Believe & Read Program is available at St Francis Xavier School!

In Partnership with Catholic Schools Center of Excellence (CSCOE) and Groves Academy

Did you know that in America today, the number of students who are not reading at grade level by 3rd grade is 60 percent?

As many parents know, if children don’t become fluent readers by the end of 3rd grade, they will have a difficult time catching up. The average number of struggling K-3 readers in our Catholic school system is close to 25 percent, and we will not be satisfied until all of our students are fluent readers and achieve all that God intends for them.

To address this, St. Francis Xavier School is one of nearly 50 schools in the Archdiocese partnering with Groves Academy, a national expert in reading instruction, to transform our literacy instruction. The program is called Believe and Read. Powered by the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence, Believe and Read is a three-year initiative that brings Groves Academy’s methodology to St. Francis Xavier School through outstanding professional development and teacher coaching. Our goal is to ensure that every student at our school reads at or above grade level.

All students who participate in Believe and Read will benefit — struggling readers become proficient, and good readers become great ones!

How Believe and Read works:

• Literacy coaches from Groves Academy will work with our teachers (K-2 in 2021-22, and K-3 starting 2022-23) over a three-year period.
• In addition to building students’ vocabulary and comprehension skills through their regular reading lessons, teachers will incorporate a daily 30-minute phonics-based lesson to ensure students are grasping the reading rules needed to achieve fluency.
• Lessons are designed so that teachers will know exactly how and when to introduce each letter, along with its sounds, and how to build up to words from there.
• Teachers will receive weekly support and feedback from a professional literacy coach, along with assistance in tracking student progress.

If you would like to learn more about Believe and Read or discuss how St. Francis Xavier School could be a good fit for your family, please contact Alisa Louwagie, STFX School Principal, at 763-489-9227 or alisa.louwagie@stfxb.org .

Check out the Believe and Read Magazine: Click Here!