When Jennifer Throndsen asked a group of local elementary school teachers how they were trained to teach reading, there was a common response: “Poorly.”
Throndsen is one of the trainers who spent three days in Salem schools last week to fix that. She works for CORE Learning, a training organization that focuses on helping teachers understand how students learn to read.
Salem-Keizer School District leaders took the unusual step of canceling school for most of the week for the lessons, leaving 15,000 students at home. Their teachers and classroom assistants spent the time undergoing intensive training focused on reading and literacy…