C6.24 - Approve the Purchase and Agreement for Technical Services #20108-ATS-IV for Professional Development of the Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight (SIPPS) Words Program to Provide a Structured Literacy Approach to Foundational Skills Instruction in Grades K-2 (Academic Services)

SIPPS is a research-based foundational skills program proven to help both new and struggling readers in grades K–2 build skills and confidence for fluent, independent reading. The SIPPS program provides a structured literacy approach to foundational skills instruction through explicit instructional routines focused on phonological awareness, spelling-sounds, and sight words, with immediate application to reading connected text and to spelling. 

The systematic scope and sequence support students who struggle with decoding, including students identified with dyslexia, in an accelerative approach. Each SIPPS level corresponds to a specific stage of reading development: simple alphabetic, spelling pattern, and polysyllabic/morphemic. Daily SIPPS lessons and reading practice in appropriate texts help readers achieve automaticity and accuracy, which in turn allow them to focus on comprehension. 

The SIPPS program allows students to: 

• respond orally during the foundational skills routines and receive immediate, strategic feedback
• demonstrate mastery of learning at regular intervals through criterion-referenced tests 
• read controlled-vocabulary text to practice the words and concepts taught 
• engage with books at appropriate levels to build fluency and increase confidence 

In accordance with the Florida Department of Education Purchasing Policy 6A-1.012(11)(b), the requirement for requesting competitive solicitations for commodities or contractual services from three or more sources is hereby waived as authorized by Section 1010.04(4)(a), F.S., for the purchase of educational services and any type of copyrighted materials including, without limitation, educational tests, textbooks, printed instructional materials, computer software, films, filmstrips, videotapes, dvds, disc or tape recordings, digital recordings, or similar audio-visual materials, and for library and reference books, and printed library cards where such materials are purchased directly from the producer or publisher, the owner of the copyright, an exclusive agent within the state.

SIPPS is a multi-level program that develops the word recognition strategies and skills that enable students to become independent and confident readers and writers.  Students need to understand the principles of spelling-sound correspondences and to solidify a store of high-frequency words to read words and phrases fluently. Most students need explicit teaching to build this knowledge. After decoding and high-frequency words are established, more attention can be devoted to comprehension with a focus on making meaning. 

SIPPS aligns with the Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered Systems of Support framework and can be used across all three tiers. Explicit and systematic lessons develop phonological awareness, spelling-sound relationships, decoding, and sight-word knowledge that work together to develop accuracy and automaticity. 

In a pilot study involving approximately 25 students in first grade at a single school in the Sacramento, California area, the percentage of non-readers dropped from 66 percent to 10 percent and the percentage of students reading at or above the primer level increased from 34 percent to 70 percent.  

The results from this study prompted a more careful assessment of program effects, using a norm-referenced measure of decoding ability, in a larger field test. The field test involved approximately 200 students in grades 2-6 at a school in West Sacramento, California, where the student population was 93 percent socio-economically disadvantaged, 62 percent Hispanic and 33 percent limited English proficient. Effects on decoding ability were evaluated using fall and spring scores on the Slosson Oral Reading Test.  

During this two-year study, English-speaking students gained an average of 1.6 grade levels in decoding ability each year after seven months of SIPPS implementation. This is more than twice the growth that would be normally expected over a seven month period. Spanish-speaking bilingual students showed even greater growth. They gained an average of 2.6 grade levels in decoding ability each year, almost four times expected growth.   

Egypt Lake Elementary School is a Hillsborough case study that demonstrates the positive effects of implementing SIPPS. The school went from a Florida grade of C in 2018 to a B in 2019. Student writing samples are stronger year over year, and students are posting gains in reading proficiency scores, measured by improvements in the twice-yearly state iReady assessments. Principal Scardino said, “Our kindergarteners are now entering first grade reading at higher levels than they were a few years ago, before the implementation. As we got into the curriculum and I saw it in action in our classrooms, I realized that it was creating so many opportunities for rigor. We are not teaching to the test; we are asking broader questions that are preparing our students.”  

The impact of the program’s integration of social-emotional skills is also evident at Egypt Lake Elementary School.  “The social and emotional learning component has been crucial,” according to Principal Scardino. “It is built into the lessons naturally and consistently. You can really see it coming to life in the way students are talking and listening to each other, in the respect they show.”  

Another result has been in how Egypt Lake Elementary School teachers have experienced and grown through the implementation. Teachers feel empowered and supported by the curriculum. “Something that surprised me is how it has improved their professional confidence as literacy teachers. Seeing how well our students are responding, they know they are delivering high-quality, effective instruction and they are deepening their understanding of best practices and their own discernment as educators.”  

As students in grades K-2 become more automatic in their reading, they will be able to pay increasing attention to understand what they read. SIPPS develops accurate and fluent word recognition, which leads to comprehension.  

* Improve the high school graduation rate

That the Board approve the purchase of SIPPS to provide a structured literacy approach to foundational skills instruction in grades K-2.   

Terry Connor, Deputy Superintendent for Instruction, Academic Services, terry.connor@hcps.net, (813) 272-4221

The total fiscal impact is $3,009,900 from the K-12 Reading Categorical budget, Project 4526.