We have the honor and privilege of working in districts that have achieved meaningful literacy gains in recent years (more on that below). This work inspires us daily – and it would inspire you too, if you could see it. Unfortunately, we’re unable to provide windows into our classrooms right now. One cost of this […]
Reading Assessments Need an Upgrade
Most reading comprehension assessments are grounded in the belief that reading is a specialized set of skills, such as finding the main idea or identifying the author’s purpose. This may be one of the ways in which the assessment cart drives the instruction horse: on state assessments, students read a random passage they’ve never encountered […]
A Window into the Work: Our Survey of Field Needs
A year ago, three of us published an editorial in EdWeek, We Have a National Reading Crisis, which seemed to strike a chord in the midst of a growing conversation about literacy. We formed a Professional Learning Network of C&I leaders dedicated to sharing our work with high-quality curriculum, because of the positive outcomes in […]
A District Leader’s Education in Early Reading
This piece – authored by Jared Myracle – was originally published in the February 2020 edition of Educational Leadership and can be viewed online in that format. It has been reposted with permission from ASCD. Why I decided our district needed to move in a new direction. This past year has seen a significant uptick […]
The Hidden Mistake School Leaders Should Avoid This Year
This piece — authored by Jared Myracle — was originally published by Education Week on September 2, 2019. A better way to think about curricula I can vividly remember my first few days as a new school administrator. I remember getting in a routine of greeting students as they exited buses and cars and entered the building. I remember […]
Curriculum Is Misunderstood. Let’s Overcome That, in Service of Equity.
I have always been passionate about equity. And the longer I have been in K–12 education, the more I appreciate curriculum as a powerful equalizer, ensuring strong teaching and learning in every classroom. This first became clear to me when I became a principal in 2005. Our school was highly impacted with a high-needs population. […]
The Hard Part About Reading Instruction
This piece was originally published by Education Week on May 28, 2019. We actually know quite a bit about how to teach reading. So why don’t we do it right? Spoiler alert: The hard part about reading instruction is not figuring out how to teach reading. We actually know quite a bit about that. There […]
#CurriculumMatters: Let’s Bring Tangibility and Team to Essential Work via Social Media
We believe we’re witnessing a movement that is beginning to elevate literacy and math instruction. And we’d like to talk about the role of social media, and specifically a hashtag – #CurriculumMatters – in that work. (At first blush, that might seem silly. Please stay with us!) We use social media in a lot of […]
Research into Practice: Building Background Knowledge to Support Reading Comprehension
This year, a national conversation about how we teach reading has led to numerous discussions about important research. Jared, Robin, and Brian wrote about it in an Education Week editorial, We Have a National Reading Crisis. One of its “essential insights” is the role of content knowledge in reading success: “Students’ background knowledge is essential […]
Literacy Is the Innovation Opportunity of 2019
The most exciting and actionable innovation opportunity before us is the potential to improve reading instruction at scale. That’s the conversation we need to be having in every district office. Right now, you may be hearing more about reading concerns. And honestly, those issues are very real. I was proud to co-author a recent Education […]