The Kentucky Department of Education’s Kentucky Reading Academies have rapidly advanced literacy outcomes for early learners since the professional learning program began three years ago, according to a new report from a third-party evaluator.
The report shows increases in student reading scores and educator knowledge in evidence-based literacy practices.
“The early results from our Kentucky Reading Academies show the investments in early literacy are already paying off for our students and our educators,” Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher said. “Again, it is still early, but as we get more educators through the professional learning to fully implement the strategies they’re perfecting, we expect student literacy outcomes to get better and better.”
Implemented in 2022 after the Kentucky General Assembly’s passage of Senate Bill 9, also known as the Read to Succeed Act, the Kentucky Reading Academies aim to transform literacy instruction across the state by offering an opt-in, no-cost professional learning opportunity to both K-5 educators and administrators.
The goal behind the academies is to promote educators’ knowledge, beliefs and classroom instruction in evidence-based literacy practices to improve student reading outcomes. Facilitated by the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) Division of Early Litearcy, the academies provide access to Lexia’s Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, better known as LETRS, an evidence-based professional learning that is rooted in the science of reading.
In particular, the Kentucky Reading Academies have five literacy goals for educator and student learning:
• Increased teacher knowledge regarding how students learn to read and why some students struggle.
• Increased teacher capacity to incorporate instructional strategies aligned to their new learning regarding how students learn to read and why some students struggle.
• Increased adoption of high-quality instructional resources for reading and writing at Tier 1 with aligned structured literacy resources at Tiers 2–3.
• Increased student progress toward grade-level proficiency based on universal screeners and diagnostic assessments.
• Increased student outcomes at Grade 3 on the Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA) for reading.
The Kentucky Department of Education Office of Teaching and Learning’s Division of Early Literacy also supports districts with the adoption of high-quality instructional resources (HQIRs) and started providing coaching to educators through state literacy coaching specialists in 2024-2025. The reading academies are situated among other KDE efforts to improve literacy in Kentucky, including improved alignment to the science of reading for preservice teachers in educator preparation programs, competitive grants for educators to support literacy and the new Kentucky Reading Research Center.
“This is beautiful groundwork for Kentucky,” said Thomas Tucker, KDE deputy commissioner. “And it’s going to not only raise the boat in some of our school districts, but it’s going to raise all of our boats across the Commonwealth.”
In 2023, KDE hired ICF, an independent third-party evaluator, to understand if the Kentucky Reading Academies and the literacy coaching model are shaping educator practice and student learning. ICF’s team conducted a review using a mixed-methods design, with a range of qualitative and quantitative data sources to measure short-term, mid-term and long-term outcomes.
The second year of the evaluation has just concluded, and ICF previously provided a report on the Kentucky Reading Academies after the first year of its review.
This year’s report includes a focus on several guiding questions for respondents:
• To what extent and in what ways does participation in the Kentucky Reading Academies influence educator knowledge, beliefs and classroom instruction?
• To what extent are the Kentucky Reading Academies’ five literacy goals for educator and student learning met?
• When the literacy coaching model is established, to what extent are the school-based coaches effective in supporting and achieving positive literacy outcomes?
• What organizational/community contextual factors affect participation in the reading academies and implementation of evidence-based instructional strategies? To what extent does district support/buy-in influence positive literacy outcomes for teachers and students?
• To what extent does cohort participation impact literacy skills and beliefs?
Another question ICF asked, seeking information about how the LETRS professional learning positively influences educator knowledge, beliefs and classroom instruction, was addressed in last year’s report.
More than 1,700 participants – including LETRS participants, school-based literacy coaches and administrators – shared their feedback and experiences through focus groups, surveys and case studies. Through the research, ICF determined the Kentucky Reading Academies showed sustained evidence for achieving most of the Kentucky Reading Academies’ goals and preliminary evidence that student outcomes are improving on the KSA for reading.
Kentucky Reading Academies participants, as well as educators across Kentucky, implemented structured literacy in their classroom practice with the support of HQIRs, and some were further supported by state literacy coaching specialists, and saw indicators of positive student outcomes as a result.
“Educational systems can learn and change, and we’re seeing it right here in Kentucky,” said Christie Biggerstaff, KDE Director of Early Literacy. “The Kentucky Reading Academies LETRS training is transforming long-held educator beliefs about reading and writing. Teachers are being equipped with best practices and strategies to help students overcome reading challenges.”
Grade 5 students taught by LETRS-trained teachers over consecutive years had significantly higher reading scores than other students, according to the ICF report. The trend persisted for special education students in grades 4 and 5.
In one Eastern Kentucky school’s case study, the implementation of HQIRs and LETRS strategies has led to significant improvements in students’ performance on the district-wide literacy assessments.
Following students’ completion of the i-Ready assessment, the number of students across the district who had reading improvement plans decreased substantially, from approximately 90 to 50.
District leaders attributed this change to the districts’ combined literacy efforts.
“(The LETRS strategies) help (students) decode words so they could decode and then build on that fluency, too,” the school’s principal said. “If you can’t read it or it’s taking so long to decode it, you’re not focused on the meaning until you get that piece.”
In a different case study out of a school in northern Kentucky, KSA reading scores improved over the course of three years with the help of teachers who participated in LETRS and HQIR implementation.
“I feel like the first part (of LETRS professional learning), it was reaffirming to me that this is what I have been researching,” a reading interventionist at the school said. “College, for me, did not (fully) prepare me … for teaching literacy to struggling readers, so I have completely taken ahold of the science of reading research, and I am glad that the state of Kentucky is going more towards that.”
The district also incentivized teachers to participate in LETRS with a $1,000 stipend.
Educators across all cohorts of LETRS reported greater alignment with beliefs about the evidence-based phonics approach to early literacy as they progressed through LETRS. Educators across all cohorts of LETRS also reported increased knowledge about student literacy and evidence-based literacy instruction with knowledge increasing across the two years of participating in the Kentucky Reading Academies, suggesting that increased exposure to LETRS professional learning may be significantly related to greater literacy knowledge.
The 2024-2025 school year was the first year with graduates from the first LETRS cohort, meaning most teachers didn’t start fully implementing LETRS approaches and strategies into their classrooms until that school year. Authors of the ICF report said this, along with more widespread implementation of HQIRs and the targeted deployment of state literacy coaching specialists, suggests that student literacy growth will continue to progress as more students are exposed to LETRS-trained teachers with curriculum that is aligned with structured literacy.
Kentucky Department of Education