Beyond Intervention: How SIPPS Has Shifted the Instructional Culture of Colorado’s District 49

Jess Crawford, Colorado’s Manager of Educational Partnerships, spoke with Escobido and District 49’s Coordinator of Literacy Performance, Yuki Rockwell, to learn about this successful district/school collaboration and how SIPPS is impacting their young readers.

Use the links below to jump to specific content!

• Leadership and Vision
• Consistency and Cohesiveness
• Professional Learning and Capacity Building
• Data and Implementation Fidelity
• Exceeding Expectations
• Sustainability and District Leader “Pro Tips”
• A Cultural Shift for Teachers
• Next Steps for District 49
• Leader Bios

Leadership and Vision

Jess Crawford

Kimberly, when you began the SIPPS implementation at Stetson four years ago, what were the most pressing literacy challenges your students and teachers were facing?

Kimberly Escobido

Stetson was facing a challenge familiar to many schools. We had incredibly dedicated teachers, but we lacked a systematic, consistent intervention model. On the student side, our data showed significant gaps in foundational skills like decoding, creating a bottleneck for reading comprehension as students moved into upper grade levels.

On the teacher side, the challenge was a lack of streamlined resources. Without a shared framework, teachers were stuck in a cycle of solution-hunting, which led to inconsistent student experiences. Recognizing this, my administration and I realized we needed an evidence-based framework that everyone could rally around.

We knew that SIPPS was a successful program that we had in our building. I was familiar with SIPPS as a classroom teacher, and I used it with my first and second graders. I even used it when I taught Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education (CLDE) students. Personally, I knew that SIPPS was a great program and that we would see change in our school.

My administration had experience with it as well. That is why we chose to invest in training all of our teachers in the program, not just teachers that may teach SIPPS. We felt like some of the routines could be used with our core program as well. We wanted to find a program that could work for intervention that also had routines we could use for our everyday teaching needs. 

Implementing SIPPS helped provide vertical alignment, a common vocabulary, and language to help with different teaching skills. 

Consistency and Cohesiveness

Jess Crawford

Yuki, it’s common for educators to switch programs frequently, but we understand that you’ve been consistent with SIPPS from school to school, program to program for decades. And so our first question is, Why?

Yuki Rockwell

As a district, one thing we’ve focused on is primary literacy, supporting our K–3 students by making sure foundational reading skills are in place. I started working in District 49 a little over 10 years ago, and SIPPS was one of the programs that we had as our primary intervention. What we found is that when you walk through different stages of development, stick with a program, build capacity within your staff and leadership, and use the data to drive instructional decisions, those things ensure SIPPS is effectively implemented.

Jess Crawford

How does the partnership between a school-level leader and a district-level coordinator create a more cohesive experience for our students?

Kimberly Escobido

A cohesive student experience relies entirely on shared alignment between the district and the building. My partnership with Yuki bridges that gap perfectly. Together, we move beyond just delivering training to actively embedding unified routines and procedures across our entire staff. He helped train my teachers. If I ever need him to come back and help me do some observations, we’ll go into classrooms together.

We’ll observe teachers and give them feedback. For the students, this eliminates the confusion of shifting expectations as they move from grade to grade or class to class. Instead, they experience a predictable, highly structured learning environment where every teacher uses the same instructional playbook. 

Yuki Rockwell

I agree with Kimberly. Partnerships between the district and buildings are an opportunity to create consistent systems and structures that can be the same across all of our buildings. That doesn’t happen without dedicated teachers and administrators at every one of our sites who have the same vision. We share data, and we make sure that, as Kimberly said, we’re creating predictable routines. Rather than having to figure out all the different ways that that content could be taught, we all follow a similar structure. With this approach, students who are most at risk have the opportunity to focus on the instruction and the consistent protocols that are within SIPPS and can access the content.

That’s the power of the work we’ve done around SIPPS and why we’ve continued to maintain instructional capacity. We have systems that allow us to get our coaches and our teachers trained, and we have a system of support that allows them to continue to tap back into different resources over the course of the year.

That’s the power in partnering with our schools.

Professional Learning and Capacity Building

Jess Crawford

Kimberly, how have you structured professional learning at Stetson to ensure teachers feel supported and confident when they’re delivering that SIPPS instruction?

Kimberly Escobido

I structured that professional learning by building teacher confidence. That requires a mix of formal training, side-by-side coaching, and data validation. First, I worked with Yuki to establish a baseline of knowledge by training the entire staff and ensuring no teacher felt isolated or left behind, and also to get that buy-in from staff.

If we’re all trained and we all know what’s going on in interventions, teachers are more comfortable with sending their students to other people to fill those gaps. 

Then I customized what they need. Each teacher is different, just like each student is different. So if one teacher needs me to go and model, I’ll go and model.

Some teachers just want to try it and want you to watch and provide some feedback. It just depends on what the teachers need to help build their professional learning when it comes to SIPPS.

Jess Crawford

How do you facilitate ongoing coaching or learning walks to ensure that the fidelity of the program remains high as it scales across the district? For example, from Stetson to other buildings?

Yuki Rockwell

We have two side-by-side models we implement.

We have professional development that my team and I deliver to staff. Staff receive the same routines across the district, and their training experience is hands-on. We highlight the most critical components that make SIPPS work. When routines, language, or correction procedures are missing, you don’t receive the biggest yield from the program.

Additionally, we also support our leadership teams. They receive professional development as well. For example, when we go into classrooms together, we focus on the key things to look for. We then ask how we can fine-tune the elements in the program to have the greatest impact.

I think the combination of these two processes around SIPPS is how we support the coaching process throughout the year. 

As Kimberly said, we customize, because every staff is going to have different areas of need. Some of those needs might be instructional needs. If a teacher needs support with instruction in SIPPS, we may provide coaching, modeling, or side-by-side teaching. For others, they may need support with program routines and structures. We identify what teachers need and support them through these processes.

Jess Crawford

Kimberly, what does the professional learning journey look like for a new teacher at Stetson versus a veteran teacher who’s already seen positive results over the past four years?

Kimberly Escobido

Professional learning journeys look different depending on the teacher. You can have a new teacher with SIPPS experience because she taught SIPPS before or you can have a brand-new teacher right out of college who hasn’t even heard about the program. I might go ahead and just make sure they both have a firm foundation in the routines and procedures.

This past school year I targeted some professional learning communities (PLCs). If they were brand new and had never heard of SIPPS, their training looked different than that of someone who’s new to the building but has previously taught it. Then it goes back to focusing on those routines, those correction procedures. Do I need to model? 

I let the teachers drive their professional learning. I just want to make sure we’re a team and I collaborate with them based on what they need. 

And we want to make sure that the students’ growth is reflected in the data. Teachers have to enter their assessments into our spreadsheet once they finish a certain number of lessons, depending on which SIPPS program they’re teaching. 

We’ll look at that data. If it’s for a new teacher, we’ll see if they’re missing any procedures. If it’s for an experienced teacher, maybe they need more practice. Maybe they need more time with the text. 

Data and Implementation Fidelity

Jess Crawford

Since you took the lead at Stetson, what specific growth trends in foundational literacy stand out to you?

Kimberly Escobido

That first year we had to have all first-grade teachers trained in SIPPS and actually teaching a SIPPS lesson because of the wide variety of student need. For example, some students weren’t ready at all, or some might be on SIPPS Beginning 11. We had so many different SIPPS needs that everyone taught SIPPS. 

We currently run two or three SIPPS intervention groups, while the rest of the students focus on grade-level routines. As students progress into second and third grade, the need for these intervention groups decreases significantly. This year, we only required one small group each for fourth and fifth grade. By winter break, those students had closed their literacy gaps and transitioned to grade-level text.

While our exact needs fluctuate annually based on staff continuity, teacher expertise, and student mobility, the overall trend shows strong growth and a steadily declining need for intensive SIPPS interventions.

Jess Crawford

Yuki, how have you been able to use your career expertise to help Kimberly and her team at Stetson interpret and act on their literacy data?

Yuki Rockwell

With experience comes the knowledge that in order to roll out something well, you have to have the system in place to support that structure.

We discuss the structures within SIPPS that should be in place for teachers to implement the program effectively. One of those is initial training, making sure that language, routines, and consistent protocols are in place. We’ve talked about how observation and feedback are critical in allowing us to pinpoint specific teacher needs.

It also helps us think about student needs. Kimberly and her team have been very intentional about the way they collect student data, because that’s the driving force of what we do next when we’re teaching SIPPS lessons, ensuring student mastery.

We utilize the data in meaningful ways. SIPPS is designed to be taught to mastery. How are we using those check-ins and the progress monitoring that comes with the program? How are we triangulating that information with other measures and making sure that we’re helping students to achieve that mastery?

One final piece: we’re all learning together. There’s so much more information out there. One of the things that makes my partnership with Stetson so rewarding is that we all have a growth mindset. There are things that I’ve learned from them as they have gone through their journey with SIPPS that are different from my experiences with other schools. Keeping an open mind and being intentional with the way we think about the needs of teachers, leaders, and students—these are the things that help us do what’s best for our students.

Exceeding Expectations

Jess Crawford

Stetson was one of the fastest-growing schools—if not the fastest-growing school—in the district for several years. What was the moment that you realized that the implementation at Stetson wasn’t merely meeting but actually exceeding expectations? And how did you come to that realization?

Kimberly Escobido

It’s neat when we see teachers using the routines in their CKLA lesson—for instance, helping them tackle a word using the multisyllabic routines. It’s seeing the [SIPPS] strategies and routines used elsewhere. I know that educators have that buy-in and they’re using the SIPPS procedures and routines in more than just a 45-minute intervention block, but actually utilizing them throughout the whole entire day.

Yuki Rockwell

I think for myself it was realizing the impact that our work was having. Listening to the routines and hearing students start to implement them successfully on their own highlighted their growing confidence.

Another moment is realizing what teachers are doing. Early on, Kimberly put a lot of work to get her teachers to have similar structures in place with the way they were implementing routines. Suddenly, you see that moment where teachers are no longer having to look at their teacher manuals all the time but instead truly interacting with their students.

It’s those subtle shifts with teachers and with students where you really start to see the impact of that work. That’s where things start to change.

I also think about the data conversations taking place at Stetson. Early on those conversations started all over the place. However, Kimberly and her team were intentional with how they built these data conversations over the course of the year. Eventually, their conversations became a driving force to making informed instructional decisions. From an outside perspective, I had the opportunity to hear how these conversations developed and became centered around identifying the specific learning needs of each student. I remember thinking to myself that it’s only a matter of time before they start to see that work pay off.

Listening to the routines and hearing students start to implement them successfully on their own highlighted their growing confidence.

Yuki Rockwell

Sustainability and District Leader “Pro Tips”

Jess Crawford

It seems that every week there’s a new trend. What advice do you have for other district leaders about the value of sticking with a proven system versus chasing something new? 

Yuki Rockwell

There are phases of learning, and sometimes we can get stuck in a phase. For example, you could be at that moment where you’re teaching a program like SIPPS and you haven’t hit the mastery level. And so when you’re looking at student data, you may not be able to see the potential for the gains that can take place.

It takes a lot of intentional leadership, feedback, walk-throughs, and being in classrooms and doing that work with teachers before you can start to see some of those gains. Once you can move from the first implementation into that mastery level, you can start to have meaningful conversations.

You have to think about how much time implementation takes. It doesn’t happen in one year. It’s usually a multiyear process. And if we’re switching programs every couple of years because we’re not seeing the gains yet, we’re likely going to find ourselves in the same position a few years later with other programs as well.

Jess Crawford

How is District 49 onboarding new staff so that the SIPPS success at Stetson doesn’t falter when people change roles?

Yuki Rockwell

It’s about focusing on the experience and the critical components. The other thing is we always remind teachers during those professional developments that it’s going to take time to hit that level of mastery, have grace with yourself and practice the routines until you don’t have to practice them, until you feel like, “This is how I’ve always done it.”

That’s kind of our early message. The other thing is our leadership teams, our coaches, our principals and assistant principals, they support the day-to-day and week-to-week work. They’re the ones who are running meaningful data conversations with teachers. They’re the ones who are providing the in-building coaching and support.

And then the last thing when we think about our roles is we have periodic check-ins where we see what’s going well and what we need to adjust. There’s always going to be turnover, whether teachers retire or for whatever reason.

It’s about having structures in place in order to let the program be able to do what it was intended to do.

Jess Crawford

Kimberly, what advice would you give other school leaders about owning a district-wide initiative to make it work for their specific student population?

Kimberly Escobido

First you need to go ahead and remove the barriers for your staff. Teachers are often overwhelmed by a new initiative. But ownership means fixing the master schedule to make sure that we have a block for intervention. It’s ensuring that we actually have all of the physical materials we need, not just bits and parts of a curriculum, and pairing them with the coaching support so they feel safe about the change. And just having that open mindset.

They need to kind of live SIPPS in order to support it. If they attend the trainings that we provide, if they want to go ahead and jump in and co-teach or model a lesson, I think just being present helps the staff with buy-in.

Jess Crawford

Yuki, you have a reputation for being an outstanding leader. But for districts that don’t have a dedicated literacy performance coordinator, why is that bridge role so vital to sustaining growth?

Yuki Rockwell

My position provides a bridge to sustaining growth because it offers an outside perspective. Reflecting on my time as a building-level instructional coach and a classroom teacher, sometimes we’re so entrenched in the work that it can be difficult to see the growth that’s taking place. It’s kind of like that with my own children: I don’t realize how tall they’ve grown until someone who hasn’t seen them in a while says, “Wow, they’ve grown a foot.”

It’s important to have somebody who can validate the work taking place and also help identify the potential blind spots. Sometimes you can’t see everything when you’re completely immersed in the work you’re implementing. A position like mine allows us to maintain a unified vision and specific set of goals around SIPPS implementation. 

We want our students to become lifelong readers. There are many ways this can be accomplished. The key to maintaining growth is to ensure that you have a strong set of systems to support that work.

A Cultural Shift for Teachers

Jess Crawford

Kimberly, can you tell us a little bit about the journey since you started doing this at Stetson over the past four years? How does it change the culture for teachers at Stetson? 

Kimberly Escobido

At the beginning, teachers didn’t want to share students with other teachers. They didn’t feel safe. They weren’t too sure what their data would look like. I feel like their growth mindset has shifted from “Those are my students” to “These are our students”.

When we talk about data in PLCs, it’s always “our students.” It doesn’t matter who’s on the roster or homeroom. We own the data together as a school and as a team. The unified framework of SIPPS has helped change their mindset and made them feel more comfortable with their program.

Next Steps for District 49

Jess Crawford

Now that you’ve seen this level of success at Stetson, what are the next steps for District 49 to ensure that every student has access to this level of literacy support?

Yuki Rockwell

In District 49 we’ve been on a 10-year journey to support our work in primary literacy. That includes strong SIPPS implementation across our buildings at the Tier 2 level.

Moving forward, we’re looking to build on our district-wide primary literacy meetings. These meetings allow our district and building leadership teams to review data, align instructional goals, and implement next steps. When we meet we don’t just explore theoretical ideas; rather, we explore the application of what this really looks like with students.

We’ve been highlighting the effective practices that different buildings have been implementing. Leaders from different buildings have been sharing those practices, and these moments have been well received.

The final outcome of our meetings is to look at building-level data and personalize how we can leverage programs and systems to support their work. That’s our vision moving forward: purposeful and meaningful interaction. The knowledge we’ve gained with the implementation of SIPPS here at Stetson provides valuable learning opportunities for leaders anywhere.

The knowledge we’ve gained with the implementation of SIPPS here at Stetson provides valuable learning opportunities for leaders anywhere.

Yuki Rockwell

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Deeply passionate about the Science of Reading, she has found great success using the SIPPS program to help diverse learners master language and foundational literacy. As an instructional coach, she now leverages her expertise to support fellow educators, fostering a culture of feedback and data-driven instruction to ensure every student at Stetson Elementary develops a lifelong love of reading.

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Related Reading:

From Gaps to Growth: How Norristown Area School District Strengthens Foundational Skills with SIPPS

St. Paul Public Schools WINN with SIPPS Reading Intervention

How Oakland Unified School District’s Coaching Infrastructure Drives Reading Tutoring Success

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