With a population of around 7,800, the city of Corbin lies along the Cumberland Plateau in the rugged foothills of the Appalachians of southeastern Kentucky. Corbin Independent School District operates within a city where the average per capita income sits around $14,200. More than one in five people live below the poverty line, including one in four children under age 18.
The school district serves approximately 3,000 students across two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Educators at both elementary schools had long used a Balanced Literacy approach to early literacy instruction. Unfortunately, many students had struggled to develop grade-level reading skills and were consistently being held back because of their low reading proficiency.
In the fall of 2021, Corbin ISD leaders utilized ESSER funding to employ reading interventionists and to start using curriculum support programs. They hoped to counteract disrupted learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
They chose to implement SPIRE®, a multisensory Orton-Gillingham-based reading intervention program. SPIRE's strong foundation in science of reading principles particularly resonated with Corbin ISD district leaders, who recognized the importance of using evidence-based approaches to literacy instruction. Additionally, the district was drawn to SPIRE's emphasis on direct, explicit instruction—a teaching methodology that provides clear, systematic guidance to students through each step of the learning process.
SPIRE was initially implemented with 490 students across K–5 (377 in Grades K–2, 113 in Grades 3–5). Upon analyzing initial assessments, educators found many students weren’t yet ready for SPIRE Level 1; these students started with SPIRE Foundations: Sounds Sensible.
Corbin ISD hired new interventionists from within their own ranks, asking them to implement SPIRE and track the data. The interventionists quickly observed major improvements across the board. “SPIRE has been instrumental in changing our school!” said Angela H. Disney, Learning Loss Interventionist, Corbin Primary School. “We’re very thankful for how much it has helped our students.” Disney said educators were excited about the remarkable progress they saw, the improved ability to diagnose where students need help, the direction and support for teachers throughout implementation, and the convenience and power of data tracking.
School leaders discovered that SPIRE significantly reduced their lesson preparation time, allowing them to focus more energy on actual instruction rather than planning. Furthermore, the district found that SPIRE's carefully structured scope and sequence provided an optimal learning pathway for students, methodically introducing and building upon reading concepts in a logical, research-supported order. The digital version of SPIRE allows teachers to score print assessments and track students’ progress online. The STAR progress monitoring feature in SPIRE was one of Corbin teachers’ favorite features, enabling them to collect key data points and analyze school-wide data.
Disney noted other positive changes since implementing SPIRE, including better cohesion between the district’s primary school and elementary school. “We’re able to sit down and discuss each student and their transitional needs,” said Disney. By closely monitoring student aptitudes and growth, teachers and administrators were able to track tremendous gains in reading ability, demonstrating that the program was closing gaps and changing the course of these students’ trajectories.
A comparison of the MAP Growth reading assessment scores from 2018–19 against those from 2021–22, seven months after implementing reading intervention using SPIRE, showed tremendous growth in reading levels.
Kindergartners—students at a critical age for reading acquisition—showed a staggering 21% rate of improvement. First, third, fourth, and fifth grades also showed robust growth, with an average of 7% improvement across all K–5 grades.
Corbin ISD showed significant improvement across all other grades, not just for MAP Growth reading assessment scores but also for intangible benefits like greater confidence, better behavior, a new mindset toward reading, and the vision of a more promising future for students, the school, and community.
“It has been an amazing experience,” said Ashley Hill, Corbin ISD Chief Academic Officer, “seeing the incredible improvement that has taken place in such a short time at Corbin Primary.” When Hill came on board in 2019, teachers had been using balanced literacy (sometimes called cueing), which was preventing the students from acquiring literacy skills. “As soon as the teachers figured out that the balanced literacy approach was causing serious problems for students,” said Hill, “and instead started using a Structured Literacy approach with SPIRE, everything improved.”
Corbin ISD leaders implemented reading intervention small groups along with a mix of print, digital, and blended SPIRE materials. They quickly saw improvement, even among students previously on track for special education.
Hill credits SPIRE with helping instructors deliver on-time intervention to fill specific gaps for each student. After the SPIRE implementation, Hill said, fewer students needed special education referrals, while many previously striving readers succeeded in the tier one classroom. “We found that kids who had been failing for years became successful by using SPIRE for even a few months,” said Hill.
One of the big surprises that followed the implementation involved widespread improvements in behavior. “We hoped for improvement with reading,” said Hill, “but we were stunned by all the other improvements we saw, including behavioral ones.”
No longer frustrated, students felt successful, supported, and confident, using their newfound skills to decode words and comprehend texts, which led to a wide range of behavioral improvements. “We started seeing students who had major behavior issues, or who were on track for special ed, clearly demonstrate to us through their dramatic improvement that they simply needed to be taught differently,” said Hill. “And when we taught them differently, they began succeeding immediately.”