Before Michelle Sado knew the term “the science of reading,” she realized her high school students in remedial English needed extra help with vocabulary.
As a teacher, she was trained to follow the grade-level standards for language arts, which didn’t necessarily cover those kinds of interventions for struggling learners. So she worked to piece together the supplemental curriculum products that could help her students.
It’s an increasingly common story for secondary educators to see older students struggling with basic literacy, especially after the pandemic interrupted critical academic years for many students.
A wave of states have passed legislation requiring schools to take a research-based, phonics approach to teaching reading in early grades.
But districts and lawmakers are just starting to turn their attention to middle and high schools, where finding age appropriate products and earning teacher buy-in has proved difficult for some.
A newly released EdWeek Market Brief survey, for instance, found that just 22 percent of district and school leaders said their classroom resources are currently aligned to the science of reading, compared to 47 percent and 56 percent of those in grades 3-5 and K-2, respectively.
But the picture is poised to change. Forty-five percent and 38 percent of district and school leaders said they expect their grades 6-8 and 9-12 resources to be “science of reading"-aligned in the next two years, according to the survey, included as part of an EdWeek Market Brief special report.
Michelle Sado is a curriculum and intervention specialist in Clay County School District, in Florida, supporting intensive reading teachers. She is certified in eeading, ESOL, and ESE and has taught pre-K and grades 5-12. Michelle was also Teacher of the Year in her school in 2021-2022.
Sado has been a teacher, specialist, and coach in Clay County Schools, a 39,000-student district in Northeast Florida, for 20 years. Her primary work now is training other teachers after the district recently purchased Lexia Learning’s Power Up program — a science of reading tool geared toward secondary students.
EdWeek Market Brief recently spoke to Sado about how she found her way to the science of reading and the pushback she faces in her current role as secondary reading instructional coach.
She also shared where she needs the K-12 marketplace to step up.
What do you see as your role, as a reading specialist, and how did you get here?
I was Teacher of the Year in 2021 as a reading teacher. Then I was asked to come and join the county team to be the reading coach for secondary. Reading teachers needed coaching, so that was my role for about a year and a half. And then I moved over to the reading department, still as a secondary reading specialist.
ELA and reading, they’re so closely tied and related, [the departments] all work together. I have good relationships with the other specialists and coaches, and we’re just trying to do everything we can to advance literacy. Especially in this [era], when we’ve learned so much about what we did wrong and what we can do.
What got you interested in literacy and the science of reading?
When I was teaching [high school] seniors English/Language Arts and they were in the lowest quartile, I didn’t know what else to do besides teaching the standards that are in the curriculum.
In the state of Florida, they have to pass the 10th grade ELA test — what is now called the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking. If they don’t pass that in 10th grade, they have to try again and again and again. It’s like a beat-down for these kids.
You're dealing with kids who have been beaten down so long by the system that they're not able to unlock any of their classes. They come in with their heads down their hoodies pulled tight.
But I also had knowledge from my own high school experience where I had a class in morphology. The class was a semester and the whole focus was learning prefixes, roots, and suffixes. I wasn’t an intensive reading student, but I remember how important that was to help me with my SAT score.
[When it came to asking myself] what else can I do for my seniors ... I thought, let me get vocabulary. So I did a little research. I came across Vocabulary.com and I asked my principal if he would purchase enough for my students — and he did.
What kind of impact did that have?
Vocabulary is a very important strand in Scarborough’s [Reading] Rope. I didn’t know that at the time.
When I took over 10th grade intensive reading, I thought, OK, I need to continue to use the vocabulary and morphology specifically so that they can unlock those big words in their science class and their civics and U.S. history class, well as their ELA class.
I would go to any training that was being offered by the district. The next year, we adopted Lexia Power Up, and I fell in love instantly.
What about that product is helpful to you as an educator?
It’s based on the science of reading and it gave me a tool that I could really work with. There was a diagnostic [component to it]. Now, I wasn’t in the dark with what’s missing for this kid, because Student A, B, and C all have different gaps.
When I was given that tool, I used it in a way that the kids would want to get fired up. Because you’re dealing with kids who have been beaten down so long by the system that they’re not able to unlock any of their classes. They come in with their heads down, their hoodies pulled tight. They’re closed off and not wanting to engage because they’ve never been successful in engaging in a class.
So I had to make it similar to something that they could be successful at — video games. If they leveled up, I gave them some type of a reward. If they had a streak because they had answered so many questions in a row correctly, I had that on my whiteboard.
What kind of response did you get from students?
That really worked. These kids were so excited to see their name on a whiteboard.
You wouldn’t think that that’s a big deal. But it was for them, because when have they ever seen their name on a certificate? Power Up has all these certificates you can give, and then the kids can take them home. It’s a game-changer for them.
We’re working on corrective reading, and we’re seeing an amazing growth. In all of our populations, all of the subgroups, there’s a lift because we’re actually addressing the problem. So this year we’re hoping to add... that morphology piece, that will work across all the content areas so that we work towards a solid, comprehensive reader.
How did educators in your district respond to the change?
I had teachers crying last year during PD because they just did not believe this was the right thing to do, ideologically. And then it turns out that those were the very best of the teachers when we rolled out the program. They did it beautifully with fidelity and had great results.
From that [point], I have learned to persevere and stay the course. It’s very emotional. People are very tied to, “This is the way I’ve always done it. I’ve always taught this way.” That’s a very big hurdle.
One of the things that I’m blessed with is that I have a good relationship with my intensive reading teachers, they relate to me, I relate to them, so they were willing to follow this year. When they saw their data, then they felt really good about it. And so I think we’ve we’re in a really good spot to move forward. That’s my hope, anyway.
That's one of the lessons of the science of reading — that we really need to make sure that we're doing this in a way that is going to help those kids make those connections ... And if we purchase a product for our district that doesn't do that, we're not helping our kids. And that that's a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Have any teachers questioned whether or not this kind of foundational reading instruction is appropriate for secondary students?
My goal last year was to get the teachers ready for corrective reading and how to do that and training them for that. But this year, my goal is to get them to understand the science of reading and the reason why we’re doing decoding at secondary. Because for a lot of them, that was the pushback: What are we doing? This isn’t something that secondary kids need. Yes, it is.
Honestly, I think it’s all about attitude. Everybody should come to the table with an attitude of, “let me find the positive.” Because I could say that [age appropriateness is a concern] about Lexia Power Up, and some teachers did. They said, “Well, these cartoons are too childish for high schoolers.” I just didn’t let that be an issue. And so then the kids didn’t let it become a thing.
If vendors have [an element to their programs] that might be a weak point for them, just say: OK, we understand this, but please know what’s underpinning all of this is really good. And please have the best attitude when you are rolling it out. Maybe we can work on that in the future. That’s the best advice I could give.
How are you helping secondary teachers access science of reading professional development?
I was at a conference last week that the Florida Department of Education put on for early literacy. Next week, I’m going to be at a conference put on by the [state] for secondary literacy. They do a fantastic job with developing slide decks and sessions. We, as a district, were able to choose teachers to bring along. So I chose teachers who are open to learning but don’t know about the science of reading, because I’m excited to have them come along and become amazing.
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The other way is just by me taking what I’ve learned from LETRS or from reading articles. I just learn, learn, learn and then I think: OK, what pieces do these teachers need to know? Not too long ago, I was that person who needed to know all these things. I’m in this position where I can pick it and put it together in a way that hopefully is digestible. And then they’ll be more curious and want to want to be like me and learn more about it.
What do you want to see from the K-12 marketplace when it comes to secondary literacy?
Make sure that they have a good understanding of the science of reading ... to really be able to verify that [a product] is evidence-based, that it is research backed. [Districts] don’t want to pick something that is lots of shiny bells and whistles, but that is scientifically based, because that’s what’s most important.
That’s one of the lessons of the science of reading — that we really need to make sure that we’re doing this in a way that is going to help those kids make those connections between all of those centers in the brain. And if we purchase a product for our district that doesn’t do that, we’re not helping our kids and that that’s a waste of taxpayer dollars.
How important is this for educators and the industry to get right?
When I was teaching seniors, they had gone through about every school day from kindergarten to the time they were sitting in high school, day in, day out feeling like they didn’t belong because they couldn’t unlock the code of our language. It’s absolutely tragic, and that almost to me should be criminal.
It’s just super-important. I just can’t say that enough, how important it is.
