Before You Add Another Literacy Initiative This Year, Do This First

“Reading needs to improve this year. What should I change?”

August brings a sense of possibility, and usually a long list of things we want to improve. If reading results disappointed us, it's natural to ask what to change. You're not alone: in 2024, 40% of fourth graders nationwide scored below the NAEP Basic level in reading (NAEP, 2024). A new resource? More intervention? Different professional development? One principal I spoke with described literacy trends as fads that come and go in waves, each one all or nothing.

Before you change anything, understand what's already happening.

When I took over as principal at my current school, I had plenty of thoughts about our literacy program. As a literacy specialist, I could easily have walked in with a list of changes. Instead, the first thing I did was nothing.

I visited classrooms, talked with teachers, looked at student work, and studied our data.

It's easy to assume disappointing data means we need something new. But the problem isn't always the curriculum or a lack of resources.

• Sometimes teachers have plenty of resources but aren't sure how they fit together.

• Sometimes they know how to follow the curriculum but aren't sure what to do when a student isn't progressing.

• And sometimes good professional development never made it into everyday teaching.

Each needs a different solution. That's why the first pillar of the Literacy Decoded Implementation Framework™ is Assess Before You Prescribe.

Your next step: Before deciding what needs to change this year, learn what reading instruction your students are actually experiencing. Walk into classrooms. Talk with your teachers. Look at student work alongside your data. Ask teachers what they feel confident teaching and where they wish they had more support.

Don't go in looking for what's wrong. Go in to understand what's happening. We don't need to change something simply because it's a new school year. We need to make sure we're changing the right thing.

Try this week: List every reading program, resource and initiative your school is using right now. Put a check next to each one your teachers could explain, including how it fits with the others, and look closely at what's left unchecked.

If you're not sure what needs to change this year, the free Before-You-Add Literacy Inventory can help you see what's working and where the gaps may be. And if what you uncover raises more questions than answers, I'd be glad to talk it through.

Talk through what you're seeing →

Lisa Gelberman

Literacy Decoded

Source: The Nation's Report Card (NAEP), 2024 Reading Assessment, Grade 4 national results, National Center for Education Statistics. View source