Victor Young is a social entrepreneur and nonprofit leader with over 40 years of experience in various roles related to education, community development, and philanthropy. He now heads VCY Stratagem LLC, supporting the establishment and scaling of full-service community schooling, applying the science of reading in classrooms nationwide, and the collective impact approach to addressing community challenges in health, education, and economic development.
Collaborative Classroom’s President and CEO Kelly Stuart recently interviewed Victor about his work in South Carolina, the role of the SIPPS program, and the impact of community building on child outcomes.
Victor, I’m excited to have this time with you today. Would you please tell us about the work you’re doing in Charleston County, South Carolina, with the District 23 schools?
Sure. I’m at that point in life where I get to do work that I love. What that means is that I’m working close to the ground. I get to work with principals and key educational community members to support a feeder pattern in rural Charleston County, South Carolina.
Charleston County is a historically challenged area with low literacy rates and trouble meeting state benchmarks. Based on our metrics, only about 43 percent of all children in South Carolina are reading at or above grade level by the end of fourth grade.
Forty-three percent is terrible, so we know dramatic action is necessary across the state to make that better.
About two years ago, while at University of South Carolina (USC), I shared some principles of human development and collective impact with folks in Charleston. They included some of the principals in D23.
That led to bringing community members together to talk about what was missing and what was needed. And, of course, the importance of literacy, and the importance of experiences for our kids. Those conversations morphed into an ESSER grant proposal from the D23 feeder pattern.
This feeder pattern consists of one high school, a middle school campus, and three elementary schools. In total, there are about 1,000 students. For perspective, there are about 50,000 students in the entire Charleston County School District. However, the D23 footprint is enormous; you can go almost 100 miles and not leave the district.
Once we began these conversations, the principals began to embrace the idea of supporting the development of their kids. Supporting them from cradle to career and to do it as collaborators. For instance, instead of elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools thinking and operating as separate entities, principals and administrators began to buy into the concept of community building. Becoming collaborators and partners.
We engaged more and more partners over time and presented a proposal to the school district and the board. Once they approved it, we launched what is called the D23 Community Schools Collaborative. The grand educational goal of that collaborative is that all children will be reading at grade level by the end of fourth grade.
Additionally, everyone in the community will become an avid reader and move forward with the rest of their lives. That’s really what the work is about. D23 is about collective impact and integrating the science of reading.
South Carolina is rolling out new standards, curriculum, and assessments. Teachers are getting trained in LETRS, and we’re really thrilled that our SIPPS program is a big part of this plan. Would you share about the reasons and hope behind these decisions?
I spent a lot of time—even before meeting you all and learning of the work of the Developmental Study Center [the nonprofit organization that later became Collaborative Classroom]—looking at the pedagogy and the science behind kids learning how to read, and how to teach everything from decoding to comprehension.
Even more importantly, I looked at how teachers can engage students in a relationship that supports their ability to learn these skills.
When you look around the country at supports that are not just pieces of curriculum—and not to minimize the importance of curriculum—you see that the development of kids is relational. Yet, we tend to treat these things as being transactional, you know, and wholly transactional.
And I will argue that they are almost wholly relational. And so what happens in a classroom, what happens with a group of kids, and what happens with the kids and the teacher and other the adults—all of those things matter.
What I found was that SIPPS—and the supports that you have developed around SIPPS—help teachers and others understand what it is that they’re doing and why, and help support them in their practice. I think it’s the best product out there to do that.
What I found was that SIPPS—and the supports that you have developed around SIPPS—help teachers and others understand what it is that they’re doing and why, and help support them in their practice. I think it’s the best product out there to do that. That’s why I pushed it everywhere from the State Department to the district.
I found that SIPPS was very effective for older kids, for those middle school kids who were two or three grade levels behind and really needed supports.
And at the same time SIPPS helped teachers help those students.
Other districts may see the work you are doing and wonder about the benefits of partnering with a nonprofit organization. Would you share your thoughts about working with folks from the Collaborative Classroom?
That’s easy! It’s the people.
You get to work with real people who’ve been involved in boots-on-the-ground work. The people trying to move the needle for children and families in communities in real time.
These are people who have attempted, failed, and succeeded. In fact, they have wrestled with all of the realities of doing it. You can’t replace the experience or the sensibilities of people who have spent time with a diverse array of people.
That comes across very quickly. I have appreciated it, and I’m sure it’s only gotten better over the past decade. I appreciate the [Collaborative Classroom] crew’s diversity, the people you see walk into classrooms, and the engagement level of the team itself.
Those things are wonderful to behold, and good exemplars for the adults in the building as well as the kids.
What can the rest of South Carolina and the region learn from what is happening in Charleston?
The principals in D23 have specific reasons at this point for why and how they want to apply and use SIPPS and engage Collaborative Classroom.
There is interest in methodology and encouraging enterprising behaviors including self-reliance and student ownership of the learning process. Along with supports for teachers, that’s really the secret sauce as far as I’m concerned.
For the rest of the state, there needs to be an awakening to the idea of supporting kids as developing humans versus supporting them as students in a classroom for a year in which they have to get from A to B. These are humans growing at different rates of speed that you’re trying to help grow and find their place eventually.
It’s a process and it’s heuristic. So I think what a lot of the people in the county would say about D23 is, “Principals are working together, teachers are learning together, teachers are going to each others’ schools and seeing what happens at other schools and trying to figure out what happens if they do something differently.”
They’re talking about community building and the development and educational support of that child and family as a journey and not a holding place for a year.
That mental shift in perspective is something that I hope districts in other parts of our county and state begin to embrace. As a result, there’s an understanding that you can’t talk about kids’ education as separate from their families.
Children walk into the room with life experiences that come from who they are, and who they are is developed within their families and communities. So the approach that we’re taking with collective impact in D23 is a family affair.
There needs to be an awakening to the idea of supporting kids as developing humans versus supporting them as students in a classroom for a year in which they have to get from A to B.
What are the central, key moves necessary for strong implementation on all the fronts you’re working on in Charleston?
Regarding literacy, LETRS training is going on and there’s the adoption of the new curriculum. Of course, we’re doing SIPPS training and implementation.
Some of our schools, even in our little tiny feeder pattern, are reaching out about the new Being a Reader. Schools are curious about these programs, which I think is very healthy.
South Carolina has shifted quite quickly to being serious about the science of reading. So quickly, however, that an awful lot of teachers, administrators, and educators across the state don’t get it yet. I mean, it’s really new. I think what happens in D23 this year will definitely have a big impact on the rest of our district.
It’s going to have a big impact on the state as well. I know for a fact that the state is watching.
The learning that’s going on at the teacher level surrounding the science of reading and integration is paramount.
I also believe that some of the Collaborative Classroom tools like the virtual instructional tools, as well as the live in-person coaching and other supports, are helping our teachers deepen their understanding of the application of the science.
This is the community schools’ challenge:
- How do we make schools the hub for family life?
- How do we support things like housing challenges, food insecurity, and mental health access?
- How do we bring these things together in a way that the school becomes a place where parents, grandparents, caregivers, and kids are comfortable talking about these needs, and the school becomes capable of addressing and meeting these needs, or at least is able to give families direction on where they need to go?
Because the one thing the schools and the families all have in common is the kids—all or most of them go to school.
So, those are the things I hope are going to be impactful and learned. I believe that is what is going on regarding collective impact in D23 right now.
Thank you so much, Victor. Is there anything else you’d like to share?
The question I’ve been wrestling with for over 45 years remains the same: What do we need to do as a society, at a macro level? What do we need to do to support the ability of all of our citizens to engage the rest of their lives in constructive ways?
I’ve gone in a big circle. I’m almost 70 years old, and what I’ve determined is, “they got to know how to read”.
I think there’s a myth that at some point we had high literacy rates and that all of a sudden those rates dropped and there was a reading crisis. That has never been true, ever. I will bet we have some of the highest literacy rates in our history right now, but these rates don’t cut it.
We are an information-oriented society now where everybody’s a free agent. So, if you can’t read instructions or comprehend, if you can’t figure out how to deal with information, you’re in trouble.
We are an information-oriented society now where everybody’s a free agent. So, if you can’t read instructions or comprehend, if you can’t figure out how to deal with information, you’re in trouble.
I think the metrics we’re using to measure reading at grade level are normed against what we know people need to be able to do to stay out of prison. What they need to be gainfully employed.
Unfortunately, we have a long way to go.
My parting shot would be something from an old mentor of mine, Ted Sizer, author of Horace’s Compromise. I asked him once what he would do if he had unlimited money to put in public school systems.
And he said, “Honestly, no one’s gonna like it.” I said, “That’s okay.” Now, this is a guy who led one of the top high schools in the world, Phillips Academy in Andover. Ted was also the dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Ted said he would eliminate 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. He would put all the money into ensuring that every single kid that came out of eighth grade could read at least at an eighth-grade level. And he said if we did that, we’d revolutionize the world because everyone could then take care of themselves.
He was serious, and at the time I kind of chuckled and said it sounded like a cool idea. But the more I’ve worked all over the place, the more I realize he’s kind of right. This is what it’s about. We’ve got to crack this nut, and we have to stay on it. And if we do, we will fundamentally change society.
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Related Blogs and Interviews
The Role of SIPPS in the MTSS Framework in South Carolina
A Conversation About the Science of Reading and Early Reading Instruction with Dr. Louisa Moats
A Conversation About Instructional Equity with Zaretta Hammond
About Victor Young
In the late 1980s, Victor Young, then Senior Program Officer at The Cleveland Foundation, began community building and developing educational partnerships in Canton, Ohio. Using philanthropic resources, he aligned school districts and county governments to dramatically improve outcomes for kids.
His journey continued to a thought leadership position with The Rockefeller Foundation in New York. Several years later he was back in Ohio, contributing to the creation of StriveTogether, which became the home of collective impact in the nation.
In the early 2000s, Cornerstone Literacy invited Victor to share his expertise in community building and serving marginalized communities. That led to a board position with the Developmental Studies Network. A merger between the two organizations resulted in the formation of Collaborative Classroom.
Reconnecting with University of South Carolina (USC) colleagues, Victor became Director of Accelerating Learning and Leadership in South Carolina (All4SC), where he worked to support all aspects of student development and create a more connected presence throughout the state.
Victor left USC in 2024 to engage in full-time consulting under VCY Stratagem LLC, supporting the establishment and scaling of full-service community schooling, applying the science of reading in classrooms nationwide, and the collective impact approach to addressing community challenges in health, education, and economic development. Current and recent clients include StriveTogether, Charleston County School District, Carbondale CES 95 District, and the NY State Community Schools Thruway Coalition.