What does the next stage of reading reform need to look like?

This post is adapted from an email originally shared on February 3, 2023. If you would like to receive future emails, you can sign up here.

As an instructional nerd, I love how much attention reading instruction is getting. I love journalism that wades deeply into the merits of particular instructional strategies. I love the awesome display of educators embracing a “know better, do better” spirit of learning and the living drama of public accountability to evidence-based practice.

With increased parent advocacy driving focus and districts and states blazing the trail, we can see early evidence of systemic change — at scale — that’s leading to real improvements in how students are learning to read.

As the momentum around improving reading instruction builds, I hope that we all stay clear on the goal line. The win is not high-quality curriculum in every classroom, or 50 states with reading laws, or even every teacher preparation provider including the importance of systematic phonics instruction in the syllabus, important as all of those milestones are to victory. The win is every student reading by the end of the third grade with continued progress beyond.

Reaching this win will require several stages of reform. Across states and districts, the common plays in the first stage include:

1. Legislation and vision statements endorsing the importance of sounds-first instruction
2. Large-scale training of current teachers on “the science of reading” — often using LETRS
3. Efforts to ensure that the adopted curriculum reflects systematic and explicit instruction in foundational skills
4. Moves to ensure that teacher-preparation programs include attention to sounds-first principles of reading instruction

These are all critical moves. But what else will be needed to reach the goal of “every student reading on grade level?” Stage two reforms will likely need to include:

1. Building significant capacity for school and district leadership teams on how to support teachers in the specifics of the curriculum and assessments. Implementing a sounds-first curriculum well requires constant attention to professional learning support structures (i.e., collaborative planning and observation and feedback) and effective use of data. The only way to support implementation well is to help those leading the schools and systems support teachers well.
2. Bringing core instruction and intervention into alignment. No curriculum will work for every student, every day. Reading teachers will always have to closely track and address unmet learning needs in a way that affirms students as learners. Most schools offer layers of intervention with supplementary programs, small-group targeted instruction, and, increasingly, tutoring. When they work together with core instruction, multiple layers of support make it possible to ensure that all students get what they need. However, when they reflect different approaches, these layers of support can create competing frameworks that obscure focus for students that need the clearest connections. States, districts, and schools will need to work to ensure that the programs and the people supporting each layer pull in the same direction.
3. Ensuring strength across all the strands in the reading rope. Mastering foundational skills is necessary but not sufficient. If instruction does not build knowledge and vocabulary, students may be at risk of lifting correct-sounding words from print without understanding. Schools need to do more than nail the phonics lesson or even the reading block; all the disciplines (science, social studies, art, etc.) need to be involved — which will require attention to cross-discipline connections, time allocation, and even assessment design.

As with many reform efforts, the work that follows the first stage involves complex system change. One day, more coherent and connected products and better tech solutions may be able to lift more of the load, but education will always be human and interactive work; the path to the goal of “every student” runs through improving the strength and coherence of systems.

Though we can and should celebrate the clarity of the research that suggests that sounds-first instruction in reading is helpful and three-cueing is harmful, we also need to acknowledge that we have fewer simple findings on what works in system change. But we can learn into the patterns faster by sharing what we are finding as we go.

In that spirit, I am excited to announce that Instruction Partners has released the Early Literacy Playbook — a suite of resources to help teams implement strong foundational skills instruction. Two years ago, we shared the Essential Practices in Early Literacy, which outlined the necessary components to ensure that students develop strong foundational skills. This playbook is a very practical set of steps that leaders can take to help their schools and systems bring those components to life. I hope you’ll spend some time looking through the many resources and share the playbook with anyone that might benefit.

American schools are highly capable of delivering on the promise that every student will learn to read in school. Reaching this goal will require teams and communities to work through many stages of reform. As an education community, we have a lot to learn to support the journey. I hope this playbook can contribute to that learning as we walk this path, together.