Celebrations and Reflections from the 23-24 School YEar at Redwood Schools
Redwood Day Milestones
From Executive Director of Redwood Schools, Becky Sinclair
The academic year 23-24 marked the completion of the fifth full year for Redwood Day School. Redwood Literacy, established in 2018 in Rogers Park, specializes in providing evidence-based intervention programs in reading, writing, and math for students who benefit from personalized academic instruction. Under the Redwood umbrella, Redwood Schools, a nonprofit in Chicago, offers intervention school programs for students requiring a higher level of intervention and specialized support. Redwood Day School is a full-day school option for students in grades K-8, located in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago.
Redwood Day School focuses on academic interventions using evidence-based approaches such as the Wilson Reading System®, Spell Links™, Empower Vocabulary and Comprehension™, Chris Woodin Math™, Redwood’s Writing Our World™ curriculum, Assistive Technology (AT) integration, Core Knowledge™ history and geography curriculum, executive functioning, and Redwood’s social-emotional program, Triple E (Educate, Equip, and Empower). Redwood Day also offers speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and social work services and so much more!
In the bustling heart of our Redwood Schools community, Redwood Day School has reached incredible achievement and growth over the past year. As we reflect on our journey together, we are proud to celebrate several significant milestones that underscore our commitment to excellence in education, community engagement, and sustainable growth.
1. Student Achievement: Meeting ILP Goals with Remarkable Success
At Redwood Schools, student growth is at the core of everything we do. This year, we are thrilled to announce the outstanding growth of our students towards meeting their Individual Learning Plan (ILP) goals:
95% of students across Redwood Schools met their written expression ILP goals.
82% of students across Redwood Schools met their decoding ILP goals.
98% of students across Redwood Schools met their math ILP concept goals.
This achievement highlights not only the dedication of our students but also the effectiveness of our personalized learning approach, ensuring every child reaches their full potential.
2. Professional Development: Nurturing Excellence Through Collaboration
Professional growth is crucial to maintaining high standards of teaching. Through initiatives such as Responsive Classroom training, instructional rounds, peer evaluations, weekly meetings, and student-centered “genius bars”, our faculty has engaged in robust professional development. This commitment ensures that our teaching practices are innovative, effective, and student-centered.
3. Community Engagement: Welcoming Families through Open Houses and Events
Building strong community connections is a cornerstone of Redwood Day School. This year, we welcomed the highest number of families through regular Open Houses, Parent Partnership initiatives, and school-wide events. These efforts strengthen our community, share Redwood programming options, and enrich the educational experience for all.
4. Graduation and Milestones: Celebrating Success Together
This year marked a significant milestone with our largest graduating class and our first official and incredibly meaningful Graduation Ceremony. It was a joyous occasion to celebrate the accomplishments of our students and to recognize their readiness to embrace future challenges in high school and beyond.
5. Enrollment Growth: Meeting Diverse Educational Needs
We are delighted to see enrollment growth across all our programs, reflecting our community's confidence in our mission and intervention approach. This growth allows us to continue providing exceptional educational opportunities for all students.
6. Financial Stability: Strengthening for Long-Term Growth
Financial stability is crucial for sustainable growth and innovation. Through dedicated efforts in fundraising and diversifying revenue streams—such as instructional coaching, advocacy programs, and summer programming—Redwood Day School continues to establish a strong financial foundation for future growth and continued investment in our students and programs.
7. Parent Feedback: Valuing Input and Continuous Improvement
Feedback from our parents is invaluable as we strive for excellence. End-of-year parent survey results have been overwhelmingly positive, reflecting high satisfaction levels and affirming our commitment to delivering a superior educational experience.
The achievements of Redwood Day School over the past year are a testament to the dedication and collaboration of our entire community—students, parents, and staff. As we look forward to the future, we remain committed to fostering a nurturing environment where every student can close academic gaps and continue a love of learning. Together, we celebrate these milestones and eagerly anticipate even greater successes ahead.
Redwood @ Alcuin Milestones
This academic year also marked the completion of the fourth full year for the Redwood program at Alcuin Montessori! While Redwood Day School serves as the full-day option for students in grades K-8, Redwood at Alcuin Montessori functions as the half-day program.
Redwood at Alcuin is a partnership with Alcuin Montessori located in Oak Park and Redwood Schools. This program provides students (K-8) with language-based learning differences the option to receive a specially tailored curriculum through Redwood Schools for a half-day program and then experience the other half of the day with Alcuin’s long-standing nationally recognized Montessori education and enrichment such as art, Spanish, swimming, and theater allowing students to become fully immersed in the Alcuin community.
Redwood at Alcuin focuses on reading interventions using the Wilson Reading System®, Chris Woodin Math™, Redwood’s Writing Our World™ curriculum, Assistive Technology (AT) integration, Core Knowledge™ history and geography curriculum, executive functioning, and Redwood’s social-emotional program, Triple E (Educate, Equip, and Empower).
At Redwood Schools, student growth is at the core of everything we do. This year, we are thrilled to announce the outstanding growth of our students towards meeting their Individual Learning Plan (ILP) goals:
95% of students across Redwood Schools met their written expression ILP goals.
82% of students across Redwood Schools met their decoding ILP goals.
98% of students across Redwood Schools met their math ILP concept goals.
This achievement highlights not only the dedication of our students but also the effectiveness of our personalized learning approach, ensuring every child reaches their full potential.
Contributing to this success is the high dosage of individualized intervention Redwood @ Alcuin students receive each day, including:
- 45 minutes of systematic, explicit reading intervention through the Wilson Reading System®. This is delivered by a certified Dyslexia Practitioner and Wilson® Instructor with experience supporting learners of varying age ranges, ability levels, and backgrounds.
- 45 minutes of Chris Woodin Math™. This innovative, research-based method for teaching about numbers and learning math skills uses minimal language demands and whole-to-part, multimodal strategies to help students express, relate, store, and retrieve information efficiently.
- 45 minutes of writing instruction through Redwood’s Writing Our World™ curriculum. This writing instruction integrates various forms of Assistive Technology (AT) and Core Knowledge™ history and geography, and written expression to provide learners with the specific supports and strategies they need to become confident and independent written communicators.
- 45 minutes of individualized, targeted interventions to push students to meet educational goals and close learning gaps. These interventions vary from student to student but include support for typing, handwriting, reading fluency, written expression, assistive technology, and fine motor skill development.
- 30 minutes of Redwood’s social-emotional program, Triple E: Educate, Equip, and Empower. The content of this curriculum is founded in the robust research put forth by The Frostig Center, which examined the attributes of students with learning differences that led and contributed to their success in and outside of the classroom. Success in school is not only about the intellectual comprehension needed to complete academic work. Thriving students require skills like self-awareness, perseverance, self-regulation, and working memory. This curriculum allows students with Dyslexia and other learning difficulties to better understand themselves as learners and advocate for their educational needs.
The Redwood at Alcuin classroom had much to celebrate last year! Hear what parents are saying:
- “Redwood at Alcuin means having a place where my kid shines – academically and emotionally. He belongs, feels valued for his superpowers, and has found amazing friends. We are so grateful for Redwood!”
- “Redwood at Alcuin has changed our daughter, [Student], from a girl who had considerable struggles with reading, to one who loves to read for pleasure. She stays up late reading on her own and is constantly looking for new books in ways I never thought possible before we enrolled her in Redwood at Alcuin. I truly believe it has changed the course of her life, and am grateful we found it.”
- "Thank you for being so many different things to our family. I trust you and your team so much. I love that I have this feeling with [Student]’s teachers. So fortunate."
- "[Student] is very happy. This program has literally changed her life. Her school refusal and associated anxiety are gone. Her self-esteem is so much higher. We are so appreciative!"
To learn more about Redwood Day and Redwood @ Alcuin visit www.redwoodschools.org!