A Question I Keep Coming Back To Across New York State, districts are creating Portraits of a Graduate . The language is inspiring. Schools want graduates who are critical thinkers, effective communicators, collaborators, and problem solvers. The vision is thoughtful and well-intentioned. But I keep coming back to a simple question. What does a portrait of a graduate mean if a student cannot read proficiently? Because every single competency in a portrait of a graduate depend

Systemwide change and structured literacy don’t happen in silos. This post explores mentorship, partnerships, and how teams build sustainable educational change together.

Upper-grade literacy systems have learned how to teach students to crack the code. What we haven’t learned yet is how to bring them back into learning after years of missed reading, knowledge-building, and time in complex text.

Across diverse educational settings — urban, rural, and global — the science of reading holds. While resources, structures, and systems vary widely, the instructional principles that support literacy development are universal. The challenge is not determining what works, but ensuring that evidence-based practices are accessible, sustainable, and responsive to local contexts.

We don’t have a data problem in schools. We have a decision-making problem disguised as efficiency . A recent Substack piece arguing that it’s time to move away from over-reliance on popular assessment tools put words to something I see play out in schools all the time. Districts are searching for clarity and control, and in that search, reading assessments marketed as easy diagnostics  have quietly taken over instructional decision-making. They promise speed. They promise si

SUNY Candidates work alongside KCSD teachers to plan lessons for the second Literacy Academy. This month, we launched our second Literacy Academy in collaboration with SUNY New Paltz. And every time we do this work, I’m reminded why partnerships like this matter so much—and why they’re also exhausting in the very best way. SUNY New Paltz literacy graduate candidates come to Kingston and work alongside KCSD teachers to provide small-group reading instruction to our students. O

Leading with what we know works is the best test prep there is. State testing season brings pressure. There is no way around that. As an administrator, I feel it too. Every winter, the same internal conversation starts playing in my head. Should we be doing more? Should we shift instruction? Should we add practice? Should we pull out packets and start drilling, just in case? Right now, my district is in the middle of rolling out a new literacy program. It is a program I belie

Working to protect what public education promises every child: the right to read. If we want different outcomes for kids, we have to start making different decisions about reading. I was recently at a party, talking with a friend and fellow teacher, when the conversation took a familiar turn. She had just been moved into a reading intervention position and was feeling overwhelmed. She came to me looking for guidance. Naturally, I asked what resources she had. What program was

School change is not about programs. It’s about people. Leading change means listening, learning, and staying steady when the work gets hard. Educational change is not a technical problem. It is a human one. If change were simply about adopting a new program, attending professional development, or updating a pacing guide, schools would have solved this decades ago. Instead, leaders find themselv

Sunday Literacy was born from a promise I made early in my career after realizing I did not know how to teach a child to read. This work is about prevention, not reaction, and building the kind of capacity that endures.

This year taught me that literacy work is never just about programs or pacing. It is about people, access, and belief. As I reflect on the lessons learned, the people who walked with me, and the voices I carry forward, I am reminded that literacy is a right worth fighting for. I am grateful for the work behind us and hopeful for what lies ahead.

For years, reading instruction relied on leveled texts and “just-right” books. Now teachers are being asked to teach everyone a grade-level, complex text, and that shift feels hard. Not because students aren’t capable, but because past approaches conditioned us to expect struggle. When we keep the text and change the pathway in, through knowledge, vocabulary, modeling, scaffolds, and writing, students rise. And once belief enters the room, everything changes.

“I get the math… it’s the words that trip me up.” When my seventh-grade daughter said this, it stopped me cold. What looked like simple algebra was actually a lesson in language—at least, at most, more than. This post explores why so many capable students struggle in math not because of numbers, but because of words—and what teachers can do to remove those invisible barriers.

A new blog post is live. This one is close to my heart: adolescent literacy, the myths that have held students back, and the shifts that can truly change trajectories. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about adolescent literacy—what it really means, why it matters, and what it will take to truly support our secondary teachers. Across the country, middle and high school classrooms are filled with students who never received what they needed early on: explicit instruction in fo

Doc Holbrook takes a powerful look at the global literacy crisis, why Africa matters, and how shared resources and evidence-based reading instruction can change futures.

A powerful look at the school-to-prison pipeline, literacy gaps, and how small instructional steps can change a child’s life—and rewrite their future.

When Writing Instruction Changed: What We Lost, What We’re Gaining The Writer’s Workshop Era For nearly two decades, the Writer’s Workshop  model dominated classrooms across America. Popularized by Lucy Calkins and her Units of Study for Writing , the approach emphasized voice, choice, and authenticity. Students were encouraged to “live like writers” — to see themselves as authors who drew inspiration from their own lives. As Calkins once wrote, “Children need time to write,

Doc Holbrook reflects this week on the real work behind shifting to the science of reading — the assessment changes, the new materials, the rewritten report cards, and the emotional weight on teachers. The change has been hard, messy, and at times overwhelming, but it is also deeply worth it when you see students reading, writing, and speaking with new confidence and clarity.

In this week’s blog, Doc Holbrook reflects on why curriculum isn’t the enemy — it’s the equalizer. A strong foundation doesn’t limit great teaching; it makes it possible.

Doc Holbrook presenting on leading literacy change at Southern Westchester BOCES. Leadership isn’t about predicting change—it’s about staying steady through it. This was a hard week. The kind of week Michael Fullan would call the implementation dip —that period when the excitement of change gives way to the discomfort of actually doing it. Fullan describes it as “a dip in performance and morale as people grapple with the new demands of change before competence and confidence