How One District Is Getting Secondary Teachers Up to Speed on Reading Support

Reading intervention isn’t just about K-3. It’s a collective responsibility.

That’s the commitment from Georgia’s Marietta school district, which is now looking beyond the early elementary grades as it works to improve reading achievement.

Nationwide, much of the focus of the “science of reading” movement has focused on foundational skills usually taught in the earliest grades. But older readers who haven’t mastered those foundations are at risk of falling further behind as they attend classes that increasingly rely on complex texts to build their knowledge base.

That’s where the Marietta district’s training comes in. It’s partnering with a PD provider to supply middle and high school educators to learn how to teach basic reading concepts in middle and high school classrooms in age-appropriate ways.

“As educators a key phrase you’ll hear is differentiation—you want every kid to get what they need, and I think that’s what this training provided,” said Amber Morgan, a reading specialist in Marietta. “It wasn’t only practicing. It was then, how does each one of us who does something different take that and make it super meaningful and purposeful in the practice that we do every day?”

View the video to see the district’s approach in depth.