Reading Across the Curriculum: How One High School is Building Literacy into Every Classroom May 15, 2025 At Collegiate Baton Rouge (CBR), as at high schools everywhere, a scholar’s reading ability can have life-changing effects, providing—or preventing—access to academic achievement and post-secondary opportunity. For educators at CBR, this reality gives rise to a sense of urgency that has led to a campus-wide reading strategy that’s already showing promising results. After just half a year of a new fluency practice, 34 percent of CBR students had achieved more than two years of reading growth, with the students furthest below grade-level showing the most improvement. How did CBR make this progress possible? By making every teacher a reading teacher. The endeavor, led by CBR Director of Literacy Kim Richardson, builds upon a multi-year effort to transform school culture and add more than 28 hours of reading fluency instruction for every student. The site has been deeply focused on ensuring that non-proficient readers build momentum to make dramatic growth in literacy to prepare them for rich opportunities beyond high school. “The whole experience around reading now has completely shifted,” says Richardson. “There is an excitement and joy and love of reading for some kids that they just didn’t have before.” CBR Fluency leads, Kim Richardson and Coral Peters Fluency in Every Class On a typical morning in Christian Cantrelle’s Algebra I class, 30 teens stream into the classroom, one of four classes they attend each day. As the bell rings, they each retrieve the packet of materials that Cantrelle has prepared for the day. On most days, the packet includes a fluency sheet, which serves as a signal to the students that they are about to practice reading. Students turn or move to connect with the reading partners Cantrelle assigned to them early in the term. She starts the one-minute timer, and across the classroom, one student in each pair begins reading aloud about a topic connected to the day’s algebra lesson. Each partner follows along, recording mistakes: “any kind of stumble, an added word that isn’t there, a pause, a skipped word,” says Cantrelle. After one minute, partners take an additional minute to debrief, then they switch roles and repeat the process. Finally, they complete a comprehension exercise curated for the reading. The entire exercise takes about five minutes. Across the school, the process is repeated in every classroom, where teachers have selected reading passages to support their curriculum. In Jazmine Milburn’s photography class, for example, students might read a passage on photography’s “rule of thirds.” In Shawandalet Parker’s science classroom, it could be on how to engage in scientific discussion. In Yolanda Champion’s financial literacy, it may be on budgeting. Over and over, students encounter academic vocabulary, practice fluent reading, and complete at least one or two depth-of-knowledge comprehension questions. The repeated reading practice improves fluency—measured by accuracy (reading the words correctly), rate (reading the words at a conversational rate), and prosody (reading the words with expression)—and builds background knowledge for scholars whose access to broad and deep learning is limited. Consequently, while building transferable reading skills, the practice also helps students gain a deeper understanding of the grade-level content in each course. To encourage the adoption of the practice, Richardson took a flexible approach to implementing the fluency protocol. In every classroom, reading practice is expected to occur at least three days per week. How it occurs is teacher-driven; each teacher integrates it in a way that works best in their classroom. For some, it’s at the beginning of the class, for others, the end. Teachers have autonomy to choose when and how to do vocabulary and comprehension activities. For example: Some choose to make a week-long “science of reading” packet containing exercises for each day, including a fluency passage, a place to record their words per minute, a vocabulary interaction, and comprehension questions. Others, like Cantrelle, add fluency activities into instructional materials at least three days per week, using each day’s instruction to guide the reading topic, activity, and level of engagement. Some teachers do comprehension activities that progressively go deeper into the learning, so that by Friday, students have moved from multiple choice to constructive response questions for deeper engagement. The team has also adopted tools and techniques to lighten the load for teachers. For example, after implementation data collected by CBR and their partners at Marshall CoLab identified material preparation as a core barrier, CBR Director of Academics Coral Peters turned to free AI tools to help generate passages. After some trial and error, she developed a resource that teachers can use when prep time becomes a barrier to fluency implementation. Support for teachers extends to coaching in the fluency practice, and every other week’s school-wide professional development priorities are tied to the culture of literacy. Peters and Richardson regularly gather staff to reflect on data and progress. They look at benchmark data to observe growth, elevate particular students and trends, and discuss opportunities to continue improving. Celebration is a regular feature of the support they provide—sharing pictures, videos, and shout-outs to acknowledge the importance of their literacy efforts and build momentum for future progress. Peters describes the shared courage necessary to tackle literacy as a complex area of focus—”We do what’s hard in order to do what’s right.” Students at CBR engage in the oral reading fluency practice in Ms. Parker’s classroom. A Culture for High-Quality Instruction Getting to this point has been a multi-year journey, which began by establishing the enabling conditions for the practice. CBR’s principal, Devan Richard, described the process, saying, “We’ve spent a lot of time focusing on strong instructional routines and school culture,” ensuring first that teachers had effective instructional practices to apply to designing and delivering lessons. The fluency protocol is possible at CBR because of these long-term efforts to build a culture around high-quality instruction and a shared mindset that lets every teacher think of themselves as a reading teacher. CBR’s rollout of the fluency practice demonstrates how, as Richardson puts it, ”this is an ‘all of us’ goal.” Just before launching the protocol, site-wide summer professional development focused on mindsets and a scope and sequence for the practice. The initial plan was to start the year with just English teachers doing reading fluency, and to add history and science by mid-year. Quickly, however, the practice spread further than anyone had anticipated: By the end of the first quarter, nearly 70% of teachers throughout the school had begun practicing reading fluency with their students, and by mid-year, almost everyone was involved. The rapid implementation of the protocol is not the only evidence of the larger cultural shift. There are others: Teachers are getting in on the reading action. “I think for me,” says Richardson, “one of the biggest joys that I have is people like Coral who brag to the entire staff about how many books she’s read, all the time, every day. That’s encouraged other staff members to talk about what they’re reading and how much they’re reading.” This mindset for reading is invigorating teachers to provide high-quality, culturally relevant texts to help students find genuine interest and enjoyment. Some teachers are doing novel and book studies in their classrooms and are introducing other discussion structures—such as Discussion Blitz, where students do 10 minutes of independent reading, then engage in discussion about what they’ve just read—to get students excited about reading. Excitement for reading is, indeed, growing. According to Richardson, “There have been classes where teachers have ‘flipped’ some [students] who like reading least, and she’s having to tell them ‘It’s time to move on. Put the book away.’” In fact, the school community is so excited about reading that they have established an extracurricular book club for students and one for teachers as well. It’s no wonder that CBR is seeing encouraging early data: At the mid-year point, 47% of students had already met their individual growth targets for the year, including 34% who had achieved two or more years of growth. Reading proficiency also increased, with a 4.1% rise in students reading at a high school level. While subgroups were initially underperforming relative to the overall average, performance gaps have begun to narrow. CBR’s sense of urgency regarding their students’ reading ability is well justified. These improvements can have a profound impact on the lives of students positioned furthest from opportunity. Ample research shows the connection between illiteracy, crime, incarceration, and the need for public assistance, and the U.S. Department of Justice has linked low literacy rates to academic failure and delinquency. Furthermore, recent national data shows falling reading scores, particularly among students with the lowest academic outcomes nationwide. A Worthy Journey The CBR educators consider the journey to this current moment to be a worthy undertaking. “Bringing oral reading fluency into band class has helped me take a new step in my teaching and connect more with what’s happening in general education,” says band teacher Karron Brown. “Now, adding things like ELA questions feels natural—it’s part of the routine and supports literacy in every space.” They all agree, too, that the journey begins with establishing a shared mindset. “[The protocol] is happening for us this year, but building the reading culture has really been the last three years of professional development,” says Richardson. “Everyone has to be on board and be on the same page,” says Cantrelle, so that even when teachers are hesitant to add something extra to their lessons, they can “find a way to center literacy around some piece of the lesson. Like in math, a word problem. Make it literacy. Make it fun. Make it so students are taking a second to recognize that it’s literacy.” The right mindset lets teachers be receptive to finding those moments to push the literacy culture. With mindsets in place, adopting new literacy routines, like repeated reading, becomes possible. Cantrelle, an early adopter of the reading fluency practice, described how at first, the additional workload was a challenge. “But once I became consistent, I got my routine down,” and she cut the prep time by two-thirds. Now, “I’ve been doing it so long, it’s easy for me to just pull a resource from my binder and attach it to the lesson for the day.” Her advice? “Don’t overthink it. Don’t overdo it. Get the fluency passage generator. It really does all the work. Just work smarter, not harder.” Richardson’s counsel to educators considering this kind of effort is to keep pushing. “Don’t give up. Keep trying different things. Rinse and repeat, and then if that doesn’t work, try something else. You’ll find something that works.”
Leading Change that Lasts: Collaborating to Center Underserved Students April 22, 2025 Vanessa Murrieta, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Stephanie Lassalle, Marshall Street One of the biggest challenges in education is making change stick. Innovative projects fizzle once funding ends. Promising pilots get watered down as they expand to more classrooms. New priorities divert our focus from successful interventions. This cycle is costly for schools — in terms of time, people, and resources — and leads to “initiative fatigue” that cements doubt about whether our system will ever change. Students and families, particularly those with the greatest needs, pay the price. We believe there is an alternative. In fact, we’ve seen it. More than a year after the Networked Improvement Community for Students with Disabilities (NIC) concluded, at least 80% of partner schools are continuing and sustaining their efforts. Funded by the Gates Foundation, the NIC provides a powerful contrast to what typically happens when a grant ends. The story behind this initiative offers several lessons for educators and funders, including the importance of investing in community, committing to authentic partnership, focusing on students traditionally marginalized, and taking a deliberate approach to sustainability planning. While the structure of the NIC was unique, we believe these lessons offer a roadmap for those interested in sustaining transformational change in our schools. Invest in community The education field is full of sobering statistics that describe the structural inequities faced by students receiving special education services. Students with disabilities score lower on standardized assessments, are more likely to be disciplined, and are less likely to graduate high school. These trends are more pronounced for students of color with disabilities. No individual school can solve these complex challenges alone. That’s why the NIC brought together a deep bench of practitioners, content experts, technical assistance providers, and grant leaders with broad expertise united around an ambitious aim: to dramatically improve outcomes, experiences, and environments for Black and Latino students with disabilities experiencing poverty by June 2023. Leading change efforts in a large community with a diverse array of perspectives took diligence. We had to align on purpose, as well as build the trust and relationships critical to the success of a networked improvement community. To align on purpose, we dug into the data. Examining data from the 10 participating school districts immediately reinforced a shared vision amongst the networked improvement community and solidified a collective understanding that, while the contexts varied across schools and regions, the challenges schools faced were similar. Bringing teams together to review data and identify trends deepened connections across the community and catalyzed efforts to improve. To build strong relationships, we designed virtual collaboration events, in-person learning tours, and network-wide in-person convenings. All of these events intentionally created connections and capacity across our community to learn with and from one another, celebrate wins and progress together, and problem solve barriers with the collective knowledge and expertise of the community. One participant summed up their growth as an improver during our final NIC convening: “Sometimes you did the right thing the wrong way. That’s okay. Try again.” By investing in our community, we ensured we created a web of relationships that ensured no one faced this work alone. Program Officer Vanessa Murrieta welcomes the Networked Improvement Community at the Fall 2022 Convening. Our work demonstrated that community isn’t a buzzword. It’s a practice sparked by a shared vision and reinforced through routines and structures that deepen relationships over time. Community doesn’t happen overnight and it takes significant resources, but like all sound investments, it pays steady dividends through greater engagement. Commit to authentic partnership The Gates Foundation and Marshall Street jointly led this effort through an unusual funder-grantee relationship. Instead of stepping back once the grant was made, the foundation was deeply involved in developing strategy, reviewing progress, and workshopping solutions to problems as they arose. We worked together as an integrated team, sharing decision making and accountability for the success of the project. We also modeled the values and approach we hoped to see by collaboratively planning events and strategizing together on changes to our network design. It wasn’t always easy, but this approach ensured that we remained aligned, even during challenging times. Almost immediately, our carefully crafted plans were upended. In March 2020, just a few months after the NIC launched, the COVID-19 pandemic closed school buildings across the country. Instead of developing an improvement plan for the following school year, the community addressed the immediate needs of students in the target population, many of whom were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Marshall Street and the foundation saw the need for resources to support remote learning. Our close working relationship allowed us to shift priorities and led to the development of a series of COVID-19 rapid response resources for schools in the network and those across the country looking for guidance during an incredibly challenging time. Although the pandemic delayed the start of the continuous improvement work, our decision to temporarily pivot was the right call. We recognized that our top priority had to be working to meet our partners where they were, and that a spirit of flexibility would be essential to our collective success. In addition to a flexible mindset, we worked to stay aligned as a leadership team and with the schools participating in the NIC. For Gates and Marshall Street, that meant semi-annual deep dives to review data, take stock of our progress, and adjust our strategy as needed. For our partners, we initiated alignment meetings before the start of the academic year with each school team. These meetings allowed us to develop a shared vision for the work ahead with clear expectations for both the school and us. Educators identified what they needed to make meaningful progress for students, and we worked together to develop a plan for coaching and technical assistance to proactively address them. This approach strengthened the improvement community because schools felt greater ownership over their work, yet it also meant we had to be willing to take some risks. For example, at the start of the project, we expected that each of the 10 school networks would identify one improvement project to be implemented in two initial focal schools. Instead, several partners identified different needs. In the case of Philadelphia-based Mastery Schools, the team proposed flipping the plan by launching two distinct improvement efforts at one focal campus. We believed this was a massive undertaking for educators and added complexity for our networked effort, yet we trusted that our school partners knew what would work best for their community. Centering our partners in our efforts to lead this work, we worked with the team to devise a plan to make it work. The resulting project led to a new focus area on best practices for supporting students with emotional and behavioral disabilities — and was more successful than if we had insisted that Mastery follow our original model. Embracing authentic partnership means being willing to adjust expectations and co-create solutions. However, as long as we and our partners stayed aligned to our ultimate goal of improved outcomes for students, we knew we were on the right track. Embrace targeted universalism Targeted universalism is an equity-driven approach that centers resources and intervention design around the unique needs and experiences of a specific group within a system, with the belief that everyone will benefit from those efforts. For the NIC, targeted universalism meant focusing on students at the intersection of race, class, and ability — recognizing that changing practices to address systemic barriers for our focus group of students would create a ripple effect that enhances outcomes for all students. Network Leaders Stephanie Lassalle (far left) and Vanessa Murrieta (far right) with community members from Mastery Schools, Marshall Street and the Gates Foundation on a school learning tour in New York. While targeted universalism wasn’t the leading priority during the development of this grant, it emerged as a guiding principle early on because of the way it aligned with the NIC’s vision for systems change. Throughout the project, we saw how centering the needs and experiences of historically underserved students could make an impact on outcomes for other students. For example, educators at STEM Preparatory Schools developed a new gradebook tool that allowed teachers to frequently monitor student progress toward learning goals throughout the semester and provide personalized interventions to support students in the moment, rather than all at once at the end of a term. Rapid intervention is especially important for students with disabilities who may need additional individualized support. Educators at Crown Prep Academy implemented the new tool in classrooms with both special education and general education students, examining data monthly. Among the 30 students with disabilities served, the percentage of A and B grades increased from 25%, when continuous improvement efforts began, to 81% in the fall of 2022. However, Crown Prep also saw improvement in the experience of general education students. Among students at Crown Prep who do not have disabilities, A and B grades improved from 49% to 77%. Whether schools are tackling academic interventions or school culture, a targeted universalism approach can help create the conditions for systems change. As school leaders see improvement in outcomes among the targeted student population, they can feel more confident expanding the intervention and training other educators. This, in turn, can highlight other disparities for schools to address. For the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NIC’s focus on targeted universalism highlighted a powerful lever for change and is informing future grantmaking. Plan for the future From the beginning of this networked endeavor, we knew that sustainability had to be central to the work, rather than an afterthought. Our partners were fully committed to the vision of making dramatic gains in the learning environments, experiences, and outcomes of Black and Latino students with disabilities experiencing poverty. They knew that to take the promising practices they developed to scale across their school networks would require engagement and buy-in from their school communities. Leveraging the strong relationships forged, we designed a convening that grounded each school team in their improvement journey to date to construct a vision for this work to live on to and through 2025. To achieve lasting, systems-level change, organizations must integrate these interventions into the core of their mission — not as an additional priority, but as the foundation of their work. School teams engaged network leaders, school administrators, coaches, and teacher leaders from both special and general education right from the outset. Together, they collaboratively set priorities and refined action plans to anticipate and overcome potential barriers to implementation. By working through the details and building a strong case for sustained commitment, they positioned the changes to continue well beyond the end of the grant period. Just as important for long-term sustainability, educators started small. Instead of jumping to implement a solution, schools conducted small-scale tests of their ideas. Through successive Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, they iterated on their approaches, incorporating feedback from teachers along the way. Photo credit: Collegiate Academies Walter L. Cohen High School This process took time, yet we knew it was essential to demonstrate readiness for change and evidence of success before moving to scale. Only once they had tested and refined their idea, built evidence of impact with students in their schools, and cultivated classroom champions did school teams begin implementing the practice more broadly. The approach paid off. As one participant said, “Once we were able to prove that the practices worked, we were able to build it into the high school goals and curriculums.” Final thoughts The Networked Improvement Community for Students with Disabilities was guided by the African proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Over more than three years, we worked diligently to live our values and go far together. Even though the grant concluded in June 2023, the vast majority of partner schools are continuing to implement and scale the interventions they developed because they built a solid foundation for change. As another participant said at a recent virtual reunion, “We got to do some of the deepest learning during some of the hardest years. Now nothing feels difficult in comparison.” Unfortunately, the hard truth is that most schools do not have a strategy to close equity gaps between students with disabilities and their peers. As funders and leaders of this work, we hope our experience shows that dramatic improvement for students furthest from opportunity is possible. When we invest in community, create authentic partnerships, plan for the future, and embrace targeted universalism, we can create the conditions for lasting change.
IGNITE Network Launches to Revolutionize Education for Students with Disabilities December 16, 2024 Network will bring together up to 30 schools in five states to improve outcomes for students at the intersection of race, class, and ability REDWOOD CITY, Calif., December 16, 2024 – Today, Marshall CoLab announced the launch of the IGNITE Network (IGNITE), an initiative designed to support U.S. public schools in improving the educational experiences and outcomes for students with disabilities, especially those from historically marginalized communities. Over the next two years, participating schools across the country will implement and refine a set of proven school and classroom practices aimed at ensuring all students—regardless of race, class, or ability—receive the high-quality education they deserve. The IGNITE Network is led by Marshall CoLab, which works to sustainably improve teaching and learning for students furthest from opportunity, in collaboration with evaluation partner Mathematica. The Network includes place-based communities in Nashville, Tennessee, led by the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (TN SCORE) in partnership with Diverse Learners Cooperative, and Newark, New Jersey, led by the New Jersey Children’s Foundation. A third community comprises three public charter networks that partnered with Marshall CoLab to develop these practices and are now expanding their usage in their communities: Collegiate Academies in Louisiana, Green Dot Public Schools in California, and Summit Public Schools in California and Washington. “For far too long, students with disabilities–especially Black and Latino students experiencing poverty–have been denied the opportunity to achieve their full potential,” said Stephanie Lassalle, Director of Improvement Programs at Marshall CoLab. “By both implementing proven practices and collaborating to keep getting better, IGNITE is positioned to drive transformational and sustainable change.” IGNITE builds on the success of the Networked Improvement Community for Students with Disabilities (NIC), a multi-year collaboration supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to codify and scale promising practices for historically underserved students. The NIC included 10 public charter school communities serving 75,000 students across the country. In collaboration with leading researchers, content experts, and educators, Marshall CoLab developed five evidence-based practices to improve learning experiences, environments, and outcomes for Black and Latino students with disabilities experiencing poverty. IGNITE schools will receive training and coaching support to implement one or more of these practices. “While Tennessee has made strides in improving student outcomes overall, data still shows significant achievement gaps that we can and must close together,” said David Mansouri, president and CEO of TN SCORE. “We are proud to work with like-minded organizations to ensure all students succeed.” “Newark has among the highest-performing charter sectors in the country, but it will only remain that way if these schools can continue to serve all students with the best evidence-based programs,” said Barbara Martinez, CEO of the New Jersey Children’s Foundation. “We are confident that the Newark schools that implement the practices developed through the work of IGNITE will increase achievement for their students with disabilities.” U.S. public schools serve more than 7 million students with disabilities, about 15% of the total student population. Students with disabilities frequently face low expectations, barriers to rigorous courses, and insufficient support to graduate high school and pursue their dreams. For Black and Latino students with disabilities experiencing poverty, the challenges are even greater. Yet research shows that 85-90% of students with disabilities can achieve at grade level when they receive high-quality instruction and appropriate accommodations. The practices developed and implemented by the NIC contributed to significant progress at participating schools. For example: Green Dot Public Schools saw nearly three times the percentage of students with disabilities passing classes with a C or higher. Collegiate Academies doubled the number of students with disabilities meeting graduation requirements through alternative means of demonstrating mastery. STEM Preparatory Schools increased the percentage of students with disabilities who earned an A or B in mathematics from 25% to 81%. At Summit Public Schools focal sites, at least 82% of students with disabilities ended the year on track in math and English — and at one school that measure was 97%. Current IGNITE schools are implementing at least one of the following practices: Co-Planning for Differentiated Instruction Implementing Routine Data Cycles to Rapidly Address Student Needs Repeated Reading: Building Oral Reading Fluency in Secondary Readers To learn more about IGNITE, click here. About Marshall CoLab Marshall CoLab is dedicated to improving teaching and learning for students furthest from opportunity. We bring together communities of educators, instructional coaches, and experts to co-develop and implement evidence-based practices and make them available to all schools. Using the tools of continuous improvement – the science of getting better at getting better – we support educators along the path from theory to transformation to achieve lasting change. Our IGNITE Network is a coalition of schools committed to making dramatic gains in the experiences, environments, and outcomes for students at the intersection of race, class, and ability. Over two years, these schools will implement and refine practices that lead to positive outcomes for students with disabilities. Learn more here. Contact: Stephanie Lassalle marshallcolab@summitps.org
Clearing the Path featured in Full Spectrum of Evidence from NGLC October 14, 2021 Marshall Street’s Clearing the Path was featured in Next Generation Learning Challenges’ recently developed Full Spectrum of Evidence Toolkit. Full Spectrum calls for research and program evaluation in K-12 education to put students at the center. Full Spectrum’s Validity and Beyond Primer explains how validity is used in student-centered evidence. The primer points to Clearing the Path as an example of a paper that demonstrates the power of including student voices in research. Clearing the Path was based on research with over 150 students and supplemented by conversations with experts.
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