Know Where You’re Going: Developing a Research-Aligned Vision for Literacy Instruction

“For two years, we had been on a literacy journey, battling between possible curricula to adopt. We decided it was not a tenable strategy to just debate [options], so we started to do some research. [Despite adopting a new curriculum,] after two years, we were not seeing much success in changing outcomes for our students. We realized we needed a clear vision and professional development grounded in research to help build trust in the curricular choices and deepen belief they will lead to outcomes. Once people realized it works, our outcomes in literacy improved dramatically: By the end of the year, nearly three-quarters of our K-1 students were reading at benchmark, almost tripling the percent of students at benchmark; and we increased the percent of K-2 students reading at benchmark at a rate twice the national average.”

— Todd Purvis, Chief Academic Officer, KIPP New Orleans Schools

Educators at all levels know the importance of backwards planning; you need to know where you’re headed before you develop your plan. Literacy leaders stressed the value of taking the time to craft a comprehensive and thoughtful vision around literacy instruction. This vision can serve to align everyone on the end goal and to “put a stake in the ground” around key strategies or beliefs.

Leaders have set clear visions for literacy models by:

Using a collaborative approach to engage stakeholders in setting the vision
Developing a compelling vision
Using reading research to build a shared understanding and a common language of the vision

Using a Collaborative Approach to Establish the Vision

At DREAM Charter Schools, the leadership team launched the school year with a plan for a thorough, inclusive, and intentional process for soliciting feedback from all stakeholders to create a shared vision and select new instructional materials for the following school year. In addition to evaluating their current instructional materials, they also held focus groups and surveyed staff, students, and families to gather feedback. Through these feedback sessions, the team synthesized their findings into a set of recommendations that drove their vision and decision-making process for the new literacy vision.

KIPP New Orleans Schools (KNOS) also took a collaborative approach to decision-making from the onset by creating intentional structures that empowered teachers to shape their early literacy model. “If school leaders are on board, teams will get on board. We introduced a set of structures to get teachers’ feedback, including a curriculum survey… We’ve gotten teacher voices [involved] over the last few years. Structures have aligned everyone, so for example, the recent shifts we’ve made in response to lagging Kindergarten data have been self-evident to all stakeholders,” shares Todd Purvis. The KNOS team began by surveying teachers around key indicators of the curriculum (see below). They then brought together a committee of teachers and leaders to review the feedback and identify strengths and opportunities to both clarify the vision and set priorities for the upcoming school year.

Example from KIPP New Orleans Schools of key indicators for the teacher survey.

Developing a Compelling Vision Statement

Below is a model vision statement from KIPP New Orleans Schools' Blueprint that outlines their early literacy vision and guiding principles. The example clearly names both the actions and work the team is committing to while capturing the “why” behind those decisions.

        “It is our belief that all students at KIPP New Orleans Schools (KNOS) can and will read proficiently upon entering third grade, or after three years of instruction at KNOS. It is our responsibility as an organization to support the literacy growth and development of every student by ensuring each student receives high quality, aligned teaching and curriculum that is anchored in the Science of Reading. We provide daily, high quality instruction to all of our students in both foundational skills, so that they can read words on a page proficiently, and rich, complex, grade level texts that build vocabulary and background knowledge, so students can understand the meaning behind the words. Our curriculum must provide ‘windows, mirrors, and sliding doors’ so students can learn about the world, affirm their identity, and have opportunities and access outside the classroom.”

Leaders named the importance of explicitly linking literacy work to anti-racist work and DEI initiatives. Randy Dowell, CEO at KIPP Nashville, shares, “Calling out the justice work and linking it to kids learning how to read has framed and underscored the importance of this priority.” To demonstrate their commitment to anti-racist work, KIPP New Orleans includes the following in their vision statement:

        "We commit to equity. We must act – daily, bravely – to be an anti-racist organization. We commit to bettering ourselves in service of our students. In the words of Ibram X. Kendi, 'being anti-racist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism and regular self-examination.' We commit to ensuring each student has the skills necessary to be a proficient reader, a skillful writer, and a critical thinker. We commit to deeply internalizing our daily lessons and analyzing and responding to student work as part of the road to equity. 

Equity lives in the details of teaching and learning. Our ultimate goal is to accelerate student learning in a positive and productive way so that students master skills and build knowledge critical to reading and writing development and are celebrated over the course of their journey.”

Connecting Literacy Research to Your Vision

After crafting a vision statement, leaders at BRICK Education Network constantly revisited the research and connected it back to their vision statement to support leaders in understanding the why. It was initially challenging to shift mindsets from old knowledge and habits toward what will be best for kids in the long run. “The transition from skepticism to ‘aha’ moments took a while,” explains Dana Carr-Ford, Senior Director of K-4 Literacy. “We made sure to ground ourselves in the research and identify what has worked and has not and ultimately what we could do differently. We started getting ‘aha’ moments at the beginning of the year, and success motivated teachers to identify what they could continue to do to support students.”

Kate Baker, Head of Elementary Academics at KIPP Nashville, shares the importance of strategically using language from the research in your vision and program design: “We renamed our ‘guided reading’ time as ‘small group’ and named specifically that this time is for Tier 2 intervention. That helped us realize that we needed a stronger RTI approach and for science and social studies to start in kindergarten. We had teachers put Scarborough’s Rope on the board and map the strands to their daily schedule.”

Igniting the Journey and Empowering Success

To implement a new research-backed early literacy model, you must set a compelling vision for effective teaching and learning and align your team on how to realize this vision. Grounding your vision in early literacy research will provide a clear framework that will set your team up for success. By involving all stakeholders in your school community in the vision setting process, you will generate the buy-in you need to begin executing against your north star and ensuring all students learn how to read.