Stephen Bell Elementary reports science-of-reading rollout, shows spring gains and high teacher buy-in

Stephen Bell Elementary staff told the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek board on May 9 that a multi-year implementation of evidence-based reading instruction is producing measurable gains.

Ginger Keaton, Stephen Bell's building principal, described the school's adoption of structured-literacy programs ' including Foundations and Geodes ' and said teachers use MAP and foundations tracker data to guide instruction and interventions. Keaton provided enrollment figures for early grades (193 kindergarteners, 184 first-graders and 223 second-graders) and credited district support for maintaining smaller class sizes in the near term.

Literacy coach Becca Campbell summarized her first-year coaching work: classroom observations, small-group modeling, lesson planning templates and follow-up feedback cycles. Campbell said teacher feedback on coaching was strongly positive: 94.4% of teachers said coaching provided positive feedback to improve practice and 88.9% said literacy coaching was valuable for curriculum implementation. Presenters described implementation details such as 30'40 minute whole-group Foundations lessons, small-group decodable-text rotations (Geodes), differentiated literacy rotations (accuracy, fluency and comprehension), and the use of a dyslexia screener earlier in the year.

Keaton and staff said the data will drive next-year planning to further support kindergarten, and highlighted the new literacy coach role as central to sustaining fidelity and teacher development. Trustees thanked staff for the implementation and noted the district-level requirement to align curriculum to Ohio's recently updated standards.