Op-Ed: Reading success isn’t immediate - but it’s achievable if we stay the course
Change takes time. This is the reality of improving literacy outcomes in Washington, DC - a reality that is both challenging and hopeful. As the city embarks on the implementation of DC’s Early Literacy Education Task Force recommendations, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to long-term, evidence-based solutions. Even if immediate results are not evident. This approach isn’t just prudent- it’s essential.
The Early Literacy Education Task Force has outlined three key pillars for systemic literacy improvement: robust training for teachers and school-based administrators, high-quality curricula, and ongoing coaching.
The District has taken a commendable step forward by beginning to implement the task force’s recommendations through Title IV, Subtitle R of D.C. Act 25-550. However, the scope of this funding is notable limited. All in all, only one pillar (high-quality curricula) will be fully funded in fiscal year 2025. Robust training for teachers and school-based administrators will be provided asychronously and virtually, which has not been proved to generate the highest impact. Coaching will be provided only for a handful of schools as a pilot. And this, would be only for kindergarten.
In contrast, Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion act mandated dynamic in-person (vs. asynchronous virtual) training for all literacy teachers and administrators in the science of reading, the use of high-quality instructional materials, and the deployment of skilled literacy coaches to high-need schools. These coaches provide in-classroom support multiple times a week and undergo continuous professional development themselves.
In other words, Mississippi immediately funded all three key pillars of science of reading reforms for all grades. DC has partially funded these three pillars and only for kindergarten. Mississippi’s investments propelled the state’s rise from 50th to 21st in national rankings by 2022. In the meantime, average score of our fourth grade students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was at the bottom of state rankings in 2022- “higher than those in 0 states/jurisdictions.” If DC hopes to achieve similar success, we must expand our commitment to ensure sustained and comprehensive literacy progress for all students.
Even with such a coordinated series of investments across Mississippi, it took six years before educators there began seeing systemwide improvements. DC, in turn, should not expect quick results from the investments made in the FY 2025 budget.
The science is clear: implementing literacy changes fully and effectively requires time and patience. Each pillar of the task force’s recommendations entails a deliberate process:
Leader and teacher training: Training in evidence-based literacy practices takes months, often requiring deep learning and shifts in long-held mindsets.
Curriculum selection: Selecting and adopting high-quality materials that align with the science of reading can take as much as a year, particularly if decision makers meaningfully engage a variety of stakeholders: leaders, teachers, parents, students and specialists.
Teacher coaching: As educators begin using new materials, there’s often an initial dip in outcomes as they adjust. Ongoing coaching ensures that these efforts mature into consistent and impactful teaching practices.
These efforts must be implemented fully — piecemeal measures will not suffice. An incomplete approach, such as cursory training or poorly supported curriculum adoption, will fail to yield meaningful change. Only by committing to all of these pillars can we ensure sustained progress.
Even so we must avoid the temptation to expect rapid results and remind ourselves that real change takes years. Like Mississippi, we need to embrace the long view, knowing that the fruits of our labor- better reading outcomes, higher graduation rates, and a more equitable education system- are worth the wait.
While systemwide gains may take time, we advise tracking teacher confidence in delivering literacy instruction as an interim marker to assess the impact of our initial investments. We also advise tracking reading proficiency at certain schools- for example, the handful of schools that have funding for teacher coaching. We expect that these interim markers will signal and inform progress far before population-level data improves. This data will also serve as a reminder that urgency and patience must coexist.
We must act urgently because every child deserves the opportunity to read at grade level. A kindergartner gets one kindergarten year, and the skills they build now lay the foundation for lifelong learning. Yet we must simultaneously adopt a long-term mindset. Lasting change requires consistent investment, both financial and strategic.
We have heard premature celebration from several key decision makers in DC that we are “done with literacy” and should shift attention and resources to math. Abandoning or scaling back our literacy initiatives before they’ve had a chance to take root would squander the progress we’ve made and deny our students the education they deserve. DC has the tools, the plan, and the commitment to succeed. What we need now is the resolve to continue on our path.
In uncertain times, it is enticing to prioritize quick fixes. But when it comes to literacy, the stakes are too high for shortcuts. DC’s children deserve the long-term, evidence-based investments that will transform their futures. This is our opportunity to ensure that every child, in every classroom, has the chance to succeed- not just today, but for generations to come.
As DC continues to invest in teacher training for kindergarten educators, we urge Mayor Bowser and the DC Council to also take the next critical step: Expand these efforts to all elementary school grades in the upcoming budget cycle. We shouldn’t wait for this first round of investments to show broad improvements before we scale those investments out to grades K-5. There is ample evidence that our initiatives are on track to generate the same level of impact as the “Mississippi Miracle,” but we have to double down and we have to stay the course.
Read our op-ed via The DC Line
Allister Chang is the Ward 2 representative of the DC State Board of Education. He represented the board on the Early Literacy Education Task Force.
Andrea Kleinbard is an early literacy consultant who works with philanthropic groups, school systems and nonprofit organizations in DC and nationally. She is a former teacher, elementary school dean, network curriculum leader, graduate school instructor, and principal coach. She is a Ward 3 resident and deeply grateful to be raising her two children in the District.