{"id":22238,"date":"2024-05-14T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/?p=22238"},"modified":"2026-02-11T08:48:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:48:55","slug":"the-science-of-reading-for-leaders-your-essentials-for-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2024\/the-science-of-reading-for-leaders-your-essentials-for-action\/","title":{"rendered":"The science of reading for leaders: Your essentials for action"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many of our earliest memories of school are about learning to read. Do you remember what your experience was like? Did you have a fairly smooth journey? Or did your \u201cliteracy story\u201d include a lot of struggles along the way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know many students (including many adults) have faced major challenges when learning to read. The encouraging news is that teachers can now draw from the science of reading<\/a> as they are helping students create their own literacy stories. But for school leaders, the science of reading may be just the beginning of an answer. They are often left with many questions and not a lot of support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOftentimes, I feel like leaders have been left out,\u201d says Beth Praska, senior professional learning consultant at NWEA. \u201cDistricts only have so much money, so they train the teachers. But leaders also need support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essence of leading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NWEA hosted a webinar, “The science of reading for leaders: Helping your teachers shift instructional practice,”<\/em> <\/a>last year that answered many of the big questions leaders are asking. You\u2019ll find a lot of the main takeaways below, but the whole webinar is absolutely worth watching. I also spent some time chatting with one of the hosts from the webinar, Luke Bell (NWEA\u2019s manager of professional learning content design), as well as Beth. They have both been working directly with school and district leaders and provided a lot of great insights into how leaders can respond to these new challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some of the main questions leaders are asking about the science of reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n