These practical supports can go a long way towards making students successful with challenging texts. 

As school leaders, we need to ensure that classrooms are running well, instruction is strong across classrooms, and grade levels are building upon each other’s work. To provide the leadership that increases student learning, we have to be present where the learning happens — in our classrooms during daily instruction.

Travel to Sofia, Bulgaria with American Kindergarten teacher Launa Hall as she learns how young Bulgarian children learn to read. The centerpiece of every classroom is the Cyrillic alphabet. 

We deserve lesson plans that are based on evidence and effective strategies, not on standards and wishful thinking. Equity isn’t about rushing to grade-level standards — it’s about providing the methodical teaching that the students in our classrooms deserve.