If you have ever watched a child crack the code of reading, you know it’s magic. That “aha” moment when squiggles on a page suddenly become a story is life-changing. But here is the truth: magic is not enough. Reading success, especially by third grade, is not luck, personality, or raw intelligence. It is leadership. It is planning. And it is the daily, courageous choices we make as educators.
Recently, The 74 highlighted how Indian River County, Florida, leaned hard into the Science of Reading starting in early childhood. Their commitment was not just to catch kids up. It was to prevent them from falling behind in the first place. That should shake every school leader awake.
Because here is the thing: if we wait until third grade to intervene, we have already lost too much ground. By then, struggling readers are four times less likely to graduate from high school (Hernandez, 2011). Four times. And for children growing up in poverty, the risk doubles.
What Florida Teaches Us
Indian River County’s story is a reminder that literacy success begins long before state assessments. Their leaders decided not to play catch-up but to get ahead. They embedded the Science of Reading into pre-K, invested in teacher training, and treated early literacy as the foundation for everything else.
As school leaders, we do not just set policies. We set the tone. And if literacy is the great equalizer, then early literacy is the rocket fuel.
The Research is Clear
This is not just good practice. It is proven science:
- The National Reading Panel (2000) found that explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and systematic phonics significantly improves reading achievement across grade levels.
- Castles, Rastle, & Nation (2018) emphasized that balanced literacy approaches often fail struggling readers, while structured, evidence-based methods close gaps.
- The Abecedarian Project (Campbell et al., 2012) showed that high-quality early childhood programs can produce long-term gains in literacy, graduation rates, and even employment outcomes.
This is not a matter of opinion. It is neuroscience, psychology, and decades of data telling us what works.
So What Does That Mean for Us?
If you are leading a district, school, or even a single classroom, here are the moves that matter:
- Start Early – Audit your pre-K and K-2 programs. Do they intentionally build phonemic awareness, decoding, and vocabulary, or are they relying on “exposure”? Exposure is not enough.
- Invest in People, Not Just Programs – Curriculum is powerful, but only in the hands of confident, trained teachers. Ongoing professional learning in Science of Reading methods is not optional.
- Plan with Accountability – Florida requires Comprehensive Evidence-Based Reading Plans (CERPs). Whether your state does or not, create your own roadmap. Be specific about assessment, intervention, and supports.
- Partner with Families – Kids spend more time at home than at school. Equip parents with simple, shame-free tools to read, talk, and play with their children in ways that build literacy.
- Lead with Courage – Shifting from balanced literacy to the Science of Reading is not always popular. It requires saying no to what feels comfortable and yes to what actually works. That is brave leadership.
A Call to Courage
We do not have the luxury of waiting. Every day that a child spends without the tools to read fluently is a day their confidence, curiosity, and potential are at risk.
Our job as leaders is to light the path. To say: We see you. We believe in you. And we will not let you fall through the cracks.
Florida’s story is inspiring, but the next story is ours. The question is: are we willing to lead with courage, follow the science, and give every child the gift of literacy from the very beginning?
References
- Hernandez, D. J. (2011). Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation. Annie E. Casey Foundation.
- National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
- Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5–51.
- Campbell, F. A., Pungello, E. P., Burchinal, M., Kainz, K., Pan, Y., Wasik, B. H., … & Ramey, C. T. (2012). Adult outcomes as a function of an early childhood educational program: An Abecedarian Project follow-up. Developmental Psychology, 48(4), 1033–1043.