Dr. McAbee appointed to Governor's Early Literacy Foundation's 2022-2023 Educator Advisory Council

By Katelin Carroll,

Staff Reporter

The Governor's Early Literacy Foundation announced on Tuesday, September 20, 2022, that Lewis County Director of Schools Dr. Tracy McAbee has been appointed to the 2022-2023 Educator Advisory Council.

The foundation's press release stated that 28 educators out of 60 applicants were selected to serve on the council, making Dr. McAbee's appointment something to celebrate. Out of 19 Districts represented, Lewis County will be one!

Their purpose is to "serve as a consulting body for the Foundation's early literacy initiatives, including its statewide K-3 Home Library program that mailed [more than 970,000] books to more than 160,000 students and teachers in Summer 2022" in collaboration with Scholastic. Last year's program only served first and second grade students. This year, the council will also include third grade students.

This will include selecting and curating the books age-appropriate books that will be sent out to students from kindergarten to third grade in hopes of counteracting learning loss. "Research shows that two to three months of reading proficiency is lost for students who do not read over the summer. However, reading 4-6 books over the summer can stop or even reverse summer slide," said the press release. "Placing books directly into children's homes combats learning loss, and the presence of a home library increases children's academic success, vocabulary development, attention span and job attainment."

Dr. McAbee was selected due to his professional history in literacy. It was reported that he was a member of the Tennessee Department of Education Early Literacy Council, Textbook & Instructional Materials Quality Commissions Advisor, and served on various other state level committees. They also credited him with presenting on early literacy across the country, being a contributing author in literary books and being named UT Knoxville's Collaborator of the year.

The application process began a while back via a screening process where the applicants were asked multiple questions such as what the applicant could bring to the table, why he/she wants such a position, etc.

Dr. McAbee said his initial goal in applying to be on the council was to keep expanding his professional development by being in a new learning environment.

"I really enjoy state level committees, and I've been on many of them. You generally find a bunch of bright people, not saying I'm one of them, but I get to be surrounded by them," said Dr. McAbee. "For example, the Early Literacy Council I was on had professors from Vanderbilt, Lipscomb, UT and high performing teachers and principals.. At that time we were challenged with finding out what a literate third grader is. Teachers have a different perspective, principals have a different perspective and so do professors. So my goal was really to go and learn, and maybe share some things I've learned.. [I was so excited when I learned I had been selected] because I always come back from those meetings having learned something."

When asked what the criteria is for selecting books and what kind of books would be selected, Dr. McAbee stated they didn't know the official perimeters yet, but had a hunch that it would be high-interest books like Hank the Cow Dog, Captain Underpants and Pete the Cat.

"We do know this too, that 80 percent of the gap that exists among struggling Fourth Graders is because of 'Summer Slide' from Kindergarten through Fourth," said Dr. McAbee, "So if we can get these books out, that are high interest and kids will actually read, then we have a good chance of reducing that learning gap during the Summer months. We can never fully get rid of it, but we can hopefully reduce it."