After implementing Reading Simplified for just one year, Bleckley County School District elevated its reading scores to achieve literacy rates above 90% proficiency!
Yes, you read that right.
This is the story of a school in rural Georgia whose unexpected literacy rates are turning heads and changing lives.
You’ll meet Kimberly Hart, their savvy Instructional Coach, and dedicated teachers – Lori Belflower, MTSS Coordinator, and Shelley Rycroft, Kindergarten Teacher now transitioning to Inclusion Teacher.
Thrilled with their K-1 students’ results this year – they were eager to share their story of not just hitting goals – but surpassing them, with an impressive 90 percent proficiency on their DIBELS!
For the entire interview with all the details on their data and methods, watch here on YouTube or see the entire version at the end of this post.
Or, grab the key highlights in the video below.
Watch Bleckley’s Literacy Leap (Short Version)
Georgia and the Bleckley County School District
Unlike many other states, Georgia doesn’t approve or vet curricula or programs – it leaves that up to the local districts.
However, as the state increases its efforts to improve literacy rates, it has implemented specific state laws to support these initiatives.
The Georgia Literacy Council plays a pivotal role in providing that guidance.
But even within this framework, districts throughout the state possess the flexibility to customize curricula, giving them ultimate ownership of how best to meet their students' unique needs.
The ability to tailor education to student needs rather than stick strictly to a one-size-fits-all curriculum is crucial, especially for high-poverty rural schools like Bleckley County.
This approach is working for Bleckley County.
Because despite its significant challenges – the school district stands out as a top performer in Georgia and ranks in the top 20 percent nationally!
This success is also clearly a testament to the dedication of their teachers and staff, who set high expectations and prioritize literacy.
Even though Bleckley County Primary School had been achieving outstanding results, they still desired to get their students to the next level.
This meant a significant shift for their students and teachers as they transitioned away from balanced literacy and other well-regarded Structured Literacy approaches like Orton-Gillingham.
The Piecemeal Approach to Lesson Planning Wasn’t Working
While having the flexibility to integrate other literacy approaches is a good thing, cobbling together a plan haphazardly doesn't always yield the best results.
Like many schools, Bleckley County Primary experienced an unbalanced allocation of funds for specific professional development.
In an earlier conversation with Bleckley teachers, we learned that one of those allocations recently went to the costly Orton-Gillingham-based professional development.
And despite the deluge of funds – and time – invested,
Many teachers felt the newly learned reading practices were time consuming and involved many daily components.
And it’s not that Orton-Gillingham-based instruction didn’t move some students forward.
There were some good outcomes, but the approach didn't feel sustainable or scalable.
…Leaving that huge investment feeling somewhat like a futile effort.
So, some of the teachers who had dabbled with Reading Simplified since 2020 began to cherry-pick components from various programs for their reading lessons.
For example, they might have used Switch It while pulling out their blending boards from their Orton-Gillingham training.
Unfortunately, this is not only a super inefficient way for them to spend their precious time but can also result in dropping one of the more successful strategies, like Blend As You Read or “successive blending.”
And this piecemeal approach didn’t produce a noticeable change in reading outcomes.
So…this is where the story gets interesting.
Cutting Through the Clutter - Reading Simplified Stands Out
As those teachers continued to “dabble” with Switch It, they began to really appreciate the fact that it integrated so many subskills.
It was time to dive into the Reading Simplified’s professional development in the Reading Simplified Academy.
And as a result of that professional development, Dee Yeardy, a teacher in a self-contained classroom, experienced significant success with the Reading Simplified program, enabling her to transition many of her students out of the self-contained setting – a rare achievement in this student population.
She then spread the word to kindergarten teacher and now instructional coach, Kimberly Hart, who also began implementing Reading Simplified and saw these crazy-good outcomes for her students.
This chain of events continued as her colleague, Lori Belflower, also got amazing results from the Reading Simplified approach.
Together, these three educators were able to incorporate diagnostic and differentiated learning with a 3 component lesson plan from Reading Simplified. [See below.]
Whether they used Reading Simplified for general education, intervention, or self-contained – it didn't matter.
So while piecemeal approaches or allocation to Orton-Gillingham methods were leaving data stale in some classrooms,
Somewhere along the way, other teachers got permission to continue using Reading Simplified since they were finding it easier to implement – and because they were getting dynamic results.
The outcome:
All of these students experienced significant gains.
Reading Simplified Becomes the Approach of Choice
So, this past school year, 2023-2024, Bleckley County Primary School asked teachers to leave behind their Orton-Gillingham method and other past approaches and align, instead, to Reading Simplified.
Shelley Rycroft was a powerful voice for this shift within their kindergarten and first-grade classrooms.
One of the primary advantages of professional development with Reading Simplified Academy is its notably lower financial and time commitment when compared to alternative training options.
Better still, the educators at Beckley were seeing firsthand the true benefits of Reading Simplified over the mainstream curricula:
- It was more affordable.
- It worked faster.
- It was easier to implement.
But none of that mattered…if the data didn’t change.
Bleckley County Primary Kindergarten Data
The good news:
The data did change.
Below, you’ll see the Acadience/DIBELS data for Bleckley’s Kindergarten Nonsense Word Fluency (Correct Letter Sounds).
The goal of this measure is for students to read whole words.
It allows for monitoring the development of the alphabetic principle, the main insight children need to pave their way into reading, as well as basic phonics knowledge.
Bleckley’s kindergartners were already showing great progress.
If you compare last year’s data without Reading Simplified to this year’s data with Reading Simplified, you’ll see over 13 percentage growth.
Shelly went on to say that her kindergarten group had an average of 15 whole words read. This skill isn’t even tested in kindergarten, but they just wanted to see where they were in light of 1st grade goals.
So what really makes that information impressive is that the end-of-year benchmark for first grade is an average of 13 whole words read.
So, these students who were initially struggling will begin first grade already having met their end-of-year whole words read goal.
The sky’s the limit!
Bleckley County Primary First-Grade Data
The first grade team knocked it out of the park, too!
Below is the Acadience/DIBELS data for Bleckley’s First-Grade Nonsense Word Fluency (Correct Letter Sounds).
They experienced more than 16 percentage growth from the beginning to the end of the year, compared to last year’s percentage increase of about 6.
Kimberly also stated that their students retain the information which was proven by their accuracy scores.
She noted that about 30% of their first graders met the second-grade DIBELS end-of-year goals in Oral Reading Fluency (Accuracy) and Words Per Minute.
These first-graders are reading at the end-of-year second-grade level!
What an incredible way to kick off the next year for these students.
And teachers from other areas are seeing the same results.
During the Facebook live, Megan Bateman commented,
I used Reading Simplified with my Tier 3 intervention students this year. I had 20 out of 26 students achieve aggressive growth or reduce their risk level.
As Kimberly states,
At Bleckley, educators have innovatively adapted their teaching strategies and environment, empowering teachers to embrace Reading Simplified as a practical approach in their classrooms.
Despite receiving minimal support in their first year of implementation, they still achieved remarkable outcomes this year with the initial implementation of Reading Simplified.
Actually, Kimberly and the team at Bleckley reached out to Marnie to share their success with Reading Simplified only after this year’s shift in instruction.
And a prior conversation with Kimberly and Dee filled our team in on the nuances of their journey.
The video above, just fills out that story!
Unlike our partner schools in Colorado, Bleckley has yet to jump on board with a district package. Opting for direct professional development with Marnie and the Reading Simplified team with additional PD support opens up even greater support opportunities.
…Imagine the possibilities!
Scaffolding Support with Students to Boost Success with Reading Simplified
When the teachers discussed rolling out Reading Simplified, they pointed out some tricky spots that might help you if you're considering adding it to your instruction.
You know that group of kids who always seem to be a bit behind and struggle year after year?
Well, Kimberly and some others noticed that these kids often need a bit more help before launching into Reading Simplified.
Kimberly explains how she’s found that going back to the roots of Reading Simplified with starter activities from Phono-Graphix has supported some initial instruction before launching into the activity of Switch It.
We term these types of activities, Build It, and recommend that those who know 5 to 7 letter-sounds or fewer begin there, before picking up Switch It.
Our Preschool Reading guide can also provide additional ideas for some students.
Scaffolding Support for Teachers to Boost Success with Reading Simplified
It’s understandable that adapting any new reading curriculum can be overwhelming for teachers.
And even though the Reading Simplified course is meticulously structured to ease the burden on teachers: a cycle of professional learning – consisting of watching a video, preparing materials, implementing the activity, and reflecting on the content – Kimberly saw that teachers at her site…needed a little reassurance.
As teachers began to be curious, Kimberly encouraged them to take a leap of faith and get their students involved in these simple activities in order to see how quickly they could get results.
And we wholeheartedly agree.
It’s crucial to try what you’ve learned in the training immediately, then come back to the Teachers' Lounge with questions.
You'll get instant feedback and be ready to hit the ground running even stronger the next day.
Kimberly also committed to be available to the staff undergoing training…
Observing real-world instruction plays a significant role in the training process.
Within the Academy, you’ll observe students in an authentic setting throughout your training.
Choosing Differentiation Over Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)
More in kindergarten than in first grade, we've been conditioned to think that we need to offer students only a bit of a challenge – not to really push them.
We’ve also sort of limited what we expect kindergarteners to be able to do and sometimes put a cap on flying readers.
Not at Bleckley!
Kimberly shares in early talks,
I would actually say our kindergarten teachers are getting even better at differentiating and working the scope and sequence.
We've got a kid who came into one classroom and was reading when she came to kindergarten. But she has grown in levels and can read so much more now.
So our top is growing. Our middle's growing and our bottom's growing, and that's what I love about it. Because maybe a program could meet the bottom kids' needs, but then you don't want that at the expense of the others.
Amen Sister! –
If you know, you know – It’s hard to see growth with students in the upper percentile range…so when they do grow –
It’s. Just. Wow.
For a deeper discussion on DAP and reading: When should reading instruction begin? | Shanahan on Literacy
Organizing Small Groups and Centers
Let’s take a look at how Bleckley organizes their reading block.
Paraprofessionals are trained to conduct much of the Word Work in kindergarten and rotate up to 1st-grade classrooms!
A teacher and a paraprofessional reside in each classroom during a reading block.
There are typically four small groups, which is great because they average about four or five kids in a group.
Center 1: Teacher-led Group with Handwriting
Once handwriting is taught, the teacher rounds out her lesson with more Word Work such as Read It and Write It.
Then the teacher may engage in Guided Oral Reading with sentences or reading passages.
Center 2: Independent Center or Additional Reading
For this center, students do some Word Work or cutting skills that they can do independently.
Center 3: Paraprofessional-led Word Work
Center 4: Computer
Students independently practice skills using the websites Starfall, Teach Your Monster to Read, or the school-purchased Lexia.
Organizing Resources for Easy Access
Since organization preferences vary widely, the Reading Simplified team focuses on providing flexible tools and resources.
We cater to classroom teachers, private tutors, and parents, each supporting different types of learners with varying session schedules.
Rather than rigid lesson plans, we prioritize diagnostic decision-making and adaptable materials.
But in a school setting, we completely get that an Instructional Coach may want to streamline our resources further to keep a cohort of teachers moving together.
Here’s how Kimberly made that happen.
I think making the scope and sequence for everybody helped tremendously. And what I did was…a Google spreadsheet, and I made everything linkable. So we combined your Streamlined Pathways for kindergarten, first, second, and up. We just have one pathway. So no matter where the kid is, we're all looking at the same document.
She also took all the Reading Simplified Guided Oral Reading passages (example here) and made those linkable.
Next, she incorporated two supplemental sets of decodable texts that the school has access to and merged those into the document.
Everything the teachers need is right there.
Kimberly also videotaped herself delivering lessons and embedded those recordings into the spreadsheet.
Impressive!
Whether it's stated in the curriculum or implied by state standards, teachers tend to stop offering instruction at a certain point in the mid-scope and sequence or after certain skills are taught.
We don’t need to.
And when a school follows one cohesive model, all readers can receive the support they need.
Kimberly says that having all of the resources for every grade level in one spot has,
Helped our kindergarten teachers [understand] – DON'T stop.
The RTI teachers from third, fourth, and fifth grade came over to our kindergarten.
When [one of them] walked in, she said, “They're higher than my kid – my third grader.”
And she was floored.
From that day on, she was sold.
Kimberly made it easy for the teachers to track:
- How many kids they have on each Word Work activity
- Student progress in handwriting
- What step they're on in the Streamlined Pathway
They also follow Reading Simplified's rule of thumb of 70% mastery at the Basic Phonics level before moving up the Streamlined Pathway to teach new code.
Plans for Improved Implementation Next Year
With their sound-based decoding and fluency success, the team is ready to incorporate second-grade teachers and students into the Reading Simplified Academy next school year.
They're also looking to get into the nitty-gritty of vocabulary.
They've been doing some great stuff already – but say they’re ready to dive deeper.
Marnie suggested they look at this series, Innovative Vocabulary Strategies: Freddy Hiebert's Vocabulary Revolution.
This course, too, Am I Doing This Right? The Checklist Manifesto, provides a fidelity checklist, which Kimberly believes will be helpful to her team.
Most of us can relate:
When I make videos and watch myself, sometimes I'm like, “Oh, I missed that.” Like an opportunity to drop a little vocabulary knowledge.
Re-Reading: The Number One Lever
Getting enough reading and rereading practice in a reading block can be difficult.
Kimberly tells her teachers, “That's your number one lever.”
They need the adult error correction that goes with those read-alouds.
So, one solution the Bleckley team is exploring is to enlist parents and retired educators within the county to come, listen to students read, and offer error correction.
But she’s also trying to send a message to parents to practice rereading at home in general.
When meeting with them, she says,
You sign your kids up for rec ball. You don't miss a practice, but actually, you send them to school and they're performing every day, but you don't practice at home. It kind of goes hand in hand. They've got to have that practice to get better.
David Share’s self-teaching hypothesis says you need sufficient phonemic awareness, phonics knowledge, and decoding strategies, which would be our Blend As You Read and Flex It.
Reading at the multi-syllable level with Blending By Chunk and more Flex It is also a part of the lever.
When students read accurately – whether because they're meticulous themselves or someone's overseeing them – it's this accurate practice that produces the hockey stick growth in reading.
With more practice, students can get to the point where they teach themselves.
Wrap-Up
The bottom line is that Reading Simplified accelerates students in the general education population and all of the MTSS tiers.
So whether you want to see reading growth in struggling students or students already doing well – but have room to grow – Reading Simplified meets that need.
Reading Simplified is the main vehicle for delivering professional development, and District Packages take that training up a notch, offering comprehensive support for entire teams in their specific contexts.
Bleckley County Primary School's implementation of Reading Simplified has led to exceptional literacy gains, achieving over 90% proficiency in their first year of implementation.
The dedicated efforts of instructional leaders and teachers, combined with an innovative system of support and a focus on differentiation, have transformed reading outcomes for K-1 students in this rural Georgia district.
This success story exemplifies the power of targeted, scalable literacy programs and high expectations in driving educational excellence.
As with any program, willingness to use innovative approaches and effective implementation is necessary for such robust literacy rate gains.
But even those schools already achieving great results can,
Aim Higher
Achieve Higher
Impact more students
This is all possible when their teachers have high expectations and a rock-solid system.
If you want to try our most powerful decoding strategy, grab our free Switch It packet below.
Your Turn!
What inspiration can you take from the coaching and teaching team at Bleckley County Primary School?
Comment below!
