What I Learned in 2025: Reflections on Another Year of Literacy Work

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.

1. Solutions must be designed with the people closest to the problem.

This is neither a new idea nor a complex one, but it is the most consistent driver of success in every project I participated in this year. When the people most affected by a problem are not meaningfully involved in designing solutions, we end up solving the wrong problems with the wrong tools.

In practice, this means that when I design professional learning, teachers’ constraints and aspirations must shape the experience. When I create classroom literacy routines, students must test them, respond to them, and influence their refinement. When systems want to rethink how they support adolescent readers, the individuals experiencing the problem every day—teachers, students, families—must be at the table.

Every project I am most proud of this year reflects this principle. The work was stronger because it included those closest to the challenge. It is the north star I will continue to follow.

2. Teachers need high-leverage, right-sized professional learning.

A second lesson emerged from the first: most middle and high school teachers do not need days-long experiences to shift practice. They know their content. What they need is targeted support that helps students access the complexity of that content.

Dr. Wilson and my Tight10 pilots underscored this. The Project for Adolescent Literacy’s Learning Community and Design Sprints reinforced it again. Focused, practical, well-designed professional learning that is delivered in digestible formats and connected directly to instructional implications moves practice more effectively than any multi-day theoretical experience. This insight is shaping several new Education 4500 offerings for 2026, which will center brief, evidence-based, high-impact instructional resources aligned to real classroom conditions.

3. Outcomes matter more than intentions.

In 2025 I spent substantial time supporting curricular material reviews, advising policymakers, and developing instructional resources. Across all these experiences, one lesson remained constant: if a strategy or resource cannot demonstrate improved outcomes for students or if it cannot be tested quickly enough to determine whether it will, then it is not worth pursuing.

Middle and high school students who cannot yet read at grade level do not have time for “maybe.” They deserve instruction and systems that adjust quickly to meet their needs or that draw from approaches with a proven track record of success. This work cannot be driven by vibes, preference, or novelty. It must be grounded in evidence, research, and student experience.

Reflections Support Plans for 2026

The coming year brings new opportunities I am really excited about. With lessons from 2025 firmly in hand, I plan to continue work in communities of collaboration around adolescent literacy, provide expanded professional learning opportunities, and enter new domains of learning. 

Now more than ever there is increased attention on adolescent literacy - this is SUCH a welcome development in the field. I am honored to remain on the Steering Committee for the Project for Adolescent Literacy as we complete our Phase II and enter Phase III of our work. I am also joining emerging communities of practice launching in the new year as well as the Nevada Alliance for Adolescent Literacy. These communities are proving to be places where research meets practice in powerful ways. I look forward to the collaboration, resources, and guidance they provide to both myself and the broader field. 

Education 4500 will launch new professional learning offerings for the spring 2026 semester. This includes virtual, cohort-based professional learning modules: weeklong, virtual learning sequences where teachers collaborate, learn evidence-based literacy practices, and receive feedback on implementation in real time. This is the work I love most: practical, classroom-rooted, research-aligned, and done shoulder-to-shoulder with educators. I am also planning to design and test some community-based programming to support adolescent readers and their adults…think literacy accelerators via local libraries. Every student deserves to graduate high school literate. Our local communities can and should be part of that solution.

Finally, I am eager to pursue several lines of inquiry that started for me this past year. First up - the role of school finance in shaping literacy structures and policies. Perhaps an  unglamorous topic, but an essential one. I am also increasingly interested in the relationship between core instruction and intervention programming -  which intervention practices should be leveraged across content areas, how schools can better support the majority of students not yet reading at grade level, and what it takes to build a coherent and cohesive literacy experience across middle and high schools. Lots of research to practice opportunities are emerging in this space and I’m looking forward to digging in. 

As we move into the winter holidays, I hope you find time for rest, family, celebration, and adventure. I love these next two+ weeks for the time to play in the mountains, see holiday shows, read all afternoon with my children, and do all the holiday feasting. I am looking forward to entering the new year recharged and ready to continue this work. Here’s to 2026 and all the work we can do to ensure every student graduates from high school literate.