Opening a World of Possibilities.
Onward Readers, our intensive, research-based literacy initiative, has successfully supported students, parents, teachers, and principals over eight years, ensuring students reach or surpass grade-level reading.
Building upon this proven framework, Solidarity Schools emerges as a new initiative dedicated to advancing educational excellence. Solidarity Schools retains the core principles of Onward Readers while enhancing its approach to offer high-quality instructional materials and best practices in both reading and math, fostering a culture of literacy and schoolwide improvement.
Supported by Onward 4 Excellence, the transition from Onward Readers to Solidarity Schools ensures a seamless continuation of impactful support for educators and students, marking a significant evolution in our commitment to educational empowerment.
The Onward Readers Approach
Onward For Readers utilized a multi-component approach to reading instruction:
Improve Frameworks: Maximize schools’ instructional frameworks to meet the needs of all students.
Enhance Knowledge: Deepen the school community’s knowledge of key reading components.
Empower a Culture of Learning: Promote a culture of learning and literacy that inspires all stakeholders.
Improve Frameworks
Onward Readers worked with teachers to apply a research-based instructional framework in word study, fluency, and text comprehension. Our framework included implementing classroom routines for Word Study and Fluency and developing units for Text Comprehension to support grade-level instruction. Once established, teachers more intentionally layered in differentiation and intervention within a multi-tiered system of supports to ensure all student needs are met.
Enhance Knowledge
As teachers maximized their school’s instructional framework, they also deepened their understanding of key reading instruction components that were identified as the critical to the student success with reading in the The National Reading Panel Report (2000). These components included: word study (e.g. phonological/phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary), fluency, and text comprehension. Onward readers provided teachers with resources to support these specific areas within reading instruction.
Empower a Culture
of Learning
Onward Readers structures, resources, and professional development opportunities empowered a culture of learning that inspired students, teachers, and even parents to engage in ongoing literacy activities.
Faculty participating in the Onward Readers initiative were provided with multiple opportunities to assess and reflect on their school-wide culture of literacy, as well as to collaboratively develop and implement strategies to further promote the value of literacy in the lives of their students and their families.
The Onward Readers initiative supported the shift towards a culture of learning throughout the school, which are indicated in the following ways:
Every child can and will learn
Educators are responsible for student learning
Focus on comprehension
Strategies for learning
Assessments are formative
Differentiation of supports to meet students’ needs
Balance between Collaboration and Connected Autonomy
Educators as learners
Students actively engage in the process
Onward Readers Schools
Onward Readers has provided support to 21 schools within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
If you were previously an Onward Readers school and have any questions, please contact the Onward 4 Excellence team.
Cohort 1
Our Lady of Victory School (Compton)
St. Aloysius School
San Miguel School
School of Santa Isabel
Cohort 2
Nativity School (Los Angeles)
Our Lady of Guadalupe School (Hazard)
St. Bernard School
Cohort 3
Our Lady of Talpa School
St. Odilia School
Cohort 4
St. Frances Cabrini School
St. Thomas the Apostle School
Cohort 5
Assumption School
Our Lady of Peach School
St. Anthony of Padua School
St. Athanasius School
St. Jane Frances de Chantal School
St. Vincent School
Cohort 6
St. Rose of Lima School (Maywood)
St. Eugene School
Our Lady of Lourdes School (Los Angeles)
Cohort 7
Our Lady of the Rosary (Paramount)