Leading up to 2021, the literacy landscape in North Carolina was stagnant, with too few students reading at grade level. State leaders like Catherine Truitt knew implementing an approach to literacy education rooted in the science of reading would make a fundamentally positive difference.
In 2021, the Excellent Public Schools Act was passed, overhauling statewide literacy and mandating a science of reading-based approach. It also required all 44,000 K–5 educators undergo extensive professional development to ensure educators across the state adopted an approach to literacy that was evidence-based.
By 2024, all educators completed the training using Lexia® LETRS® (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling)—and student reading proficiency rates soared. The power of science of reading-based instruction is clear—student outcomes started improving after educators completed the initial units of the two-year LETRS course.
This case study explores how North Carolina’s science of reading journey has reshaped teachers’ approach to literacy education and yielded vastly improved student results, with significant gains among historically underserved groups in particular. Learn how Truitt and her team planned a statewide LETRS implementation, overcame initial resistance, maintained momentum, and saw the improvement in not just student results but in improved recruiting and retention rates.
A transformation of this scope is an enormous undertaking—and the outcomes have made it worth the heavy lift.
As Truitt said, “Educators in North Carolina are changing the trajectory of students’ lives.”
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