Arkansas is doing the work

Sometimes growth is imperceptible. Think about grass, hair, or our children’s height. They’re all growing, even when we can’t tell. The same thing is happening in our classrooms: Arkansas teachers, administrators and coaches are doing the hard work to significantly improve students’ literacy levels. 

Students are always learning. Sometimes the progress is subtle. Building skills and knowledge is a process. Then there’s a tipping point, and the changes become more obvious, showing up in observations and assessment results. As the assistant commissioner of education responsible for learning services, I can assure you our educators are doing the work. 

The plan is guided by the LEARNS Act, which touches on many topics, including how students learn to read. As part of LEARNS, schools had to adopt state-approved, high-quality instructional materials aligned to the Science of Reading. Students in grades K-3 were screened for reading difficulties and received targeted interventions and progress monitoring. LEARNS also helped create alignment between strong, grade-level instructional materials and a response system with reading improvement plans, high-impact tutoring and professional learning for teachers.

In many ways, Arkansas is joining the rest of the country in seeking to replicate Mississippi’s success, which has seen reading levels rise from 49th in 2013 to the Top 10 in 2024. There, policymakers pulled many levers to achieve dramatic gains, and onlookers have been trying to adapt the formula to their own circumstances. 

After putting the right collection of strategies in place, the slow, unglamorous work of implementation begins. Getting tens of thousands of teachers to move away from something called Balanced Literacy toward the Science of Reading, and to do it so hundreds of thousands of children can do something as complex as learn to read, well, that takes time. 

Of course, students who are struggling to read don’t have time. That’s why we’re pursuing a range of approaches. Some, like requiring teachers to participate in professional development on the Science of Reading, is likely to have a gradual impact. Others, like having State Literacy Coaches focus on schools with D and F grades on the state report card, are more immediate. 

For example, in Jacksonville North Pulaski, state literacy coaches worked with administrators to help students make significant academic growth. By using a focused, research-based coaching model, one elementary school improved from an F to a B, and two others advanced from a D to a C. These improved grades reflect hundreds of students achieving greater success in reading. 

Scaling practices across the state requires a tiered approach. It also requires time. Just as students need to be exposed to new words multiple times, teachers need through-year, job-embedded coaching support to incorporate a new practice into instruction. Teachers who are further along in their careers are more likely to have taught using Balanced Literacy and may need more support than novice teachers who are only familiar with the Science of Reading. 

Despite the gradual nature of this work, I can attest, as a former teacher, that this approach is years ahead of the professional learning I received, which involved receiving a box of materials and spending most of my time writing lessons. We were doing, not strategizing. There was no time to consider how students might respond to lessons or how to ask higher-level questions to push their thinking. There were no coaches to give me feedback. 

There’s a reason that the gains achieved by our neighbor to the east are referred to as the Mississippi Marathon. Changing people’s practices takes time. Building people’s capacity is complicated. But dramatically improving statewide learning outcomes is possible and necessary, and Arkansas is on its way. 

Editor’s note: Kiffany Pride, Ed.D., is the assistant commissioner of learning services at the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. The opinions expressed are those of the author.