Insights & Field Notes

As 2025 comes to a close, I find myself reflecting with gratitude and clarity. This year, Education 4500 engaged across many layers of the education ecosystem—from policy design to curriculum review to working alongside high school teachers. I remain deeply grateful for the opportunity to do this work, especially in collaboration with practitioners and leaders who care deeply about adolescent literacy. As I look back on this year and head to next, several lessons stand out.

The next installment of the Scholarship Series - "Struggling Adolescent Readers". Read this if you are a systems leader in a middle or high school with students who need literacy support (hint: you likely are).

Key Moves for Successful Implementation of HQIM

New for the 2025-2026 school year: Education 4500’s scholarship series. Every few weeks, I will feature a piece of literacy scholarship and a series of questions to help bridge that scholarship to literacy work in middle and high schools. The series will reflect what middle and high school educators I work with are currently using to frame and focus their literacy work.

Just a few weeks into piloting the Tight10 in middle and high schools we are seeing momentum build.

This week we are thrilled to launch a pilot implementation project bringing fluency routines to older students through the Tight 10.

Students can accelerate their reading skills while focusing on course content. Really! Fluency routines are the way.

Cross content learning moves engage students in reading, writing, and discussion to learn necessary content and skills.