#20 Blog: Go See the Work: What Delaware’s Early Literacy Site Visits Revealed

Go See the Work: What Delaware's Early Literacy Site Visits Revealed Delaware is tackling early literacy with purpose and precision. In this episode, we explore what happened when Secretary of Education Cindy Marten and her team visited the work in action across five schools. The visits revealed powerful insights: • When schools commit to core practices and use data effectively, students thrive • Teachers using explicit, systematic instruction are seeing results • Consistent implementation of science-based reading practices makes the difference Governor Meyer has declared an early literacy emergency "not as a slogan, but because our students deserve better." Secretary Marten is focusing on "keeping the main thing the main thing" - strong daily K-3 reading instruction. Delaware is betting on core classroom instruction, not supplemental programs, to move the needle on early literacy. They're backing this commitment with resources, including the Bridge to Practice grant and support for classroom materials. The ultimate test? Today's kindergartners. When they reach third grade, their reading success will be the truest measure of this collective work. Links mentioned for show notes: - Blog - Read more about the Rehoboth visit - Watch the opening keynote - The Delaware Early Literacy Playbook - Delaware is investing up to $7.2M through the Bridge to Practice grant, focused specifically on early literacy preparation and development (learn more here). They are also providing up to $750 per approved project in additional resources directly to teachers through DonorsChoose.org (learn more here).