How A.C. Whelan Elementary powered reading gains for 71 1st graders
The Challenge
When Rachel Shanley stepped into the principal’s office at A.C. Whelan Elementary School in Revere, Massachusetts, she already knew what she was facing. As the former assistant principal, she’d seen the spring kindergarten assessments — and they weren’t good.
“They didn’t leave kindergarten with skills that we felt they really should have acquired for that year,” Shanley recalls. “We knew we needed to make some pretty big gains.”
The data was stark:
- 74% of incoming 1st graders were reading below grade level
- 24% were still working on beginning-of-kindergarten-basics like recognizing letters
A.C. Whelan is part of Revere Public Schools, a newcomer district located just outside of Boston. With two-thirds of students speaking a language other than English at home, the team needed a reading intervention that could differentiate instruction for 71 different 1st graders simultaneously.
The Solution
In September 2023, A.C. Whelan partnered with Ignite Reading to provide all 71 1st graders with a daily one-to-one early literacy intervention — 15 minutes a day, five days a week, embedded right into their literacy block.
“The 1st grade data is incredible. It was like a whole flip!” — Briana Tsoupas, Title 1 Assistant Director, Revere Public Schools
Program Overview
School: A.C. Whelan Elementary, Revere, MA
Students Served: 71 1st graders (52% MLLs, 5% IEPs)
Model: 1:1 reading intervention, 15 min/day, 5 days/week
Duration: 18 weeks (23 instructional hours on average)
The Results After Just 23 Instructional Hours:
- 73% of 1st graders closed all foundational reading gaps and were ready for 2nd grade
- More than 50% made one or more school years of reading growth
What Turned Reading Intervention Into Reading Gains
1. Data That Drove Action
Every 14 lessons, students were progress monitored by their certified literacy tutors to evaluate their progress and identify areas where students might benefit from additional support. The A.C. Whelan team received regular reports from Ignite Reading, including:
- Student progress data and trends
- Attendance and engagement reports
- Extension activities for home and classroom
The Impact on Instruction
The school’s literacy coach translated program insights into classroom action, working with teachers to adjust everything from transition times to in-class instruction.
“That granular data helps teachers to know that they’re doing the right things, and they’re on the right track, and where they can just be more supportive for the student,” Tsoupas said.
“The data that was provided by Ignite Reading was a huge, beneficial addition to how we talked about what students could do and not what they couldn’t do. We really liked that we were having these asset-based discussions when we were talking about students.” — Briana Tsoupas, Title 1 Assistant Director, Revere Public Schools
The Impact on Intervention
When they paired Ignite Reading’s program data with their own in-class assessment data, Tsoupas said staff was able to build a more holistic look at students’ progress. That view allowed school staff to make adjustments not just to Tier 1 instruction but within their intervention framework.
“Ignite Reading really helped us articulate better how we support students who are not making the gains that we would like to see,” Tsoupas said.
The result? More well-rounded support systems for kids.
A.C. Whelan Elementary School Demographics:
- 57% Hispanic
- 34% Caucasian
- 68% First language not English
- 65% Eligible for free or reduced lunch
2. Truly Differentiated Instruction
A.C. Whelan’s end-of-kindergarten data indicated that a lot of students needed reading help, and baseline assessments conducted by Ignite Reading’s certified literacy tutors revealed massive variation in student needs.
Some A.C. Whelan 1st graders were still learning letter names — a skill typically taught in the early months of kindergarten. Other students had mastered much of their kindergarten coursework but still needed extra practice to join classmates reading at grade-level.
Ignite Reading’s literacy team members analyzed each student’s data and created individualized instructional plans, then certified literacy tutors delivered explicit instruction targeting each child’s precise skill gaps.
Johns Hopkins Reviews Revere
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Research and Reform in Education studied the 1st grade reading intervention in Revere Public Schools — including the progress at A.C. Whelan Elementary School. The results? In one year of Ignite Reading intervention:
- Revere 1st graders gained 6.2 additional months of learning on average.
- 45% of students moved from intensive intervention to reading on benchmark.
What It Looked Like
Students didn’t miss out on Tier 1 reading instruction to receive reading intervention. Instead, certified literacy tutors delivered the targeted intervention during the school’s literacy block at strategic times.
As a result, Shanley says, more kids got exactly what they needed simultaneously:
- Students in the Ignite Reading program received explicit direct instruction in foundational reading skills plus additional time to practice with their certified literacy instruction. This gave them the time and scaffolding needed to truly master a specific skill before moving on to the next.
- Classroom teachers were able to provide small group instruction to those students who needed it
- Students reading on or above grade level were able to work independently on tasks aligned to their reading skill level.
3. Intervention Timed to Close Gaps Early
It was no accident that A.C. Whelan began its partnership with Ignite Reading with a focus on 1st grade reading.
As a newcomer district, Revere serves a large population of immigrants. Many students who arrive at Whelan are entering the upper grades of the K-5 school having missed out on critical early literacy instruction.
These older students typically require additional support to catch up with their peers in reading and are often behind in other subjects as well.
“They’re not able to really access reading, even in our math program. There’s so much text in that, and they’re really just struggling overall,” Shanley explained.
Making the bet on 1st grade intervention wasn’t just about remediation. It was about prevention. And it paid off.
By the end of the school year, 73% of 1st graders were reading on grade level and ready for 2nd grade.
“It’s like there are seven teachers in the classroom, with a teacher running a teacher table, and then students doing some other work. Everyone in the room is getting what they need at that moment, and it’s kind of amazing.” — Rachel Shanley, Principal, A.C. Whelan Elementary School
4. Confidence-Building Connections
Beyond reading gains, the consistent relationship between each student and their certified literacy tutor built crucial SEL skills. Daily check-ins at the start of each session helped students feel connected and invested.
“That first check-in was really impactful,” Shanley noted. “For students that really need that strong SEL every day, I think just being able to share where they’re at and how they’re feeling, and then they can get started is really great.”
Powerful pairing for multilingual learners:
That intentional pairing was especially powerful for two A.C. Whelan students who speak Brazilian Portuguese at home and learned their tutors could converse with them in Portuguese.
“They lit up,” Tsoupas recalled. “They were in their silent phase of their English learning transition, but they spoke with their tutor, and they were able to do the phonics piece every day for 15 min, and they were like sponges.”
Today’s Partnership
A.C. Whelan Elementary has continued to partner with Ignite Reading to provide daily reading intervention through the 25-26 school year.
