From Vision to Reality: Elevating Secondary Literacy Instruction With Lexia Aspire and PowerUp

Renee Hesson has a vision for improving literacy at the secondary level in her district—and she’s been on a career-long search for a solution.

As supervisor of instruction for all secondary ELA and reading interventions (6–12) for Caroline County Public Schools in Maryland, Hesson coordinates all tiers of instruction and oversees curriculum, assessment, and instruction for her district. Her office serves more than 5,500 students in a rural district that includes a growing population of multilingual learners.

In recent years, her district has been challenged by:

• Hitting reading intervention goals for students in Tier 2 who were reading below grade level and needed additional support.
• Misunderstandings and misconceptions among educators around a multi-tiered approach to literacy instruction.
• Low awareness about how the science of reading can be applied at the secondary level to help address literacy-related gaps connected to core content.
• Finding literacy programs that are
  1. aligned to the science of reading,
  2. accessible to students, both in knowledge and from a technology standpoint, with resources at the fingertips of staff and students, and
  3. engaging, interesting, and age-appropriate.

Now, the district has combined Lexia Aspire® Professional Learning and Lexia® PowerUp Literacy®— taking steps toward achieving Hesson’s ultimate vision of helping every child become a proficient reader.

Read this case study to learn how Hesson got teacher buy-in on the science of reading, and how Lexia® is helping her improve literacy skills for secondary students.