How are California educators getting reading right? In this interview, Leslie Zoroya, Project Director for Reading/Language Arts at the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), shares her insights about leading literacy change.
Learn how LACOE is helping California educators make the shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy through initiatives such as Getting Reading Right, the Structured Literacy Coaching Academy, and the Statewide Administrators’ Reading Collaborative Network.
Leslie, thank you for speaking with us! Please tell us a little about yourself, your background in education, and what you’re passionate about as an educator.
I was one of those little kids who always wanted to be a teacher. When we “played school,” I was always the teacher—no question about it. And I loved books.
I grew up in a crazy household, and my escape was the library. The librarian knew me by name and let me check out as many books as I wanted. I read everything in that dinky little library! So it’s no surprise that I grew up to become a teacher.
I’ve worked in every level—preschool through college— but my main teaching experience was in middle school, which I loved. I think you have to be a little bit 12 on the inside to love that level, but it was a good fit for me.
I first came to the Los Angeles County Office of Education years ago to work on a grant. It was the first time federal money had been allocated to address secondary reading issues, and a friend of mine had reached out to me to see if I would want to work on the project.
I was so excited because the students I had been teaching had significant reading issues. There really was no program or materials to use to help identify or remedy their issues.
In the classroom, I had felt like I was doing a lot of band-aiding of the problem— reading aloud to them, over-scaffolding—just trying to get them through the content—instead of equipping them with the skills to navigate it themselves. I didn’t know what to do to help them, and I had no assessments to identify what their specific skill gaps were.
Since coming to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, I’ve worked on many projects, but all were literacy focused.
My biggest passion is ensuring that every student can read proficiently. It’s a civil right. It’s a huge equity issue and the biggest determiner of whether each of us will survive out in the world and be able to provide for ourselves and our families. I doubt anyone would disagree with that statement, and yet, as a nation, we have not put our energy into ensuring that it happens for all children.
My biggest passion is ensuring that every student can read proficiently. It’s a civil right.
Reading scores have been stagnant for 30 years and even in the education community, too many of us have collectively shrugged our shoulders and done the same thing year after year.
But now there’s a new urgency and momentum building. I want to capitalize on that and help our state approach reading instruction more effectively for California students.
There is definitely momentum, and your work at LACOE is contributing to it. Tell us about your current role and the ways you are supporting educators.
I lead the LACOE Reading Language Arts Unit in the division of Curriculum and Instructional Services. We provide support for schools and districts to close the achievement gap, and to achieve high standards of excellence in language arts.
I have an amazing, dedicated team that makes the work both fun and impactful. We serve the 81 school districts in Los Angeles County (yes, including LAUSD!) and 1.3 million students through all sorts of literacy training and technical assistance.
We serve the 81 school districts in Los Angeles County (yes, including LAUSD!) and 1.3 million students through all sorts of literacy training and technical assistance.
We host in-person and online events, webinars, trainings, and meetings. We also host three big events a year—a Structured Literacy Symposium in the fall, the annual Literacy Lifts Conference in February, and the LA County Spelling Bee in March.
Sometimes we go out to school sites/districts for meetings and professional development, and sometimes it’s virtual. We have really embraced the virtual learning space since the beginning of the pandemic, as it has vastly expanded our reach across California. Now we can train anyone, anywhere! We had some folks join a webinar from Thailand and Brazil this year!
We also have a monthly newsletter called Literacy Links and a podcast, Leading Literacy (on Apple and Spotify). The podcast has been an absolute joy to do—we have interviewed so many amazing literacy leaders, researchers, experts, and practitioners. And the reach is incredible—we have listeners in 47 countries! It’s another way to get more information out about effective literacy practices.
We serve teachers from across Los Angeles County and the state at large. We have 20 cohorts across California of our Getting Reading Right training on the science of reading and structured literacy.
Tell us more about Getting Reading Right.
Getting Reading Right consists of 10 modules on delivering an effective, evidenced-aligned Tier 1 literacy reading program. We review universal and diagnostic assessments, small-group instruction, and each discrete skill on Scarborough’s Reading Rope (what it is, why it’s important, and how to teach it).
We also provide a host of free resources and help teachers make the transition from balanced literacy to structured literacy, using whatever materials they have.
Our training is curriculum agnostic. Our goal is to build teacher knowledge in how the brain learns to read and how to deliver explicit and systematic instruction so that every child learns to read, especially those who often encounter systemic barriers to success, such as multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and African American students.
What is the most rewarding part of your work at LACOE?
I think the most rewarding part is knowing that we are changing the system in California. We now have more than 12 other county offices across the state training with our Getting Reading Right program and supporting teachers and students in literacy development.
We also run a statewide Structured Literacy Coaching Academy, so that instructional coaches can hone both their coaching skills and their knowledge of effective reading practices.
In addition we began a monthly Statewide Administrators’ Reading Collaborative Network so we could get site/district leaders on board. We work with them on understanding this shift from balanced to structured literacy and how to build, monitor, and sustain the work in their schools and districts.
This kind of change management work requires leaders who know about reading, and who can wrap a system of support around their school so that the program endures as staff come and go, or change grade levels.
This kind of change management work requires leaders who know about reading, and who can wrap a system of support around their school so that the program endures as staff come and go, or change grade levels. Structured literacy is very individualized—meaning we look specifically at each child’s skill gaps and work to fill those—and without a solid system for assessment and monitoring, that won’t happen.
Knowing that our work over the past four years is helping to change the system in California is extremely rewarding. It propels us to want to do more. We get especially excited to see scores going up for our striving readers who, prior to this work, were not making a lot of progress.
What are some needs you have noticed through your work helping educators make the shift from balanced to structured literacy?
For the first two years, it seemed that we were playing a bit of a whack-a-mole-game, in terms of needs. We would get one aspect of structured literacy training off the ground and then realize that we had to address another part of the system.
In particular there were two areas that we realized we had to address. The first was support for paraprofessionals. In elementary classrooms, paraprofessionals often run small groups or work one-on-one with the neediest students. We realized that we needed to train these paras in the research and methodology as well.
Therefore we created a parallel track that was similar to the teacher training but tailored to paraprofessionals’ role as a support provider in the classroom.
This was one of the best decisions we made in the entire project. Not only were paraprofessionals thrilled to be included in the training and the work, it made a huge difference in the classroom.
It reinforced for us the insight that an entire school needs to be on the same page with reading instruction and share a common language around how the brain learns to read. It was a game changer.
This was one of the best decisions we made in the entire project. Not only were paraprofessionals thrilled to be included in the training and the work, it made a huge difference in the classroom.
The second major need we recognized was for our older striving readers. Our initial training centered on grades K–5, but teachers of older students kept asking to join the cohorts.
These requests prompted us to create a new training for grades 6–12 called Filling in the Gaps: Implementing the Science of Reading in the Secondary Classroom. We taught participants the elements of early reading and how to assess reading deficits and fill them in a way that was appropriate to the age of their students. This new training has been very well received—we’re onto something here!
Way back when I was a secondary teacher, I had no idea how to identify a 14-year-old’s reading gaps. Like many others, I labeled it “comprehension problems” and proceeded to band aid it with scaffolds.
Now, however, I know we have assessments we can use to identify specific reading skill gaps, and lots of tools to address those gaps in ways that make sense for an older reader.
Many older students struggle with multisyllabic decoding—they see a three syllable word and skip it or stumble around it. But we know that teaching specific word-reading strategies and things like the six syllable types can be life-altering for an older kid. They can get the key to unlock all kinds of words. It has been incredibly gratifying to see that work get done and know that WE CAN FIX THIS!
How did you and your team decide to make foundational skills across the grades a particular area of focus in your work?
Our team had looked at reading scores in LA County and across the state, back in 2018, just after Emily Hanford’s Sold a Story work had been released.
It just lit a fire. We started digging into the data and trends and thought, “What needs to change here?” We knew that balanced literacy had been the prevailing approach in California for 30 years, and reading scores had not budged, so we decided to examine this other approach.
So we started looking deeply at the research and building our own knowledge and designing the modules for our training.
It was evident right from the start that foundational skills are where most students struggled and where most teachers’ pedagogical knowledge was underdeveloped.
We had not previously had access to this information on how the brain learns to read. It wasn’t in the California teacher education programs, and no one was training on it.
Once we learned it, we knew we had to do something major to make sure every teacher had the opportunity to access this knowledge. It’s an equity issue—both for teachers, who deserve to know every single thing about how to teach reading AND for students, who should never leave our public school system unable to read proficiently.
It’s an equity issue—both for teachers, who deserve to know every single thing about how to teach reading AND for students, who should never leave our public school system unable to read proficiently.
After we’d developed our Getting Reading Right program, the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) Grant applications were released. We applied and won $5 million to pilot our program for Priority 2: TK–Grade 5 Best, First Tier 1 Literacy Instruction.
It’s been amazing to test the sustainability and reliability of the program and see it work all over the state, in all kinds of settings.
What has made the Getting Reading Right training program successful? What have you noticed about educators’ learning and engagement?
I think there are a few variables that have made Getting Reading Right successful. One is that it is palatable. Teachers do so much, and while they want to learn more about how to be an effective reading teacher, some of the other trainings that are currently available are overly cumbersome and labor- and time-intensive.
We wanted to create something that was not too burdensome on the teacher, but still got the job done. One 90-minute module a month didn’t feel like too much for teachers. They were willing to commit to that.
Also, each module is entirely focused on the work they are trying to do—teach reading. We share the research, why it matters, concrete instructional examples, and then free resources to use to implement it.
We focus on the unique needs of multilingual learners and how the assets from their primary language can be leveraged when learning to read in English.
Also we look at issues of cultural responsiveness and make connections related to dialectical variations. We want to be very intentional that we don’t misdiagnose reading issues or conversely, miss a true reading issue.
But overall, the goal is the same for every student—mastery of all the finite skills and intentional, systematic instruction of the infinite language comprehension skills. We want all kids to love reading—and we know it’s hard to build a love of reading when you can’t do it with ease.
We tell our teachers over and over, “This is a knowledge-building training. You need to be the smartest one in the room when it comes to addressing reading difficulties—not the curriculum, not the interventionist—you.” And we really believe that.
One mistake districts make is to start by purchasing new curriculum, having a two-hour PD, and then sending teachers out to teach it. This is a recipe for inconsistency, infidelity to the intent of the program, and probably, teachers saying, “It doesn’t work.”
Teacher knowledge is the place to begin in making this huge shift from balanced to structured literacy. Teachers deserve to know the what and why of the research before the how of implementation.
Teacher knowledge is the place to begin in making this huge shift from balanced to structured literacy. Teachers deserve to know the what and why of the research before the how of implementation.
Otherwise, they are likely to look at the five-minute activity in the teachers guide on phonological awareness and decide to skip it. This one decision can really impact a child’s reading development if you don’t know the absolute importance of daily phonological awareness practice.
Tell us about the feedback you’ve received from California educators who have participated in Getting Reading Right.
The feedback has been incredible. Teaching is personal, and teachers really want to do a good job and get all kids reading proficiently.
Many educators have told us that this is the first time in their careers that they really understand how a child learns to read—all of the discrete skills and components and having the ability to use diagnostic assessments and strategically fill gaps is really rewarding.
The comment we get most often is, “How did I never learn this information before now?” Sometimes there is shame wrapped up in that. But we tell teachers that we are new to this, too—we’re all learning and when we know better, we do better.
The comment we get most often is, “How did I never learn this information before now?” Sometimes there is shame wrapped up in that. But we tell teachers that we are new to this, too—we’re all learning and when we know better, we do better.
We recently finished a cohort of several hundred Long Beach teachers. Here’s a sample of what they had to say:
- “I have taken many literacy courses and came out of them asking “BUT WHAT DO I DO?” This LACOE training answered that question. This training was so helpful in providing research based info AND practical, fun activities.”
- “This was the best reading training that I’ve received in 25 years.”
- ”It has shown me how important systematic/explicit instruction is in early grades in order to get to a place in 3rd grade and beyond to access grade level content.”
- “This has been amazing training. So much information to delve into and implement.”
- “My favorite teacher training in 24 years. This program has shown me a systematic way of instruction. I will be a more thorough teacher, thanks to you.”
We take feedback seriously and are constantly tweaking our program to make sure it fits the needs of educators. The most common critique is that every teacher should get this knowledge. We totally agree!
In addition to your work on Getting Reading Right, it has been exciting to see how your LACOE team is working alongside the California Reading Coalition and other partners. Tell us about how these partnerships began.
Todd Collins reached out to me a few years ago as he was launching the California Reading Coalition (CRC). I was so intrigued that Todd, who is not an educator by trade, was so invested in reading and making sure all students receive effective reading instruction. We hit it off right away and have since had several collaborative efforts.
One of our most successful initiatives with the CRC is an ongoing event series called Lessons from the Field. In these events, we profile schools or districts that are engaging in the work of shifting reading instruction and who are at varying stages of the process.
We’ve had hundreds of people attend these events. The success of Lessons from the Field highlights the need for more models. People want to know how to engage in this work and what the pitfalls are and how to deal with challenges … it’s the good, the bad and the ugly of it, and we lay it out for folks.
One of the lessons I’ve learned through all of this work is that it is not linear. It is a few steps forward, and one back. We make progress, but then there are hiccups and regressions, and people might get tired. It can wear you down. Our grant pilot schools have made incredible progress, but we’ve also had challenges to face.
This leads to the other big lesson I’ve learned: this work takes a village of dedicated folks. No one teacher, principal, or para can make this happen alone. It must be a collective effort where the needs of our readers are put front and center.
Whole-scale implementation of a new initiative is exhausting, but when you have a village of partners, experts, educators, parents and students, it really can get done.
No one teacher, principal, or para can make this happen alone. It must be a collective effort where the needs of our readers are put front and center.
We’ve had many other amazing partners as well. Collaborative Classroom has been a wonderful advocate. Glean Education has been invaluable—they do a lot of coaching work with us in our grant schools and across the state. Scholastic’s Family and Community group has been a great partner in helping us find new ways to bring in the families and local community as helpers in this work.
All this just reinforces that it really does take many dedicated people to do the work well. We’re so grateful to have so many wonderful folks in our village!
What advice or insights might you share with California schools or districts that are working to increase student achievement in literacy?
Building educator knowledge has to be the first step in shifting from balanced to structured literacy. Don’t start by buying a curriculum and diving in.
Instead, start by taking the time to establish a common language and understanding among your entire school staff about how the brain learns to read. That way, when the time comes to purchase materials, you can approach it from a solid place of understanding, and based on the specific needs of students in your classrooms.
Start by taking the time to establish a common language and understanding among your entire school staff about how the brain learns to read.
Second, invest in quality universal and diagnostic screeners. This work requires precise data.
There is a time and place for whole group instruction, but small-group instruction is key in this model, in order to ensure mastery of the finite reading skills in the word recognition side of the reading rope, and to know exactly where every reader is in their progression.
What I love about this data-informed model is that we don’t wait until the end of third grade to suddenly discover there’s a problem. We are constantly re-assessing and moving on so we don’t waste time on learned skills, and we don’t miss skill gaps either. It just makes so much sense.
The third thing I’ll say is that having a whole-school and district vision is key. Our Grant pilot district (shoutout to the Lancaster School District!) is phenomenal. They are ON IT. (Watch this webinar we co-hosted with the California Reading League that features Lancaster.)
This is the vision of the entire Lancaster School District, and they are putting all of their resources and attention to ensuring all teachers have what they need and all kids learn to read. When problems arise, they tend to them immediately and rush in support for those who need it. The system stands. That’s what makes a quality program—when the system can withstand troubles and be better for it.
My fourth and final thought is simply this: start today. Don’t wait another year. Begin addressing your reading instruction now. Our kids’ futures depend on it.
***
Related Reading
Learn more about LACOE’s Getting Reading Right trainings.
Why Bonita Unified Adopted SIPPS for Foundational Skills: An Interview with Chris Ann Horsley