Weymouth Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Curtis-Whipple Takes Part in Early Childhood Literacy Webinar

WEYMOUTH — Weymouth Public Schools is pleased to announce that Superintendent Jennifer Curtis-Whipple was a guest speaker this week at a virtual webinar focusing on early childhood literacy.

“Following the Science Upstream: EarlyBird App Identifies Children with Reading Challenges” was held on Tuesday, May 5 by the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, as part of their weekly Learning Tuesday webinar series. It examined the EarlyBird educational app and how it identifies young children with reading challenges and how it can help them develop stronger reading skills.

The Weymouth Public Schools are currently piloting the EarlyBird app as part of a validation study.

The webinar also addressed the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and how the closure of schools both locally and nationally has given rise to new challenges in early literacy education.

The Campaign for Grade Level Reading is a collaborative effort being deployed in over 300 communities across the country with the goal of getting all young students reading by the third grade.

Superintendent Curtis-Whipple was chosen to take part in the webinar due to her extensive education leadership experience and her specialized background in literacy, including her former role as a literacy coordinator and as a special education and general education teacher.

“During these uncertain times, we recognize how important it is to address student needs across all grade levels and abilities,” Superintendent Curtis-Whipple said. “Through this webinar we were able to have important discussions on this topic and others relating to early childhood literacy.”

Superintendent Curtis-Whipple was joined on the webinar by Dr. Nadine Gaab of Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Alexis Bivens and Michelle Knapik of the Connecticut-based Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and Carla Small of EarlyBird Education.

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