Today’s Literacy Headlines

Ensuring that school libraries not only remain funded, but actually expand collections and resources to meet changing needs, requires librarians and staff to get loud and proud about the difference they make each day for students. And one of the most powerful ways to amplify their voices is through hard data — circulation trends, program participation, and student engagement metrics — that demonstrate the indispensable role they play in student success. After years of spending all their time on smartphone screens, today’s students are heading back to the school library for a range of reasons.

I’ve spent years using theater games to foster young people’s abilities to think on their feet, building their communication, collaboration, and social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. I have developed a way to help students build their ideas by playing theater games, and I call it “writing on your feet.” This is a kind of hybrid of improv and sketch that incorporates content in meaningful ways, allowing students to tap into their intuition, brainstorm collaboratively, and generate quantities of ideas that would not be possible if they were working alone, staring at a blank page or a blinking cursor.

Educators are doing many things right: They are consistently delivering explicit phonics instruction that includes a clear purpose using high-quality foundational skills curricula. But something critical was often absent from those same lessons: the opportunity to connect sounds and words to meaning. In a previous report, we explored how meaning is often missing in the tasks that upper elementary students are assigned — for instance, finding literal and nonliteral language in a reading passage but not what the author was trying to convey. 

Some special educators say part of what makes them feel overworked is legally required paperwork layered on top of regular teaching duties. Special ed teacher Mary Acebu is one of a growing number of teachers around the nation using AI to help speed up that paperwork — including for writing individualized education programs (IEPs). It’s helped her instead use precious time for student interaction. “I have time to talk to the kiddos and really build those relationships,” she says, “instead of sitting here in front of my computer.”

Summer library activities help you prevent learning loss while encouraging children and families to maintain strong reading habits during school breaks. our library can be an accessible community learning hub where readers explore books and collaborative experiences that keep literacy engagement active throughout the summer months. The most effective ones encourage active participation while making reading feel collaborative and accessible. These activities combine education, social interaction, and hands-on learning experiences that keep readers connected throughout the break.

Now in its fourth year, the Education Scorecard (a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and faculty at Dartmouth College) provides a mixed picture of American education: a post-pandemic math rebound and early signals that comprehensive literacy reforms are beginning to pay off. In its assessment of literacy scores, the report found that Science of Reading reforms are making a difference––but not everywhere. The recovery in reading appears to be related to state early-literacy reforms. All of the states which improved in reading between 2022 and 2025 were implementing comprehensive science of reading reforms (DC, IN, KY, MD, MN, MS, LA, and TN).

At Hunt Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas, the third grade teaching team has some of the highest educator growth scores in the state, a measure of how well their students meet or exceed academic growth benchmarks in all subjects. The four teachers’ classrooms are located in a circle in a third-grade wing of Hunt Elementary. Students don’t stay in one classroom for the entire year, or even for the entire day. Instead, the four educators share students depending on their skill level.

Many parents have heard the warning: Don’t use baby talk with babies and toddlers. Instead, caregivers are often encouraged to speak properly and use adultlike language, out of concern that simplified speech could confuse children or delay language development. But some research suggests the opposite is true. The sing-song voice many adults instinctively use with infants, sometimes called “baby talk” but more accurately known as “parentese” or infant-directed speech, actually helps children learn language. Far from confusing babies, exaggerating phrases like “Loooook at the doggie!” capture their attention, help them detect patterns in speech and strengthen social bonding.

Researchers warn that the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession — a slide predating the pandemic’s disruptions in schooling. Scholars at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states, allowing comparisons across school districts and states in a national Education Scorecard. What they found was sobering: Only five states plus the District of Columbia had meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025. Nationally, students remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores and only slightly better in math. While schools have focused on catching kids up since the Covid-19 pandemic upended education, reading test scores have been falling since 2013 for eighth graders and 2015 for fourth graders, according to the National Assessment for Educational Progress.

The real power of a doorway greeting is not in the choreography. It is in the connection. After years of working with students and schools as a social worker, district administrator and consultant, I’ve learned that the ages and settings may change, but the need is remarkably consistent: Students want to know that someone is glad they are there. Research suggests that this small routine can make a measurable difference. In one study, classrooms where teachers greeted students at the door saw a 20 percentage point increase in academic engagement and a 9 percentage point decrease in disruptive behavior. The researchers estimated that this kind of increase in engagement could add roughly an extra hour of engagement across a five-hour instructional day.

Reading children’s literature in adulthood isn’t just a nostalgia impulse or an exercise to undertake in the context of sharing stories with kids. Incorporating these books into a literary diet—whether or not a person has children—can help anyone to see and hear with fresh eyes and ears, to find or rediscover wonder in the large (mountain ranges, the moon) and the small (a hummingbird, a smile, a square). 

Screens are everywhere these days. So, it seems, is the debate surrounding their role in children’s development. Much of the conversation about how much and what type of screen time is appropriate for young kids is focused on the use of digital technology at home, under the purview of a child’s parents and primary caregivers. But the reality is that a majority of children age 5 and under spend at least part of their week in an early care and education setting, where screen time may be less visible, but is often present in some form. And when communication between parents and early educators falls short, young children may end up spending more time with screens than experts recommend — and their parents intend. 

At Sharswood, the share of students who were proficient or advanced in reading jumped 11 percentage points — to 43 percent — in the 2024-25 school year over the previous year, the first year using the District’s new science of reading curriculum. That result far outshone what happened District-wide, where proficiency rates dipped slightly from 34 percent to 33 percent compared to 2023-24. The school believes a combination of factors have likely contributed to Sharswood’s successful curriculum implementation: the curriculum itself, but also how a strong principal implemented it, while maintaining high teacher morale and zero staff vacancies. Sharswood teachers are given flexibility, have time to spend on learning the curriculum instead of covering for absent teachers, and, critically, receive support when they request it, including from a specialized onsite literacy coach.

Americans are increasingly listening to audiobooks instead of reading books. There is evidence that reading and listening activate the same areas of the brain. Other studies find that reading develops cognitive skills in ways that listening to an audiobook cannot. A 2022 meta-analysis of 46 studies found that when participants were not able to control the pace of listening, they scored lower on general comprehension and were less able to make inferences about the text compared to those who were reading. Pacing, re-reading, and the visual clues of written words are important components of reading a book, Sternberg explains. When listening to a book, you may have no idea what a new word looks like and how it’s spelled—and it’s more difficult to go back to a passage that you found important.

Leaders of this midsized, mid-Atlantic district were perplexed. The district had recently invested heavily in early-childhood education. It expanded universal free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, scheduled daily two-hour literacy blocks in the early grades—divided among phonics, comprehension, and needs-based small-group instruction—and provided common, coordinated planning time for teachers. Despite these efforts, the district continued to see wide disparities in literacy assessment among K-2 students—not just between schools but from classroom to classroom. To understand why students’ scores hadn’t improved uniformly, the district partnered with the nonprofit SERP Institute (Strategic Education Research Partnership). Close observations of classroom literacy blocks revealed two key findings. First, how teachers allocate instructional time during literacy blocks matters—in unexpected ways. Secondly, students performed better on standardized assessments when teachers routinely taught new vocabulary and encouraged more than one-word responses during comprehension lessons.

Something is happening in America’s elementary classrooms. After decades of reading wars, policy stalemates, and children quietly falling behind, teachers across the country are embracing the science of reading. At least 40 states have enacted science of reading laws. Professional development programs like LETRS have reached a third of the nation’s K–3 teachers. And as the Fordham survey makes clear, teachers who have gone through these types of training know more and teach better. Yet, even as progress spreads, it isn’t reaching everyone equally. And the students most likely to be left behind are those who can least afford it. Four important challenges remain.

Should kids be held back in third grade if they can’t read? As of this year, 18 states say yes and impose some form of retention policy linked to a child’s reading scores, according to the advocacy group ExcelInEd. But the question of retention has been hotly debated as a tool to drive reading scores, with Ohio weakening its version in 2023 and Michigan dropping its requirement in 2024. But there’s one argument that, in my opinion, tips the scales in favor of third grade reading laws. In threatening to hold students back if they haven’t been taught to read properly, states are warning the adults to make sure each child is on track in literacy.

The incessant buzz of student chatter in a classroom can challenge even the most patient of early education teachers. The impulse to hush children can be strong and, at times, appropriate. But it’s also critical for teachers to create space during the school day for early learners to practice talking, experts say. “When we talk about language, in particular, what’s really important is usage. Hearing language is one thing, but actually using it, and having fun with it, and playing with it, is another,” MaryKate DeSantis, a reading specialist and educational consultant, told EdWeek.

Mac Barnett is an author of children’s books, otherwise known as books, including but not limited to “The First Cat In Space” graphic novel series, “Sam And Dave Dig A Hole,” “The Great Zapfino,” “Extra Yarn.” He’s also the current U.S. national ambassador for young people’s literature, and he gets asked all the time when he plans on writing a book for adults. Barnett is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and has a new, short book about writing for kids: “Make Believe.” He talks with NPR’s Elissa Nadworny about it. 

Instruction often focuses on teaching students how to decipher and analyze an author’s purpose in the texts they read. While this work is prioritized in the classroom, students should also think about and name their own purpose for reading. It is important to teach about the reader’s purpose just as explicitly and commonly as we do the author’s purpose. While considering the author’s purpose requires readers to exercise their analytical skills, knowing their own purpose for reading invites them to engage in metacognition and reflection, and ultimately build their own personal connection to reading.

Join the Progressive Policy Institute and The 74 for a special Friday conversation about the education turnaround in Mississippi. The national media has extensively covered the state’s literacy breakthroughs, and other local leaders are now beginning to try to replicate some of the same strategies. But what policymakers may not realize is that the story is larger and more complex than the adoption of any single policy, and states should understand this complexity if they want to spark the same success.

These tips help elementary teachers purposefully select digital tools that provide students a chance to express themselves. This teacher developed the 5 Cs — (1) Clickable: removing barriers to participation, (2) Choice: multimodal options, (3) Curation: focus on synthesis, (4) Collaboration: shared digital spaces, and (5) Connection: the authentic audience.

Research shows reading graphic novels leads to improved reading and comprehension skills for all students. And studies demonstrate that children and teenagers who read graphic novels have improved, more positive attitudes towards reading. They are more likely than children who don’t read comics and graphic novels to think of themselves as good readers. This is extremely important: rates of reading for pleasure among young people are on the decline in Australia and around the world, along with a decline in literacy skills. A proven way to get young readers to both re-engage with reading for pleasure and improve their literacy is to allow – even encourage – them to engage with reading that fits their tastes and interests, linking reading to media they “already recognise as part of their cultural life”. Graphic novels are part of this solution.

Today, nearly every state has passed some manner of reading law valorizing “SoR.” Districts have adopted new curricula. Teachers are taking LETRS and other training programs in droves. Cueing and balanced literacy, once dominant in elementary school classrooms, have come under overdue scrutiny and in some cases have been banned by law. Even former skeptics now speak the language of structured literacy, decoding, and evidence-based practice. In that sense, the science of reading has won the argument. But a new Fordham Institute report asks the more important question: Has the science of reading won the classroom? The answer, encouragingly, is somewhat. But only somewhat.

Children are born to play. Play itself is a valuable, natural means for learning. But what happens when we invite them to pause and reflect on their play experiences? Intentional play reflection is a developmentally appropriate and powerful tool for building metacognitive skills in children. Early childhood teachers can use the strategies and questions in this article to unobtrusively guide students to develop metacognition.

Children’s executive function skills need to play a game of catch-up, concludes a new research study. The study puts the blame on the pandemic, when those skills grew at a lower rate than is developmentally typical. Stephanie M. Jones, the lead researcher, is a professor of early childhood development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She says: Executive function is the set of cognitive skills related to attention, control, and goal-directed behaviors. There’s lots of evidence that tells us that if we support children to practice executive function and self-regulation in the context of their learning environment, if we provide the supports that enable adults and other children to form strong, tight, warm, responsive relationships, that those things will build self-regulation skills, and that cascades into positive behavior.”

The $5.6 million National Study of Special Education Spending, first announced three years ago by the Education Department under the Biden administration, seeks to give policymakers and special education administrators an updated picture of what influences special education spending under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The National Study of Special Education Spending will be the first comprehensive, federally supported look into IDEA funding in two decades.

Technology has changed the way students study and learn. Now, as artificial intelligence enters the classroom, proponents argue it will be a welcome revolution for schools — but with limited guardrails, could it do more harm than good? Horizons moderator William Brangham explores the future of AI and education with Khan Academy founder Salman Khan, who has launched a new AI assistant for teachers.

Last week, after months of petitions and demonstrations, the school board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) voted unanimously to limit screen time for all grade levels, beginning in the fall, with a particular focus on eliminating it entirely for elementary-age students. The move is an about-face for a district that, since the pandemic, has focused on bringing technology into the classroom. The shift in the nation’s second-largest school district aligns with a flurry of recent state movement. Since January, Alabama, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia have passed some form of legislation to reevaluate technology’s role in education instruction and assessment, and more than 10 other states are considering similar restrictions.

During National Library Week, which ends Saturday, librarians across the country are fighting to maintain students’ access to books and to keep their jobs amid cuts to library programs and persistent efforts to restrict reading materials. “Libraries exist to make space for every story and every lived experience,” ALA President Sam Helmick said in a statement. “As we celebrate National Library Week, we reaffirm that libraries are places for knowledge, for access, and for all.”

From Salt Lake City to New York City, parents are demanding more sway over the digital tools that schools give children. Los Angeles parents are fed up with schools loading up students with laptops and tablets, and assigning schoolwork on a slew of apps. Last week, the Los Angeles school board passed a resolution requiring the district to restrict student access to YouTube, eliminate digital devices entirely through first grade and develop screen time limits for higher grades — becoming the first major U.S. school system to do so.

A report sharing the latest trends in student academic growth and achievement focused on the youngest grades: K-2 shows that progress in reading has stalled. While much of the national research has focused on grades 3–8, far less attention has been paid to the early grades. This new report fills that gap, examining how kindergarten through second-grade students weathered the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One of my greatest joys of parenthood was curling up to read before bed,” says Sophie Blackall, the Caldecott-winning illustrator and author of more than 50 picture books, including Hello Lighthouse and If We Were Dogs. Her picture book, If You Come to Earth, is a tender introduction to living on this planet, and her illustrated collection of small joys, Things to Look Forward To, is my go-to gift for friends going through a hard time. “Picture books are for everyone,” agrees Sophie. Here, the author shares 20 favorites, including one she’s given as a gift dozens of times.

DLD is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how children learn, understand and use language. It impacts vocabulary, grammar and the ability to connect ideas across sentences. It also affects one in 10 children—a prevalence similar to dyslexia. Yet DLD does not have the same level of public awareness. Many educators, clinicians and families are unfamiliar with the term. Instead, children with DLD are often described in other ways. They may be seen as shy, hesitant or inattentive. They may stop mid-sentence, struggle to explain their thinking or have difficulty following multi-step directions. In the classroom, they may look to peers to figure out what to do next. These are signs of difficulty with language.

Researchers have found that children’s selective attention predicts how well they understand texts over time, while some forms of school-related screen reading are linked to weaker comprehension. The finding reframes concerns about reading habits by showing that focus, not format alone, shapes how effectively children make sense of written material.

For years now, graphic novels have been a flourishing market for kids’ books. When you scroll through lists of the most popular middle grade books, graphic novels like The Babysitter’s Club, Dog Man, and Big Nate are always high-ranking, along with comic/novel hybrids like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. There are many reasons for this, but a big one is that the illustrations provide context, making books less intimidating for new or reluctant readers. And even confident readers enjoy visually immersing themselves in stories. From Boxcar Children to Front Desk, these middle grade classics are being adapted into graphic novels for a new generation of readers.

In 2022, Emily Hanford’s podcast series, Sold a Story, initiated a fresh wave of concern and advocacy, and state and local policies meant to improve reading instruction have proliferated in response. (At least 40 states and counting have enacted science of reading laws.) Whether these efforts ultimately succeed depends in large part on how clearly and consistently they are understood, supported, and enacted by teachers. To learn more about that, we conducted a nationally representative survey of America’s K–3 reading teachers, with the twin goals of assessing their knowledge of reading science and connecting those results to specific and ongoing “SoR” state implementation efforts. Here are the four big findings.

Teachers’ knowledge of the science of reading has improved in recent years, but gaps remain in curriculum adoption and educator training, a Thomas B. Fordham Institute report, released this month, said. A survey developed by Fordham and conducted by Rand Corp. found that only 52% of K-3 teachers say their classroom reading instruction reflects the science of reading approach. About 30% of teachers said they equally favor phonics and cueing — a discredited practice that encourages guessing instead of systematic decoding.

By reading aloud in middle and high school, teachers can expose students to new ideas, genres, and authors—and get them excited about books. For students at St. Marys Area Middle School in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, Fridays are extra-special. Students come in, grab a sketchnote page, and settle in. Teachers read the first chapter of a new book aloud, which usually takes 10–15 minutes, while students doodle, fill in their sketchnotes, and relax.

Improvements in fourth grade reading have not translated into similar gains in eighth grade reading. Early improvements in children’s ability to decode words do not necessarily lead to success with more complex texts that require additional vocabulary and background knowledge. This gap does not negate Mississippi’s progress, but it does raise questions about what the next decade of work needs to look like. Test score changes reflect a combination of policy decisions, classroom practices and broader conditions, often unfolding over many years. Reading is hard to teach, hard to sustain and not connected to any one policy shift.

For 30 years, Bellevue Elementary in Santa Rosa has relied on AmeriCorps services to support their students that need extra help. But when federal funding was cut, and later reinstated, that programming stalled, leaving some students behind. In this episode, principal Nina Craig explains how the loss of tutors affected instruction and student relationships, while new AmeriCorps members, Maya Nurse and Elena Zeoli, describe stepping into classrooms with limited time and resources. We learn how even a few missed months of literacy support reduces how many students can be served.

In recent years, educators say it has been more challenging to get students to pay attention. A growing body of research says that excessive screen time and fast, short-form content like TikTok videos are part of the problem. To cope with and remedy shorter attention spans, educators are employing a list of new and old strategies including brain breaks; limiting screen time; cutting the time students spend on one activity; adding more engaging hands-on projects and meditation.

While a native speaker understands the conversation and is able to say what’s on their mind at any given time, an English learner is processing what is being said, absorbing the information, wondering about words they haven’t heard before, trying to decipher idioms, ensuring that the answer popping up in their head is grammatically correct, and gathering the courage to say it out loud in front of their peers, who might make fun of errors or not understand them. That’s a lot going on! Strategies like extending wait time and having students write before speaking create conditions for English learners to feel confident participating in discussions.

Embedded high-impact tutoring was widely embraced by thousands of school districts as they grappled with learning loss. Two afterschool programs have seen impressive results using data-driven sessions of at least 90 minutes a week, high-quality materials and family engagement.

Balloon — the book — is about a little boy who is in the park with his mom and a beautiful, bright orange balloon. When he walks into a flock of pigeons, they startle him and he accidentally lets go. The balloon flies up, up, up and away. Careful readers will catch a glimpse of the little boy’s balloon later in the story. The last orange illustration, though, is of the boy’s new friend, who he names Balloon. 

Parents are often sent searching for complicated solutions while underestimating the impact of what happens in ordinary moments at home. The best outcomes happen when classrooms and homes work together. The current reading crisis has exposed how much everyday language, attention and early habits have been neglected in shaping literacy, long before a child is ever formally tested. Start with something deceptively simple: conversation. Reading is not just about decoding words on a page; it’s built on language. When parents narrate what they’re doing, ask questions and engage children in back-and-forth talk, they are building vocabulary and comprehension in real time. This isn’t enrichment. It’s the foundation strong readers stand on, and it happens in the car, at the kitchen table and at the checkout line.

The ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego is a giant ed tech gathering where investors, marketers, entrepreneurs and educators do deals and talk, talk, talk about the future of education. For the past two years, the mantra has been, “AI will transform everything.” This year? Not so much. AI products and conversations were still everywhere, but the mood had shifted. There were a lot more questions — about evidence, about screen time backlash from parents, and about overwhelmed teachers. Superintendents were blunt. Their budgets are contracting and the era of “buy and try” is over.

In his chatty, compulsively readable first book for adults, our current national ambassador for young people’s literature, Mac Barnett, champions his career choice and urges our culture to hold kids in higher esteem. “Make Believe” isn’t a history. You’ll find little reference to the many narrative forms that feed into the family tree of what we now call children’s books. But Barnett’s laser focus is the reality of life, and books, for the younger child.

Taking a Master’s in Reading Literacy Education or in Teaching Reading offers significant professional, pedagogical, and financial advantages. This advanced degree not only enhances instructional effectiveness but also opens doors to specialized roles and increased funding opportunities, especially for programs aligned with the Science of Reading. Grounded in decades of cognitive science and educational research, the Science of Reading emphasizes explicit, systematic teaching of foundational skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Many states now require or strongly encourage school districts to adopt curricula and professional development aligned with these principles.

Students in Vanessa Malzone’s third grade class at Sheehy Elementary put on their headsets and log into a reading tutoring program a few times a week. They watch videos and read out loud from worksheets into their laptops. On the other side of the screen: college students from across the country, connected by video, hoping to build a connection and confidence in reading. At Sheehy, which, like some other schools, has struggled with third grade reading test scores, school leaders say they’ve seen payoff from the partnership through the Teach for America Ignite Fellowship. The program pairs students with real-time tutors during school hours.

As kidSTREAM prepares to open in Ventura County, it joins a national wave of new children’s museums, expansions of existing institutions and a broadened lineup of programming aimed at young visitors.

[There is] a widespread way of thinking about intervention that if students didn’t learn the material well in class, they might benefit from new ways of approaching it or different explanations of the same concepts. But a new study suggests the opposite was true, that teachers and tutors may have inadvertently confused students by, for example, teaching different letter sounds in different orders or referring to the “magic e” in one setting and the “silent e” in another. The findings are important as school districts look for ways to make tutoring more effective with limited dollars. 

With her most recent announcement that the Treasury Department would take over student loans, Education Secretary Linda McMahon is reversing history and redistributing her department’s major responsibilities across the federal government. K-12 programs are going to the Labor Department, while the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to absorb special education. McMahon dismisses her staff’s oversight functions as unnecessarily burdensome and says parceling out the department’s functions will reduce red tape. But others say those rules ensure that schools spend the money the way Congress intended. 

The author of “A Wolf Called Wander” recommends titles old and new, fantastical and true, that celebrate the natural world. I was lucky enough to grow up in Oregon — with its trees and puddles, lakes and waterfalls, rugged mountains and windswept public beaches. I belonged to a lightly supervised generation and had acres of time to explore the world on and off the page. As a result, my childhood book collection was edge-ruffled by rain and liberally sprinkled with dirt and sand. I was also the lucky recipient of world-class public libraries, which gave me access to a huge range of books, art, maps, field guides and sheet music. I gravitated to the things that celebrated the wilderness whether they were true or fantastical, historical or futuristic. Here are some of my favorites, old and new.

A first-of-its-kind study has found that early intervention services — which can include occupational, physical and speech therapies, among others — improve children’s test scores, even years down the road. The study, conducted jointly by researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the New York City Health Department, showed that children who received the services between birth and age 3 outperformed similar peers on third grade reading and math tests. Early intervention services are intended for children with disabilities, developmental delays or those who are at risk of them.

While there are many great brain-based learning strategies out there, students may not fully buy into these strategies if they don’t understand why they work. And for many students, no one has ever explained that why. These four hands-on activities guide students to explore how their attention and memory function and how that impacts learning.

A recent study conducted in partnership with Harvard’s EdRedesign Lab evaluates the program’s impact on both short-term outcomes such as test scores, absences, and suspensions, and long-term outcomes including high school graduation, college enrollment, and adult earnings. The findings indicate that CIS programs in Texas have positive academic impacts. When safety-net programs are weakened or fragmented, models like CIS may become even more critical in ensuring that vulnerable students do not fall through the cracks.

A few years ago, Rock Rest Elementary school went all in on phonics. Through collecting student data and watching children read, staff at Rock Rest realized their students still struggled with other literacy skills, like vocabulary and complex sentence structure. So leaders at the school decided to block off time at every grade level each day, a 30-minute period for what Rock Rest would call a “language lab.” There, students would practice using academic vocabulary, explaining their ideas out loud and parsing those of the authors they read—skills that didn’t always receive time in their English/language arts curriculum.

Cynthia and Rosemary: “While we are absolutely delighted with the many awards and starred reviews the books have received, even more critical to us is that Heartdrum has had a ripple effect on the children’s publishing industry. Other publishers have seen the success of Heartdrum and have been encouraged by that to publish Indigenous authors. This is a sea-change from how things had been for years, and we’re happy about the small part we have played in this improvement.”

Mississippi has seen a stunning turnaround in national test scores in the past decade, even as they have fallen almost everywhere else. Sarah Mervosh, an education reporter, explains what the state can teach the rest of the country about how to educate students.