I stepped into the classroom for the first time at the Lab School on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles more than a decade ago and did what I do best: I told stories.

School leaders hold the keys to unlocking literacy for young learners. However, like other educators, many school principals don't have deep knowledge of how the brain learns to read, effective instructional practices in the essential early literacy skills, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and identifying and serving students with reading disabilities.

The science of reading is by no means limited to phonics. However, phonics instruction is an essential component in a Structured Literacy classroom.

The “science of reading” refers to a vast body of multidisciplinary research providing a rationale for what must be taught to ensure almost all students can learn to read.

One of the most consistent refrains I have heard in my career as a math educator is, “Where is the research for that?”

As a previous secondary and elementary principal, and elementary teacher, I understand firsthand the importance of helping every child learn to read proficiently, and how to intervene when children don’t have the literacy skills needed by third to fifth grades.