The Chula Vista Elementary School District is in year two of the District’s Impact Teacher Support Program. Utilizing Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief III Learning Loss funds, each school site has hired a full-time impact teacher to provide literacy intervention to students in grades 3-6. For the top 12 unduplicated sites (sites with 90% of the student population either foster, low-income, or English learners), an additional impact teacher to support more students was added this school year.
Each impact teacher supports 55 students from a specific tiered support system in grades 3-6, who did not meet grade level end-of-year expectations on Achieve3000® LevelSet in grade 3, and California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress in grades 4-6. These students are provided targeted intervention multiple days weekly to develop and reinforce language and literacy skills. Impact teachers collaborate with classroom teachers to ensure the time spent coincides with and enhances classroom instruction for improved student achievement.
Currently, there are 44 schools served, 60 impact teachers, and 2,612 students supported in the program. Our impact teachers make a daily difference in our student’s academic success. To highlight our impact teachers and recognize their contributions to student achievements, we asked them what being an impact teacher means to them and what they have experienced during their tenure.
Giulia Longo is an impact teacher at Finney
Elementary School and elaborated on the fact that she loves what she gets to do every day. She noted how her favorite part of each day as a classroom teacher was pulling small groups and working with students to improve their reading. As an impact teacher, Longo works with students and their teachers to see which reading areas students need to improve.
At Olympic View Elementary School, Jennifer Viorai worked one-on-one with a second-grade student whose chronic absences led to little reading progress. When they started, the student knew a few letters/sounds and high-frequency words. Viorai worked with the student five days a week, and once he started seeing his progress and success, he made coming to school a priority for himself and would "bug" his parents and siblings to make sure to get to school and get him there on time! By the end of the year, he had gone from being a virtual non-reader to reading mid-first grade.
Melissa Noble, an impact teacher at Clear View 
Elementary School, explained how students come to school with many different backgrounds, cultures, languages, traditions, experiences, strengths, and needs. Through the Impact Teacher Program, there are more equitable opportunities for students who could benefit from the extra support in developing literacy skills in English.
Lilia H. Rodriguez is an impact teacher at Castle Park Elementary School. She described how she started working with a student who was having difficulty reading and/or understanding in class. She worked with this student three times weekly with phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and oral development. By the end of the year, the student moved up 480 Lexile points, meeting, and exceeding grade level expectations, and on the ELPAC, the student also moved from a level 2 to a 4. She noted how it was a rewarding experience knowing that this intervention supported the student's academic needs and helped discard the idea that this student needed special education services.
We also asked our students what they love most about the Impact Teacher Program, and most shared the same sentiment: “Getting better at reading skills.” “Reading with friends.” “Seeing my teacher.” “Reading with my teacher.”
The Chula Vista Elementary School District is grateful for our impact teachers and the support they provide our students daily. Learn more about our programs by clicking here.