Structured Literacy Leadership Institute
You have the literacy resources you need — but how do they all fit together to transform instructional practice?
You’ve spent years investing in literacy resources for your teachers. You have a universal screener, a Tier 1 curriculum, decodable texts, and maybe even strong Tier 2 and Tier 3 resources.
But how does everything fit together to lead to student success?
We’ll show you how.
“This is learning needed for the organization. I believe it will positively impact our literacy data.”
— Washington, D.C. Charter School Instructional Leader
Literacy Leadership Matters.
Effective literacy instruction begins with clear leadership. As a school leader, you not only need to understand the science of reading — you also need to know how to support teachers in bringing that evidence base to life in classrooms.
Too many PD sessions focus on theory. What’s more important is how to apply this theory with students in the classroom and how to lead these changes.
What Leaders Are Saying
%
Agreed the sessions were a good use of time
%
Learned strategies they can use immediately in teaching or coaching
%
Said the content aligned with their role
%
Feel more equipped to collaborate as a leadership team
This series will support you in:
Understanding How Your Literacy Resources Fit Together
Create a plan for how all of the assessments, curricula, and supplemental resources will work together to support your students.
Using Data to Drive Instruction
We’ll break down our data analysis protocol step-by-step so you can see the exact skills each class needs to focus on before the next benchmark assessment.
Coaching Teachers with Confidence
You’ll learn by doing. You’ll practice teaching students, observing literacy instruction, giving feedback, modeling lessons, and leading PD.
Aligning Teams Around a Literacy Vision
Collaborate with your school team to build coherence across roles and develop a literacy plan for your school.
What’s Inside the Institute
The Structured Literacy Leadership Institute unfolds across seven thoughtfully sequenced sessions, delivered with a blend of whole group training, student practicum experiences, and structured planning time with teams.
Key components include:
Foundational Training on the Science of Reading
- Learn about the brain processes involved in reading.
- Articulate the strongest predictors of reading success.
Deep Dives to Learn Your Curriculum and Assessment Tools
- Draw direct connections between the curriculum and assessments at your school.
- Understand how your curriculum and assessments fit into the MTSS process.
- Articulate the alignment between your curriculum and the research on reading.
Real-Time Data Analysis
- Interpret the information gained from benchmark literacy data.
- Explain what additional data is needed to plan targeted instruction for your students.
- Administer and analyze diagnostic assessments to find out more about your students’ phonemic awareness and decoding skills.
Student Practicums to Practice Key Strategies
- Take a few steps in your teachers’ shoes as you deliver parts of a structured literacy lesson to students.
- Learn how to correct student errors during instruction and how to coach teachers to do the same.
Live Practice with Coaching and Giving Feedback
- Participate in coaching conversations with peers based on live and video lessons.
Action Planning for School Year PD and Support
- Build common language around your literacy goals.
- Convey the most important parts of your learning to teachers.
This is more than professional development — it’s a leadership transformation arc, curated to help your team move from literacy theory to confident, coordinated action.
What Leaders Are Saying
“If a teacher had come to me with a concern about a student’s reading skills last year, I wouldn’t have known what to tell them. Now I do.”
“I love slowing down to really understand how readers read and then make connections to our programming.”
“This helped me understand how to actually coach teachers around decoding and phonemic awareness. I feel more confident now.”
“The discourse with other leaders is important — and this series made space for it.”
Proven Results. Powerful Shifts.
After completing the Structured Literacy Leadership Institute, leaders consistently report:
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Increased clarity about literacy research and how it connects to their school’s curricula and assessments
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Confidence analyzing data and coaching teachers on instructional decisions
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New tools and shared language that immediately support classroom practice
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Deeper collaboration across roles, grade levels, and campuses
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A unified vision for structured literacy that supports all learners — including older striving readers
Before the Institute
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Foundational literacy is seen as “elementary-only”
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Data felt disconnected from instruction
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Uncertainty about how to coach on reading skills, especially with upper elementary and secondary teachers
After the Institute
- Confidence in supporting K–8 teachers with foundational skills
- Data tools seen as instructional levers
- Leaders actively planning PD, coaching, and support to address the needs of students across grade levels
Bring the Structured Literacy Leadership Institute to Your School or Network
The Structured Literacy Leadership Institute was originally developed for a charter school network in Washington, D.C. and can be customized to meet the needs of your district, charter network, or school leadership team.
This is a premium professional development experience tailored to school systems that are serious about structured literacy implementation and instructional excellence.
Whether you’re looking to train a single campus or build coherence across an entire system, we can partner with you to adapt the learning arc to your goals, calendar, and existing resources.
Contact us to explore partnership options.
Let’s talk about how we can support your leadership teams with high-impact, evidence-based training.