Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

Educational leadership is a crucial ingredient of excellent schools and excellent programs. A memo in Harvard’s Lead for Literacy series parses what this means when it comes to ensuring children’s development as readers. (Read “What Leaders Need to Know and Do.”)

“While site leaders are eager to advance children’s literacy development, they often lack the deep understanding of literacy needed to improve instructional practice and children’s outcomes,” the memo states. “To ensure that reform results in improvement and not just change, leaders must be well educated on children’s literacy development and the specific needs of their populations.”

The memos are an initiative of the Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The research group is headed by Professor Nonie Lesaux, author of “Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success,” which we commissioned in 2010 and which informs the memos.

The amount of time leaders often spend on “managerial and operational work that is removed from day-to-day instruction” is one “common pitfall” that the memo cites. Rather, “educators are more effective and committed, and children’s literacy outcomes improve,” when leaders focus on literacy instruction.

The memo recommends that site leaders “develop a comprehensive knowledge about literacy” that includes understanding the knowledge-based and skills-based competencies young readers – and emerging readers – need. It recommends that leaders understand best practices and how to interpret assessments of children’s progress.

The memo advises leaders to “develop a comprehensive knowledge about your site’s literacy strengths and needs.” This includes using data to analyze trends and inform instruction.

“Improvements,” the memo states, “will occur at scale only when the leaders at each site understand the specifics of literacy development, interpret student literacy data, know their site’s instructional strengths and weaknesses, and can translate these understandings into corresponding guidance for educators.”

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Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

Webster’s Dictionary defines literacy as “the ability to read and write.” The simple definition belies a complex process that includes the ability to decode words on the page and understand what they mean in the context in which they are written.

In their Lead for Literacy memo “Literacy Unpacked: What Do We Mean by Literacy?” the team at the Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education look at the various elements involved in ensuring that children learn to read with both comprehension and fluency. The memos in the series are informed by “Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success,” the 2010 report commissioned by Strategies for Children from Professor Nonie Lesaux, who leads the research group.

Defining literacy as “reading, writing, speaking, listening,” the one-page memo notes that skills-based competencies – such as print concepts, alphabet knowledge, word reading and fluency – are “highly susceptible to relatively brief instruction” and are typically mastered by third grade. Developing the knowledge that is the foundation of reading with comprehension, on the other hand, “requires sustained instruction, beginning in early childhood” and is acquired over a lifetime.

“With adequate instruction, skills‐based competencies are mastered by third grade for the average student. Yet the development of knowledge‐based competencies must be supported with good instruction throughout schooling. For many children, especially from academically vulnerable populations, knowledge‐based competencies are more likely to be key sources of academic difficulties,” the memo states. “Skills‐based competencies are necessary but not sufficient for early literacy development; later reading comprehension and academic success depend mostly on strong knowledge‐based competencies.”

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Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

What are the key ingredients of an effective program to improve children’s literacy? Why is developmentally appropriate assessment of young children’s language and literacy development important? The Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is releasing a series of one-page memos designed to answer these and other questions about the critical ingredients needed to children’s literacy. (See Lead for Literacy.)

The research group is led by Professor Nonie Lesaux, author of  “Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success,” which Strategies for Children commissioned in 2010 and which informs the memos. “Each memo,” the group’s website states, “revisits assumptions that guide current policies and practices, outlines common pitfalls, and presents feasible solutions to pressing issues.”

The research group began releasing memos in September and will continue releasing them through November. I’ll write later about individual memos. These are the memos that have been released so far:

Program Design for Impact

Early Identification and Intervention Practices

What Leaders Need to Know and Do

Literacy Unpacked: What Do We Mean by Literacy?

The Importance of Early Literacy Assessment

Comprehensive Assessment: Towards a More Complete Picture of Literacy

Comprehensive Assessment: Making Sense of Test Type and Purpose

Designing Professional Development for Instructional Change

Implementing Professional Development for Instructional Change

Professor Lesaux has conducted research in five large U.S. school districts. She has served as senior research associate of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Youth and also served on the Reading First Advisory Committee for the U.S. secretary of education. In 2007, the WT Grant Foundation named her as one of five WT Grant scholars and awarded her a five-year, $350,000 grant to study English language learners in urban public schools. Lesaux has also received a Presidetial Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor the federal government offers to recognize young professionals beginning their research careers.

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