currently in eighth grade are thriving in both English and math, according to district data.
Prior to the pandemic, the district noticed a decline in scores. So it decided to alter its approach to instruction, according to Deacon Kevin McCormack, superintendent for Catholic Schools of Brooklyn and Queens.
“We had to change the way we were thinking,” McCormack said.
It responded by implementing new strategies, including specialized coaches that monitor teachers like Sophia DeMartino to ensure lesson plans are effective.
DeMartino, who teaches middle school English at St. Joseph, describes her coach Stephanie as “wonderful.”
“She helps to support me,” DeMartino told CBS News. “I’ll be like, ‘I’m not sure about this lesson. Can you help me?’ And she’ll just tweak it a little bit and be like, ‘Instead of doing X, Y, do Z, A.’ And then I go to do it, and it works perfectly.”
They also tailor instruction to each student’s skill level by breaking them into small groups.
“So we all learn the same stuff, like, the same subject,” Seminara said. “What happens a lot is smaller groups are taught that subject in a way that it’s easier to learn for them. And then sometimes, it’s also just the whole class.”
DeMartino says a “huge concern” for middle schoolers is that they don’t gain a love for reading, which can carry “disastrous effects.”
“My kids want to go into the NFL and things like that. You need to be able to read your contract and really understand the tricky language that can be in a contract,” DeMartino said.
A third of the students in the district receive financial aid. Tuition and fundraising are paying for the new programs.
McCormack believes this can be a model for schools across the U.S.
“I think it can be,” McCormack said. “First of all, everyone is welcome. That’s the key point here. The second part is, is that we accept the kids for where they are, and bring them to where they can be.”
