Why “Science of Reading” Is Only the Beginning
The Science of Reading (SoR) represents decades of cognitive, linguistic, and educational research about how children learn to read. This body of research emphasizes the importance of explicit and systematic instruction in foundational literacy skills, including phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation [CAEP], n.d.; Lexia Learning, n.d.).
However, understanding the research is only the beginning. The larger challenge for schools is implementation.
For principals, the goal cannot simply be ensuring teachers attend another Science of Reading professional development session. School leaders must create an instructional infrastructure in which research-aligned practices are consistently visible in lesson plans, classroom routines, coaching cycles, intervention blocks, and data conversations. Effective implementation requires leaders to connect professional learning to the daily systems teachers use to plan, teach, assess, and respond to students (95 Percent Group, 2026; Waterford.org, 2024).
Classroom Implementation: Designing Day-One Literacy Routines
Research-aligned reading instruction becomes most effective when it is embedded into consistent classroom routines. Before students arrive, principals and teacher teams should establish a shared understanding of what Science of Reading-aligned instruction should look and sound like across classrooms.
What Teachers Need Before Day One
A clear instructional block structure
Literacy blocks should intentionally allocate time for the major components of reading instruction rather than functioning as one broad, undifferentiated reading period. Teachers should understand when and how phonological awareness, phonics, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, language development, and comprehension will be addressed (Lexia Learning, n.d.).
Ei360: The Science of Reading
Principals can provide teachers with adaptable literacy-block templates. Depending on grade level and student needs, a block might include dedicated time for phonological awareness, explicit phonics instruction, decoding practice, vocabulary and language development, fluency, and comprehension (Waterford.org, 2024).
Concrete routines for foundational skills
Teachers also need practical instructional routines they can implement immediately. Explicit phoneme manipulation, sound-by-sound blending, word play, and systematic phonics instruction can help students develop the foundational skills necessary for decoding (HMH, 2023).
Visual and kinesthetic supports, including mirrors for observing mouth formation, hand movements representing sounds, and tools such as vowel valleys, can also help students connect spoken sounds with their articulatory features (HMH, 2023).
Planned opportunities for fluency and comprehension
Students need repeated opportunities to read connected text and develop accuracy, automaticity, and comprehension. Repeated reading of appropriately selected texts can support fluency development, while structured comprehension routines can help students activate background knowledge, identify important ideas, and construct meaning from text (HMH, 2023; Lexia Learning, n.d.).
Principal Moves
Principals can walk classrooms before school begins and ask a simple question:
Can I see the components of evidence-based reading instruction in the classroom schedule, instructional materials, and plans for the first day?
Leaders can also provide teachers with a concise Science of Reading in Action checklist outlining the literacy routines expected across classrooms (Waterford.org, 2024).
Coaching: Moving From One-Time PD to Ongoing Support
Professional development alone does not guarantee implementation. Teachers need opportunities to see effective practices modeled, try those practices themselves, receive feedback, analyze student responses, and refine their instruction.
Ongoing coaching and collaborative professional learning can help teachers translate Science of Reading research into classroom practice. Literacy coaches and teacher leaders can support implementation through modeling, observation, co-planning, feedback, and collaborative problem-solving (Education Week, 2023; Waterford.org, 2024).
What Teachers Need Before Day One
Defined coaching roles and schedules
Schools should identify who will provide literacy coaching and clearly communicate that person's responsibilities. Coaching responsibilities may include modeling lessons, co-planning instruction, observing classrooms, facilitating data conversations, and providing actionable feedback (Waterford.org, 2024).
A coaching calendar should begin early in the school year rather than waiting until instructional challenges emerge.
Coaching cycles connected to specific practices
Short coaching cycles can focus on clearly defined instructional practices. A cycle might include planning, observation, feedback, and reflection around a specific area such as explicit phonics instruction, decoding routines, corrective feedback, or cumulative review (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
Observation tools should also focus on evidence-based instructional indicators rather than personal teaching preferences. Coaches might look for explicit modeling, sufficient student practice, cumulative review, opportunities to respond, and effective corrective feedback (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
Structures for collaboration and reflection
Grade-level teams should have protected opportunities to discuss implementation, examine student work, share successful strategies, and identify areas requiring additional support (Waterford.org, 2024).
Teachers should also be encouraged to reflect on how instructional changes affect student learning. This moves professional learning from simply completing training to continuously examining the effectiveness of instruction.
Principal Moves
Protect time in the master schedule for regular coach-teacher collaboration. Coaching should be positioned as a structure for professional growth and instructional improvement rather than simply another evaluative process.
Principals should also ensure coaches have clear Science of Reading implementation tools so classroom feedback remains connected to research-based instructional practices (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.; Education Week, 2023).
Lesson Planning: Turning Research Into Daily Instruction
Teachers should not be expected to independently translate an entire body of research into daily lesson plans.
Strong implementation requires planning tools, curriculum resources, and instructional expectations that make evidence-based reading practices easier to incorporate into everyday instruction. Administrator guidance emphasizes aligning curriculum and planning structures with Science of Reading principles so that teachers are supported in translating research into practice (Lexia Learning, n.d.; Waterford.org, 2024).
What Teachers Need Before Day One
Science of Reading-aligned planning templates
Lesson-planning tools can prompt teachers to identify:
The specific literacy skill being taught
The explicit language used to model the skill
Opportunities for guided and independent practice
Connections to previously taught skills
Opportunities for cumulative review
How student understanding will be checked
Systematic and cumulative instruction allows students to connect new learning to previously taught skills and strengthens opportunities for retention and transfer (Lexia Learning, n.d.).
Clear guidance about curricular materials
School leaders and instructional teams should examine current reading materials to determine how well they support foundational skills, language development, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension (Waterford.org, 2024).
Teachers also need clear guidance about when particular texts should be used. For beginning readers, decodable texts should align with phonics patterns students have already learned, while other texts may be more appropriate for teacher read-alouds or later instruction (Lexia Learning, n.d.).
Practical strategies teachers can embed into lessons
Teachers can incorporate brief phonemic-awareness activities, explicit decoding practice, vocabulary routines, word mapping, and structured comprehension activities into existing lesson plans (HMH, 2023; Lexia Learning, n.d.).
Principal Moves
During beginning-of-year planning, principals can ask grade-level teams to collaboratively develop the first several weeks of literacy instruction.
Leaders and coaches can also demonstrate how existing curriculum materials can be strengthened by incorporating explicit phonics instruction, decoding opportunities, vocabulary development, and other research-aligned literacy routines (HMH, 2023).
Intervention: Building Tiered Supports Aligned With Core Instruction
Strong Tier 1 instruction is the foundation of an effective literacy system. However, some students will require additional targeted intervention.
The critical issue is alignment.
Intervention should reinforce the same evidence-based principles students experience during core literacy instruction. When intervention and classroom instruction operate as disconnected systems, students may receive inconsistent instructional approaches (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
What Teachers and Interventionists Need Before Day One
A clearly defined Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 literacy model
Schools should clearly define what strong Tier 1 literacy instruction looks like and establish criteria for determining when students require additional support.
Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions should target specific skill needs, including phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, or comprehension, rather than simply providing students with additional generalized reading time (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
Schedules that protect intervention time
Dedicated intervention blocks should be built into the master schedule whenever possible. These structures allow students to receive targeted literacy support while maintaining access to core instruction.
Student groups should be flexible and based on identified skill needs. As progress-monitoring data change, instructional groups should change as well (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
Evidence-based materials and progress monitoring
Intervention resources should align with evidence-based reading principles and the specific literacy needs identified through assessment.
Schools should also establish regular progress-monitoring procedures. Brief measures administered weekly or biweekly can help teams determine whether students are responding to intervention and whether instructional adjustments are necessary (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
Principal Moves
Before school begins, principals can convene an intervention launch meeting to establish:
Who will provide each intervention
When intervention will occur
Which materials will be used
How students will be grouped
How progress will be measured
When teams will review the data
Students receiving intervention should continue to have access to strong, evidence-based Tier 1 literacy instruction (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
Data Use: Moving From Scores to Instructional Decisions
Data should do more than identify which students are below proficiency.
Effective Science of Reading implementation requires schools to use screening, diagnostic assessment, progress monitoring, and collaborative data analysis to identify specific literacy skill needs and determine appropriate instructional responses (National Council on Teacher Quality [NCTQ], 2025).
What Teachers Need Before Day One
A simple, shared assessment plan
Teachers should know which universal screening assessments will be administered, when they will be administered, and what happens after the results are collected.
Schools should also clarify what each assessment measures and how the results connect to phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and other components of literacy development (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.; NCTQ, 2025).
Data meetings focused on actionable skills
Grade-level and PLC data meetings should move beyond statements such as:
“This student is below benchmark.”
Instead, teams should ask:
“What specific reading skill is preventing this student from progressing, and what instructional response will address it?”
Data-analysis tools can organize students according to specific instructional needs, such as phonological-awareness support, phonics instruction involving particular spelling patterns, fluency development, or comprehension support (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
Integration between data, planning, and intervention
Assessment information becomes valuable when it changes instruction.
Teachers and interventionists should use student data to select appropriate instructional routines, determine student groupings, identify intervention materials, and monitor whether instructional changes are producing growth (CSP Digital Commons, n.d.).
Principal Moves
Principals can lead or participate in the first literacy data meeting of the year and model how teams move from assessment results to instructional decisions.
Instead of asking only:
“How many students are proficient?”
Leaders can also ask:
“What skills do our students need next, and what will we do instructionally in response?”
This shift helps transform data from a reporting requirement into a continuous improvement tool (NCTQ, 2025).
A Practical Day-One Checklist for Principals
The Science of Reading should be visible in the systems surrounding instruction, not only in professional development materials. Before students arrive, principals can confirm that the following structures are ready.
Classroom Implementation
Every teacher has a clearly structured literacy block.
Foundational skills, fluency, vocabulary, language, and comprehension are intentionally addressed.
Core instructional materials are aligned with evidence-based reading practices.
Teachers have the materials and routines necessary to begin implementation on day one.
Coaching
Literacy coaching roles and responsibilities are clearly defined.
Coaching schedules are established.
Coaching cycles focus on specific evidence-based instructional practices.
Observation and feedback tools include Science of Reading-aligned indicators.
Lesson Planning
Teachers have planning tools that support explicit and systematic instruction.
Planning templates include opportunities for cumulative review and student practice.
Grade-level teams have collaboratively planned beginning-of-year literacy instruction.
Teachers understand how district curriculum materials connect to Science of Reading principles.
Intervention
The master schedule includes protected intervention time.
Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 expectations are clearly defined.
Intervention materials align with evidence-based literacy practices.
Progress-monitoring procedures are established.
Teams know how students will be grouped and regrouped according to skill needs.
Data Use
A shared assessment calendar has been communicated to staff.
Teachers understand what each literacy assessment measures.
PLC and data-meeting schedules are established.
Data protocols focus on specific skill gaps and instructional responses.
Teachers know how assessment results should influence instruction and intervention.
The Leadership Shift: From Knowing to Doing
The Science of Reading provides an essential research foundation, but research alone does not change classroom practice.
Implementation does.
Principals play a critical role in building the systems that allow evidence-based literacy practices to become part of everyday instruction. That means aligning classroom routines, curriculum, lesson planning, coaching, intervention, assessment, and professional collaboration.
The question for school leaders is no longer simply:
“Have our teachers been trained in the Science of Reading?”
The more important questions are:
Can we see it in classroom instruction?
Can we see it in lesson plans?
Can we see it in coaching conversations?
Can we see it in intervention?
Can we see it in the way teams respond to student data?
When the answer to those questions is yes, the Science of Reading moves beyond professional development and becomes part of the instructional system of the school. Treating the Science of Reading as a foundation rather than a finish line allows principals to create coherent structures that support teachers and sustain evidence-based reading instruction throughout the school year (Waterford.org, 2024).
References
95 Percent Group. (2026). A guide to science of reading implementation for school leaders.
Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. (n.d.). The science of reading guide.
CSP Digital Commons. (n.d.). Improving the implementation of the science of reading in primary classrooms.
Education Week. (2023, March 20). How to make the science of reading work for teachers.
HMH. (2023). 10 science of reading strategies for reading instruction.
Lexia Learning. (n.d.). Science of reading: From research to practice for all teachers.
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2023). New data finds major gaps in science of reading education for future elementary teachers.
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2025). Five policy actions to strengthen implementation of the science of reading.
Waterford.org. (2024). Science of reading training: A guide for administrators.