Op-ed: DC’s

DC’s literacy investments are working. As I wrote in the DC Line, the latest CAPE results show more students reading on grade level than at any point — progress that reflects years of sustained effort. 

Read the full op-ed 

DC’s latest results on our annual statewide test of student achievement, known as CAPE, are a major milestone, showing that when we collaborate and stay focused on evidence-based practices, our students thrive.

DC students are making record gains in literacy. The share of students meeting or exceeding expectations rose across every grade band, according to the CAPE results announced late last month. For the first time ever, overall proficiency in English language arts isn’t just back to pre-pandemic levels, it’s at its highest point on record.

When I was first elected to the State Board of Education five years ago, I began by interviewing more than 100 reading instructors. Again and again, I heard the same refrain: “I never actually learned how to teach reading.” The National Council on Teacher Quality has found that only about a quarter of teacher prep programs nationwide adequately teach the science of reading, while many still rely on disproven methods like three-cueing.

In the ensuing months, I partnered with Ethan Mitnick — a Ward 2 neighbor, former principal, and leader of SchoolKit — to host monthly convenings with educators and agency staff. We built on the momentum of Decoding Dyslexia DC’s work, which had led to adoption of the Addressing Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties Amendment Act of 2020.

Out of those conversations came the Early Literacy Education Task Force, created by the DC Council at the behest of Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto and overseen by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. We brought together the acronym soup of DC education: OSSE, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME), the DC State Board of Education (DCSBOE), DC Public Schools (DCPS) and the Public Charter School Board (PCSB). Committee members showed up month after month, often meeting late into the evening, to wrestle with the hard details of execution together.

We did not do this in isolation. Dr. Kymyona Burk, who led the implementation of Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act as state literacy director and who is now senior policy fellow at the ExcelinEd foundation, shared invaluable guidance on what worked in Mississippi and what DC needed to adapt. After adopting structured literacy reforms in 2013, including mandatory training in the science of reading for teachers, the state saw reading scores skyrocket. By 2019, Mississippi’s fourth graders had jumped from near the bottom nationally to scoring above the national average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), posting the largest gain of any state.

The “Mississippi Miracle” shows what is possible when a state commits to evidence-based structured literacy reforms. DC education leaders came together to adapt and customize what Mississippi learned. For example, DC created a list of approved evidence-based trainings and high-quality instructional materials, giving schools flexibility while keeping us aligned with research findings.

Implementation is not glamorous. It entails small adjustments and steady revision. For example, DCPS was initially paying teachers overtime to complete structured literacy training, which would have made reform financially unsustainable. It was only through candid conversations, trade-offs, and trust built by and between Washington Teachers’ Union president emeritus Jacqueline Pogue-Lyons and DCPS leadership that we found a better way: embedding structured literacy training into regular professional development.

The DC Council’s passage of the Structured Literacy Competency Requirement Amendment Act of 2025 in July as part of the Budget Support Act is the visible tip of an iceberg. Beneath it lies five years of steady, substantive work: twice-monthly meetings with Councilmember Pinto, who spearheaded this legislation and made sure we kept up momentum, brought along every key stakeholder, and worked through the hard details together. True collaboration is not legislated but instead cultivated. It grows out of trust built in small exchanges over time — the kind of trust that makes people feel safe raising concerns, asking questions, and trying new approaches.

For DC families, this means your elementary school teachers will now be equipped with evidence-based methods to teach reading. Structured literacy is no longer just a policy buzzword. It is becoming the backbone of instruction, the spine that holds our literacy work together. I’m confident that we will see continued improvement in the coming years as a result.

At the end of the day, last year’s CAPE results come down to DC teachers. Teachers have done the extra work to learn new methods, often on their own time, and then applied them with their students. 

Their dedication is what has turned the page on literacy progress in DC, with some classrooms using these same methods to achieve remarkable outcomes even before I joined the State Board of Education. Since then, the question has never been whether structured literacy works. The question is how to roll it out citywide in a cost-effective, consistent manner.

Now that the law is passed, the real test begins. Implementation with fidelity will require us to stay focused. Smaller local education agencies especially need support. Some charter schools lack in-house literacy experts. These are solvable concerns, but only if we continue working together. I am asking leaders, advocates and partners across the city to join me in making sure no local education agency, no school, no classroom, no educator and no student is left without the necessary tools.

Looking ahead, I am focused on how we can better engage families and community partners. Teachers cannot keep carrying all of the responsibility. We need to take some non-instructional tasks off their plates and invite families and partners to step in. Literacy is not just a classroom task. It is a community project. I am asking families, nonprofits and neighbors to help us write the next chapter.

Our recent CAPE results show that our approach is working. Literacy gains are not achieved by accident. They come from evidence-based practices carried out with care and supported through collaboration. If we keep investing, keep working together, and keep insisting on implementation that works for every school, then every student in DC will have the chance to read and write their own success story.