In 2019, the perennially low-achieving state of Mississippi was the only state in the nation where students made significant improvement in their reading scores in nationwide testing. It was the culmination of a decade committed to transforming how reading was taught throughout the state. And how teachers were retrained in best practices grounded in science.

The success seen there has many implications for the rest of the country.

Through strong partnerships forged from the school district level all the way up to the governor’s office, literacy leaders worked together to develop a multi-pronged approach to improve literacy instruction. The massive effort required significant financial investment, a multi-year commitment to effective implementation, and buy-in from the education community. The across-the-board success for all students including low-income, Black and Hispanic offers lessons that have made educators across the nation sit up and take notice, and in many cases, adopt a similar approach.

A video presentation from the 2023 California Reading Summit focused on literacy leaders from districts with diverse student populations throughout the state. Panelists emphasize a multi-year, multi-pronged approach to the implementation of the Science of Reading.

The notion of teaching reading as a moral imperative and an equity issue is especially emphasized, as well as the adoption of appropriate curriculum, and the creation of systematic, long-lasting institutional change.

The speakers are not only knowledgeable about literacy, they show great empathy for the learning curve required for students, professional development for educators and partnering with community members and families. Their comprehensive approach is fresh, informed and essential.

Dr. Tracy White Weeden, CEO of the Neuhaus Education Center in Houston, is a nationally known expert in reading instruction. Her presentation to the California Dyslexia Initiative in 2023 provides a comprehensive and compassionate vision of the importance of literacy in every child’s life, why foundational reading skills are an essential component for the road to success, and what can happen when they are not taught—both on an individual and a societal level.

Two great California cities Palo Alto and Santa Barbara, are known around the world. The expectation of both is that community members are very wealthy, that most students in public schools are high achieving and that the schools offer among the best instructional approaches in the nation.

But for years, both Palo Alto and Santa Barbara’s school districts grappled with the “achievement gap” and posted test scores in reading far proficiency far below what might be expected, particularly for low-income Latino students. Not coincidentally, both districts relied on the curriculum known as Lucy Calkins Units of Study with the now-discredited instructional approach known as “balanced literacy.”
School board member Todd Collins details how Palo Alto turned things around.

The public school with the top reading scores in Santa Barbara is Peabody Charter School, at 71 percent proficiency. A few years ago, the school’s leadership decided to make a significant investment developing clear strategies to accomplish the goal of every third-grader reading by 2026; and it has paid off. They ended instruction in “balanced literacy,” embraced the in the Science of Reading and provided the two-year intensive LETRS training for its teachers.

Learn more about their approach to the successful implementation of the Science of Reading in this article by Principal Demien Barnett.