Dr. Burk: How Bold Literacy Policy Translates Into Classroom Change

In this episode of Literacy at the Center, host Dr. Melissa Hickey sits down with Dr. Kymyona Burke, former State Literacy Director for Mississippi and current Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd, to explore the national landscape of literacy reform.

Dr. Burke shares insights from leading the implementation of Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act and supporting states across the country. The conversation dives into what separates strong literacy laws from successful literacy outcomes—funding, high-quality instructional materials, coaching models, accountability, and sustained implementation support.

Listeners will also hear what may be next in literacy reform, including the growing focus on adolescent literacy and the importance of bold, coordinated action at the state level. This episode offers valuable perspective for educators, literacy leaders, and policymakers working to move reading reform from legislation to measurable impact in classrooms.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Literacy at the Center, where we believe every child deserves a chance to learn how to read. Listeners, think back to how you learned how to read. Did you sing the ABCs, Sound Out Letters? Our guest today has been at the forefront of literacy work, not only as a teacher herself, but also as the state literacy director at the Mississippi Department of Education, where she led the implementation of Mississippi's Literacy-based promotion act, and most recently as a senior policy fellow at Excel and Ed. It is with great excitement that I welcome Dr. Kimiana Burke. Dr. Burke, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Excel and Ed?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Thank you so much for having me. It is a pleasure to see you again and to also have this conversation with you. Connecticut was one of the first states that I worked with when I came to Excel and Ed in 2020 in passing their literacy laws. So it is great to be back and to talk with you. Well, just a little bit about me. As you mentioned, I am a former teacher. I'm considered an alternate raw teacher here in Mississippi because I did not, for my undergraduate career, I did not major in elementary education and reading. So I didn't go through a traditional educator preparation program. I majored in political science and then decided afterwards that I wanted to teach. So I've taught, I've been a literacy coach. I've worked at a university within a college of education in partnership with the school district. And then Mississippi passed its literacy-based promotion act in 2013. And I was tasked to lead that effort as a department. In my role now at Excel and Ed, as I mentioned, I've been here for about five years. I have the pleasure of working with states all across the country, with policymakers and with departments of education, and not only drafting and crafting policy language on the policymaker side, assisting with that, but also with supporting departments of education with implementation. So that is where really the rubber meets the road. You can have the right language in a law, but the implementation of it is really what matters and how we eventually see that translate into student outcomes.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Yeah, that's that's so interesting. You talk about the implementation part being that we, as you mentioned, in Connecticut, are in that implementation stage. And may I say how fortunate we are you chose education to get you where you are today. So you spoke a little bit about the implementation. I'm wondering too about the current national landscape of literacy policy in the US, and what are some trends that you're seeing around literacy education, including the implementation piece?

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Well, there are probably more a little more than 40 states now, maybe about 43 states with DC included that adopted early literacy policies. Now, they may not all be what it accelerated, we consider a comprehensive policy, and I'll talk a little bit about that and its components, but there has been really kind of this national surge around adopting policy related to improving reading outcomes in specific, you know, in the states. So what we consider a comprehensive policy is is that it would include components that support teachers and administrators, right? As far as professional development, literacy coaches in schools, um, and even addressing educative preparation, um, right, how they're prepared in their educative preparation programs, uh, but also providing funding, right? Making sure that the mandate is funded. Um, the other pieces of that include the instruction, like what instructional materials are you using that they're high quality, um, and also that um the students are receiving the interventions, right? If they're screened as they are screened and it's identified that they may have reading difficulties, how do we support them and address those reading difficulties through interventions? And then, of course, lastly, the component around um ensuring that parents and families have the resources and supports that they need in order to support reading at home and to assist in all of the decisions that are being made about interventions, uh, summer programs, uh making sure that their students are, that their children are getting what they need. So that's the comprehensive approach. So again, there are some states that have adopted all of those things, um, like Alabama and uh Louisiana, Arkansas, Indiana, right? There are some states that have adopted all of those things and North Carolina. Um, but then there are also some states that have just adopted a few of those things. Um, so when you talk about what the trends are around the country, I think that science of reading, like professional development grounded in the science of reading, remains top of mind. Out of the states that have adopted literacy policies, 41 states have adopted policies around providing access to teachers uh for training grounded in the science of reading. Now it gets tricky because it looks a bit different. In some states, it's optional, right? We've provided it, it's there if you want it, if you need it, but it's optional. In other states, it's mandatory, right? It's mandatory for all K-5 teachers, it's mandatory for their elementary principals. Um, so it is uh you know mandatory that this that you will get this training on on how to um improve teaching reading. And in some states, it looks a bit different because there are so many options, right? There's so many options for different types of professional development, and it's really kind of like a menu where you can choose um which professional development you want to attend. But professional development, we know that making sure that teachers are empowered with this knowledge is really kind of top of mind. The other trends, though, um recently have included high-quality instructional materials, right? So we're training teachers, they're getting this knowledge, but when they're going back to their classroom, sometimes those materials don't really align with the science of reading practices. So, how do we ensure that they have the right materials in order to teach students how to read? Um, so HQIM is uh is is trending, but also the banning of three queuing instructional materials. So um, as of last year, we've had 18 states to ban three queuing instructional materials, and it seems harsh, right? So, this is not banning books, like this is not bad. This is really uh a very unique instance in which policy actually says that in your classroom we should not be using strategies that prompt students to guess at words, look at pictures in order to determine what the words say, um, and use these, you know, again, these visual cues or these pictures look at what the words say, um, but also like guess at the beginning letter, like all of those things could guess the end of the word. So policy has not really gotten into classrooms, right, like it is right now. And I think that there are a lot of different feelings about that, but I also think that it shows that we're on the same page about you can have this autonomy, right? You still can be creative, you can still have autonomy, but there are some practices that just are proven to be ineffective in teaching children how to read, and we want to make sure that those practices are not being utilized in classrooms. And then I think lastly, I'll say to that um universal screeners or dyslexia screeners and lists, right? What are the right screeners to go on these lists? So there are a lot of states that now have lists of choices for um schools uh from which they choose the screen, the universal screeners that are going to be administered.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Thank you so much. You know, as you're talking and I'm reflecting on the laws that Connecticut currently has around early literacy, you know, we've had many of these in place, many laws in place for many years, um, more so directed toward our most fragile districts, what we call our alliance or our priority districts. So when we enacted the most recent law, it did impact, as you're saying, every classroom as at that K3 level. Now, before you were talking about implementation, what advice do you have? Um, and what do you notice about what is getting in the way of this effective change at the classroom level?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

I'll start with funding. Um, you know, there's a saying that says there's nothing worse than an unfunded mandate. So I'll just start with the funding there. You know, if we're asking teachers or we're asking schools, school districts to change their materials, um, then they'll need funding to do that. You know, they have uh, I'm sure they've adopted or purchased materials. Um, and it comes to a point where you say that these materials are not right the most effective. So in some cases, they may need additional funds in order to really kind of revamp and buy materials again for the entire school district. Um, also with screeners, right? The purchases of screeners and some of those things that allow us to collect data from students, those things will need to be funded. So funding is first one of the barriers. And it also, you know, for those who have been mandated to do these things, you know, they ask, well, if this is something that's really important, right, then why do we not have the funding in order to get it done? So it sends a mixed message when there's a mandate without without the funding. Um, I also think in some places, um doing some of these things is optional, right? So there's not like drawing this line in the sand to say that this is how we're going to do these things. We're going to offer summer reading camps, or we're going to screen three times per year, or teachers are going to go to professional development. Like some of these things are optional. And I know that there are states, um, you know, of course, with local control that are saying, well, we have local control, but you also have a law, right? So if you have a law, which was one of the ways in which we were able to really kind of communicate and leverage that these are things that must be done, right? Um, is because we have a policy, we have a law that says that they must be done. So let us help you, right, in in actually getting those things done. Which leads me to, I think one of the um, you know, there can be a lot of areas, but the last one that I'll talk about will be the support on the ground. If there's a lack of support, I think uh, you know, I know in Mississippi with our literacy coaches, and as you mentioned, I mean the same approach by uh targeting our lowest performing schools first, but also being able to um provide support to other schools and other districts and other personnel who are supporting literacy efforts. We were able to put literacy coaches in schools to say, Well, I know you've gone to professional development and learned the theory. Now, when you come back to your classroom, I'll help you with transferring that theory into practice. So our on-the-ground supports um with the goal of consistency across schools and districts, regardless of whether they were higher resource districts or lower income districts or any of those things that we wanted this consistency across our schools and districts that helped us to advance um really our goals into classrooms, not just sending emails to super like districts to get into classrooms and change those practices. So supports on the ground for helping schools to get there, um, I think in some cases can serve as a barrier for the lack of.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

All right, thank you so much for that. So I have two follow-up questions to that, one pertaining to the funding and the other to the coaching. So, with the funding in Connecticut, we were very blessed. Um we have the Black and Puerto Rican caucus, who is very supportive of early literacy, and in particular, Senator Pat Miller, who has really supported early literacy across the state and improving early literacy. So they provided us with the$25 million in ARPA funds, and the commissioner um provided 4.5 almost 4.5 million in ARP ESSER funds, all to help the districts with the legislation to purchase the evidence-based material and assessments that you spoke about before. Can you tell me about some other states and what creative funding they're doing around that? Um, and then also talk about those critical coaching components that you had referenced about the coaching and how can coaches help to improve literacy instruction.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Sure. Um, so in philanthropy plays an important role um in also supporting with funding um in Indiana. The Eli Lilly Foundation a few years ago um dedicated$111 million to literacy and Indiana. And since then they have also provided additional funding to support implementation of some of the other components of um Indiana's policy. They have uh really proved to be a good partner to the Department of Education and also the legislature by identifying the components that need funding and dedicating funding specifically to those components. You know, sometimes there's this blanket, you know, like we're gonna give you this money, you just kind of decide. But they have really um worked with them on identifying the most critical components that needed to be funded. So Eli Lilly uh has been a great partner with them for that. Um, in other cases, um, I think that there are opportunities where there may be national funders that have their um interests in certain regions or in certain states. There is, of course, you know, Walton Foundation that really kind of focuses on like Arkansas and I believe Missouri and some other states. So there are also national philanthropic organizations that may focus on specific regions. There are others that are within the state that focus on specific states. Um, but it's also, you know, what was unique about Mississippi is that we do have our student funding formula, right? Um we call it our Mississippi Adequate Education Um Program. They just actually revamped it this year in 20 um this this last legislative session. Um, but it was important that our literacy efforts, the funding for our literacy efforts were not taken from that or part of that formula. Now we received$15 million, but and we received that annually from state appropriations. So there's a lot that the legislature can do within the state's budget to allocate funding for the implementation of literacy efforts, and that is what our state legislature has done. So again, the funding comes directly to the Department of Education specifically to implement the Literacy-based promotion act. So for the screeners, we reimburse school districts for the cost of screeners, right? We um uh pay for the professional development, right? So the department does that. So the school school districts don't do any of those things. Um, we provide grants for summer reading camps. We do all of that. Uh, and I know you're saying you do all of that with$15 million. Right. We do we facilitate all of those activities um from our state appropriations. So uh getting to the legislature, uh advocating for the budget to uh reflect this funding and of course this kind of recurring, right? Funding these appropriations is also something that states have done.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Thank you so much. That um that's very enlightening, and it's great to hear that there's so many amazing partnerships across the states really working together to move literacy forward. Now, you had talked about the coaching also in Mississippi, and I'm sure you've seen coaching models in other states. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about those um critical components for improving literacy instruction through the use of coaches?

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yeah, uh look, first of all, I think the deployment strategy is the most important. Um, besides getting the right people, right? So getting the right people would be first, um, and looking for quality over quantity, which was something that we um dealt with here in Mississippi. Our initial cohort of coaches, there were 22 coaches, uh, with Sinette Swift as my assistant literacy director, and you know, with me serving as state literacy director, and our goal was 75. Wow. So you met 24, right? Our goal was 75. Um, because we knew we had a lot of work to do. I mean, the state had been last, right? So if we had all these qualified people, then we we wouldn't be last. So we understood that we had to build capacity and the professional development really helped us in doing that. And we trained our coaches first, right, in science of reading professional development. So choosing the right people and then the deployment. We send coaches directly to schools, um, not to serve as school district coaches, but to serve in schools. We use an average of third grade data, um, two years of third grade data, and we rank order schools. Because if we rank order districts, then there could be some schools within that district that aren't doing well, but their overall score is really kind of masked by those that are doing well. For example, we have an A through F grading system. So if we have a school district with five elementary schools, and there are three of those schools that may be A's or B's, there's one that's probably a C, and there's one that's an F. If we did an average, then the school that was an F really would kind of be overlooked, right? Because it's right combined with all these other schools that are doing well. So the goal was to look specifically at schools. Um, and we put coaches in those schools, honestly, as many coaches, as many schools as we had coaches and bodies, right? So the more coaches we hired, the more schools we could afford. And each coach um supports two schools, um, and they spent their time there the entire year, uh, multiple years if the school continues to populate our list. Um, but the deployment where you send coaches matters. In some states, they have coaches that are assigned to school districts, or they may have coaches that are assigned maybe to like the bottom 10% or the bottom 25%. So there are different ways to assign coaches, but that the assignment and the deployment matters, that they really need to be on the ground with a manageable number of teachers to support. Right. I think it's also important to note that you know, we would hear from school districts all the time because there are school districts that have coaches, right? That that's a part of their staffing. They may have a instructional coach or a literacy coach or math coach, but what are they doing? You know, and are they allowed to actually coach or are they serving as substitute teachers when administrators, bus duty?

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

And so with coaches actually being assigned from the state agency, our coaches were protected honestly with their time. I would tell them if you're offered a walkie talkie, don't take it. But our coach's time was protected. And that time included classroom observations, having coaching conversations with teachers on how to improve their practice, providing that kind of job embedded professional development through professional learning communities. Looking at data, right? Doing data analysis with teachers and then also co-planning on lessons or even next steps or how to address gaps with students. So the coaching role was extremely important. And they had to first build those relationships with teachers and build the trust because no one will listen to you if they don't trust you. Right. You also have to show that you're, you know, you have to be credible, which is why it was so important for us to make sure that our coaches were trained first and that they had this common language that we were trying to create among our teachers in our schools and districts around what the best practices were to teach reading in classrooms.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Well, thank you so much. What an amazing model. And um, I so appreciate you sharing that. I have one more question. Okay. So once again, so appreciate your time today. Um, looking ahead, what policy levers still need to be pulled to truly improve literacy outcomes nationwide? So, what still needs to be done? Because I know you and I feel very similar in that there's always more to do, right? We're not going to ever be done to help kids. So, what do you feel are some of these national policy levers?

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Well, I think what's next is adolescent literacy. You know, there are a lot of states that have adopted policies uh that are centered on K3, but we do know that there are students who are sitting in uh fourth grade classrooms, sixth grade classrooms, ninth grade classrooms, right, that are still struggling to um to read. And I think uh the adolescent literacy kind of movement is what's next on the horizon. Virginia has extended their literacy law, their K3 literacy law to K-8. Um, last year, Indiana also adopted policy um uh uh centered around adolescent literacy and being able to um provide state guidance to schools and districts. Um, being able to support those teachers who are content area teachers and have not learned anything about, you know, if a child is struggling to access your content, it may be because they're struggling to read, right? So making sure that teachers are supported and those supports are provided for older students. You know, you think about all the things that we're doing in elementary school where they're interventionists, there's too they're tutors, they're coaches, but as the students get older, a lot of those supports disappear, right? You don't see a lot of those supports in middle school. Um, so I think adolescent literacy is is kind of what's next on the horizon. Our eighth grade scores nationally, we know are stagnant and are not really, you know, students in eighth grade or may not be doing well. Then you see, like, you know, there are these gains in fourth grade, but what happens when those students get to eighth grade? So I think adolescent literacy is is something that's on the horizon, and and I'll and I'll be bold and say uh that some of these um actions that are optional uh should be made mandatory. Like if we want to see um some consistencies that are occurring, but also some movement across state, across the state, and not just within certain pockets, right? Not just within some districts, but if we want to see student improvement across the state, then there has to be kind of these bold decisions about what must be done versus what's optional and could be done if you feel like it, uh, you know, or if you want to, right? So I think that that's that's really one of the things that that we're gonna have to begin to become consistent and coordinated about uh within states.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

So what I'm hearing is basically go bold or go home, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:40

It's like that's right, that's right. That that is exactly right. And you know, I tell state agencies walk in your authority. You know, you're the state education agency for a reason. Um, the you know, in addition to all of the other things, um, then the role of the state agency is to provide that guidance, to provide guidance on best practices to schools and districts and also hold them accountable for doing these things uh for for their data, not just for state assessment data, but what's happening before we get to state assessment data. NATE is uh every two-year thing, um, but what how do we know how we're doing before NATE uh is even administered? How do we know that? Um, I remember you know talking to a colleague of mine at Excel and Ed um around you know the pre-release of this year's NAPE scores, and she said, Well, I'm not too worried about Mississippi because their state assessment scores show that they have been doing well. And our state assessment has been aligned to NATE since around the time that our literacy-based promotion act passed. So we have this really good measure about where we are, what we're doing, and we don't have to wait until a national assessment comes out to really kind of make some changes, right? Um, if we need to along the way. But I think that data collection um and then what you do with the data. You can't just collect the data and sit on it, like providing opportunities to help school districts that you see are not doing well, like what type of supports or deployments uh of supports can we provide to those districts? So it's not about just a checklist of things, but really it's how we roll up our sleeves and and and provide those kind of on-the-ground supports to help districts get to where they need to be.