Align to the Core: Supporting Striving Secondary Readers

Co-written by Ali Wilson, TeachAbility & Ethan Mitnick, SchoolKit

Over the last few years, schools have invested heavily in strengthening Tier 1 instruction in literacy: adopting high-quality instructional materials, providing teacher training, and implementing evidence-based literacy practices. Yet, despite these efforts, many students are still struggling to make the progress we expect. In fact the question I keep hearing from educators and school leaders alike is: We’ve done what we were supposed to do - so why isn’t it working for all students?

The reality is that while a strong Tier 1 foundation is essential, it is not enough on its own. TNTP’s The Opportunity Makers (2024) as well as initial findings from the Project for Adolescent Literacy (PALS) underscore the importance of coherence, emphasizing that Tiers 1, 2, and 3 should not function as disconnected entities but instead align to support student learning. Many schools have built additional opportunities for students, such as MTSS blocks, into students’ schedules. In theory, these types of structures provide additional instructional time that can be leveraged for academic support. In practice, however, these blocks often fail to connect meaningfully to core instruction, leaving students spinning their wheels in disconnected activities or digital intervention programs that yield limited results. If we want to see real growth, we need to rethink how we use this valuable time.

A Leadership Challenge: Making Academic Support Work

As former school leaders and leader coaches, we know firsthand how difficult it is to ensure that additional support time is used effectively. On paper, it’s a great idea; a dedicated period for personalized academic support. But in reality, it’s challenging to staff, difficult to plan, and often disconnected from the very curriculum we’ve worked so hard to implement. Teachers assigned to these support periods may not have the resources or training to provide meaningful intervention, and the result is often a patchwork of activities that don’t move the needle on student learning. 

The key shift we need to make is this: Academic support should align to core instruction and actively support student success with core instruction. If done well, students should leave these sessions more prepared to engage with text complexity demands across classes, not just remediate past gaps. In fact, recent research from the John Hopkins Institute of Education Policy entitled Acceleration: Lessons from the Field reinforces this approach – finding that one of the most effective aspects of accelerated learning is when academic support is intentionally and tightly aligned to high-quality core instruction (Steiner, 2024). Dr. Jade Wexler, a professor of Special Education at University of Maryland, also echoes this approach of strengthening Tier 1 instruction in service of supporting students reading below grade level in a recent EdWeek feature.

Three Core-Aligned Approaches to Support Secondary Literacy 

If we want academic support to be truly effective, we need to provide teachers with clear, structured approaches that reinforce and accelerate student learning. For starters, here are three research-based strategies that any educator can implement immediately:

1. Engage in Consistent Fluency Routines Using Core Texts

Fluency is a critical bridge between decoding and comprehension (Rasinksi, 2012), and one that is underutilized in secondary settings. In this approach, students engage in fluency routines using the texts they encounter in core instruction. Repeated readings, partner reads, and scaffolded fluency routines using core curriculum texts can help students gain confidence and automaticity, making grade-level content more accessible.

How to implement: Routines like those outlined in the Tight 10 pilot (TeachAbility & Education4500), structured fluency protocols like these from NWEA, as well as this one from  SchoolKit can be easily integrated into core or supplemental instruction. This ensures that students spend more time with “eyes on text” (Paige, 2011), strengthening their word processing skills and comprehension to further support their success in the core.

2. Build Background Knowledge for Upcoming Content

Research shows that background knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension (Hirsch, 2006; Wexler, 2019). Students should enter their content-area classrooms with a strong foundation of knowledge about the texts and topics they will read about. Academic support periods can be used to front-load essential knowledge – including critical vocabulary – to set students up for success.

How to implement: Provide opportunities for students to activate and connect their knowledge to the texts and topics they are exploring. This can be done through structured discussion protocols, brief knowledge-building strategies (such as a “brain dump” or through the use of an anticipation guide), or vocabulary activities (see this one from Schoolkit).

3. Integrate Writing & Reading Through Syntax and Revision Work

One of the most effective ways to improve reading comprehension is through writing. However, writing is often underutilized in intervention settings. Students need structured opportunities to analyze sentence structure, refine their written responses, and engage in revision practices that strengthen their ability to express complex ideas.

How to implement: Language dives, as structured in EL Education (EL Education, 2017), and Juicy Sentences (Student Achievement Partners, 2020) support students to break down rich, complex text at the sentence level. By embedding this type of work into academic support (using sentences from texts used in core instruction), educators provide students with the “know-how” to unpack and comprehend complex syntax, strengthening their access to understand and produce more sophisticated text.

What Leaders Can Do Now

When providing academic support, the message is simple: when in doubt, connect your plans to the core. If you don’t have immediate access to core curriculum materials, ask students what they are reading in class and use that as a starting point for discussion and practice.

For school leaders, maximizing academic support periods requires strategic planning. This includes ensuring that:

• There is a clear system for sharing instructional resources and data between core and academic support teachers.

• Academic support is not treated as an afterthought but as an integral part of the school’s instructional plan.

• All teachers who support academic support (such as Special education teachers and multilingual learning specialists) participate in professional development related to core curriculum.

• Professional learning to utilize academic support is provided to all teachers in order to ensure alignment in use. 

  
  

Organizations like CourseMojo are leading the charge in creating core-aligned resources that support these efforts. By embedding fluency, vocabulary, and knowledge-building opportunities into their platform, they offer a model for how digital tools can enhance, rather than replace, effective instruction. Early results from two large-district pilots show that Coursemojo, when used alongside high-quality instructional materials, drives significant student growth, especially for historically underserved groups. In Aldine ISD (TX), Mojo classrooms saw a 12-point gain in 6th grade STAAR Reading scores - double the district-wide improvement - with even larger gains for students from low-income backgrounds and emergent bilingual learners. In Sumner County Schools (TN), Mojo classrooms outperformed those not using the program by 8 points, and students with IEPs narrowed their achievement gap by two-thirds. These outcomes meet ESSA Tier 2 evidence standards and point to the power of embedding real-time, curriculum-aligned feedback directly into student learning.

Our Opportunity

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to make academic support work—we just need to align it more intentionally with what students are already learning. By embedding fluency, knowledge-building, and writing into academic support periods, we ensure that students leave these sessions not just catching up, but moving forward with greater confidence and readiness.

If we truly want to move the needle on literacy outcomes, we must use every instructional minute wisely. The time for action is now - we cannot afford to wait. 

References

• EL Education. (2017). EL education language dives. Available here.

• Borowski, J. (March 20, 2025). How Schools Can Help Older Students Struggling With Reading. Available here.

• Hirsch, E. D. (2006). The knowledge deficit: Closing the shocking education gap for American children. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

• Project for Adolescent Literacy (PAL). (March 2025). PHASE I: Project for adolescent literacy project report. Available here.

• Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. (2024). Acceleration: Lessons from the field. Available here.

• Paige, D. D. (2011). 16 Minutes of “Eyes-on-Text” Can Make a Difference: Whole-Class Choral Reading as an Adolescent Fluency Strategy. Reading Horizons, 51(1), 295–312.

• Rasinski, T. (2012). Why reading fluency should be hot!. The Reading Teacher, 65(8), 516-522.

• Student Achievement Partners. (2020). Juicy Sentences.

• TNTP. (2024). The Opportunity Makers: How a Diverse Group of Public Schools Helps Students Catch Up—and How Far More Can. Available here.

• Wexler, N. (2019). The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—And How to Fix It. Avery.