Cautionary Tale Alert: In the so-called ‘Science of Reading’ era, educators were sold a story about phonemic awareness, turning a little-known product into the *most-used curriculum* in US schools. A faddish approach was packaged as a curriculum supplement, then boosted by SoR influencers, and it sold like hotcakes. Today, it’s being walked back nationwide. How'd this happen? Also, are curriculum reviewers working to ensure it doesn’t happen again? My latest:

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It’s about damn time, PA! Shoutout to Representative Ortitay @JasonOrtitay who’s been fighting the good fight for our state. “Let’s ensure all children in Pennsylvania can read” 🥹📚 #LiteracyISaRight #UntilEveryoneCanRead instagram.com/reel/DQ949xViW…

Wonderful day of training with MS folks 🤓 @AIMtoLearn #DCSMSLiteracy

We’re looking forward to continued learning from top notch coaches and leaders! #TLC2025 #LearningfromExperience @CoachingPD @jimknight99 @AIMtoLearn @adriennetweets2 @KristyHeal

Beyond grateful for my position and being able to reach more students’ lives 📖

BIG news for @NYCSchools students: reading proficiency rose citywide this year. 🎉 Read more: nyti.ms/4mnUm96 AIM is proud to support this momentum as a Multiple Task Award Contract-approved partner. Through AIM Pathways, we help New York educators build the knowledge and tools to deliver explicit, evidence-based literacy instruction aligned with NYC Reads. Progress takes partnership and we’re honored to serve NYC’s educators and leaders. #NYCReads #PartnerforImpact

Just finished a lovely session on behavioral screening and tiered systems with Bellefonte Area School District! #MTSSMiniSummit @BranchingMinds

Children raised on constant stimulation will struggle to read a book, follow a lecture, or sit with an idea long enough to understand it. Schools should be training students to think, to ponder, to formulate, not encouraging their addiction to distraction. Limiting screen time in class is a necessity.

A word about teacher training on the “Science of Reading”: LETRS, an intensive training on reading foundations, became practically synonymous with the “Mississippi Miracle.” Would you be surprised to learn that Mississippi replaced LETRS with a more streamlined training years ago? LETRS is 150 hours. Mississippi’s current training (AIM Pathways) is 45 hours. Tennessee’s homegrown Reading350 training was 60 hours. Louisiana’s training requires 55 hours of training (from a short list of providers). The lesson: High-performing states are shifting toward more focused, streamlined, and practice-oriented training. This should help them train their teachers in a more cost-effective & time-efficient fashion. I don’t get the sense that other states are always getting this memo. Which is a problem, because 45 states have passed literacy legislation, and teacher training is one of the most common pillars of those bills. LETRS continues to be popular in those state efforts. Districts have also flocked to LETRS training, so district leaders need this memo, too.

Schools' social-emotional programs are often just band-aids covering up the gaping wounds from reading programs and materials that don't work or teachers who don't have time to plan 4 full implementation. 25yr old teachers acting like therapists... isnt the fix. It's Cat-Hat-Rat

Kicking off another round of #AIMPathways training w/ @MissDeptEd educators with some Post-It note fun w/ our @DCSeNews and Oxford County partners. Thanks to the 11 AIMazing facilitators who are in MS this week helping educators learn, practice, and apply their #structuredliteracy knowledge. #partnerforimpact #researchtopractice @jtreadway_

Children are unique as individuals, but not as learners. Everyone learns the same WAY, just at varied speeds. Confusion about this has led to a lot of bad ideas and practices.

We 💜 Professional Learning! #LearnFwd2024 #DenverCO #TshirtTuesday #AIMInstitute @ColleenDanilson @adriennetweets2 @AIMtoLearn @LearningForward

The AIM Team is heading to Denver! 🌟 We are proud to sponsor the @LearningForward Annual Conference, happening December 8–11. Looking forward to connecting with fellow literacy leaders, sharing ideas, and exploring innovative evidence-based approaches together. #LearnFwd24

Our team did an outstanding job interacting with participants and discussing strategies to support secondary literacy instruction! @AIMtoLearn Join our next session of ⭐️Learn, ⭐️Chat, ⭐️Apply! 🔗 bit.ly/3AP7BwY @MeganGierka @NancyBlair2