A New Partnership to Close DC’s Reading Gaps

By middle and high school, literacy deficits grow increasingly complex. 

“A struggling third grader is very different from a struggling ninth grader,” said Helen Behr, director of the DCPS Reading Clinic. 

For older students, reading difficulties can be harder to diagnose. Gaps in foundational skills may resemble “Swiss cheese,” Behr said, with “unpredictable holes.” 

Some educators assume it’s too late to address those gaps. “A lot of people sort of give up,” said Sarah Irvine Belson, a professor at AU’s Baker School of Education. “Thinking, ‘We can’t teach these kids to read anymore.’ And the fact is, we can. Decades of research have given us proven ways to teach every child to read.” 

That belief is guiding a new four-year, $5.6 million initiative to strengthen literacy instruction across 19 D.C. public schools serving secondary students. The effort is funded through a federal Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant, overseen locally by D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education. 

American University is helping DC Public Schools translate reading research into practice, providing expertise and school leadership coaching in coordination with the district’s secondary English language arts team, literacy specialists, and the DCPS Reading Clinic. 

From Diagnosis to Action 

AU’s contribution is led by Irvine Belson and Danielle Sodani, who together direct the Baker School of Education’s Institute for Innovation in Education. 

The first step is figuring out what each school needs. AU coaches—including university faculty, literacy experts, and former school leaders—will work with leadership teams to assess where reading support falls short. Are students developing skills in reading, writing, and language? Are those who need targeted interventions receiving them? Are teachers equipped to use evidence-based practices? 

From there, school teams will set priorities, test improvements, and track progress, with ongoing support from the AU coaches.  

The process could involve helping teachers go back to basics with teenagers, from letter-sound relationships to decoding multisyllabic words. 

And some changes may require teachers to rethink familiar approaches, making consensus and collaboration essential.  

“Teachers may be doing something for a long time, and then we’re introducing things that they may need to not only add, and also might be asking them to abandon some practices,” Sodani said. 

The initiative also invests in building expertise. Select D.C. educators will have the opportunity to earn an AU graduate certificate in reading and language development, while AU’s Secondary Literacy Leadership Collaborative will help principals and administrators deepen their understanding of reading research and how to put it into practice. 

“You can’t lead what you don’t know,” Irvine Belson said. 

Making It Stick 

The new initiative builds on years of AU literacy partnerships with DCPS elementary schools. A few years ago, Jasmine Brann experienced that work firsthand as principal of Shirley Chisholm Elementary in Southeast D.C., where AU coaches observed classrooms, worked with her literacy team, and offered feedback to teachers. 

“It didn’t feel like they positioned themselves as ’We’re the experts. Do as we say,’” Brann said. “It was from a place of true partnership.” 

Through the new grant, Brann is now returning to that partnership from the other side, as an AU literacy coach supporting Kramer and Jefferson middle schools. 

AU’s work with DCPS also receives support from the university’s Translating Research into Action Center (TRAC), which helps researchers put their findings into practice. 

The partnership works in both directions: AU brings research on effective reading instruction, while school leaders and teachers bring firsthand knowledge of what’s feasible in their classrooms. Irvine Belson and Sodani are studying the process, with the goal of developing a framework other school districts could use to guide their own literacy improvements. 

For Brann, lasting improvements start with trust. 

“Relationship building with people is kind of ground zero,” she said. “If they don’t trust you, it’s hard for them to want to hear you.” 

She approaches the coaching as a collaboration, not an audit. “You’re the queen or the king of your castle,” she tells teachers. “I’m here to visit.” 

This project is funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation Accelerating Research Translation program under the Translating Research Into Action Center (TRAC) award #2331399.