Do No Harm

What happens when we finally say the quiet part out loud about reading

On Friday, I attended the Next Chapter Literacy Summit, hosted by Teach For America Massachusetts and Teach Plus Massachusetts. I was there as a presenter, leading a session on how teachers can use content as the conduit for forging strong connections with families.

But honestly, I learned far more than I shared. Today’s post is part conference recap, part reflection, and part practical framework you can use starting this week.

My New Friend, Phyllis

When I walked into the ballroom at the beginning of the summit, I didn’t know a soul. Fortunately, I inherited enough friendliness from my Midwestern parents to strike up a conversation with just about anyone, so I picked a random table toward the front.

As I sat down, a woman to the right of me began singing a song about syllable types while the person across from her—who happened to be Mary Tamer, a major champion of education reform in Massachusetts—laughed with delight.

I turned to the woman and told her I liked her energy. I learned her name is Phyllis Hakeem.

As we talked, Phyllis shared that she has been fighting for structured literacy instruction since the early 1990s, when she trained with Maryanne Wolf and Luisa Moats, titans in the literacy field. She is now the Program Director of the Reading and Literacy Instruction programs at Bay Path University, one of only three programs in Massachusetts accredited by the International Dyslexia Association.

I asked Phyllis what she has learned after decades in this work. She told me she used to be more patient and gentle when urging colleagues and legislators to do right by kids, but over time she abandoned that approach in favor of a sharper, more searing warning: “Do no harm.”

When I asked her what she meant, she explained that we simply cannot allow anything—intentional or not—to harm our kids. Approaches that feel supportive on the surface, such as leveled readers, cueing strategies, programs that slap “science of reading” on the cover without the substance to back it up, and “wait and see,” are doing harm. Not training teachers is doing harm. In Massachusetts alone, roughly 70% of educator preparation programs were found to be ineffective in teaching reading. In a country where 60–70% of students are not reading proficiently, we are doing harm. And if we’re not willing to say that out loud, we’re not being honest about what kids are up against.

Luisa Sparrow and the 5 Percent

Massachusetts Teacher of the Year Luisa Sparrow also spoke at the summit.

Luisa teaches in a substantially separate classroom serving students with significant disabilities. After years in the classroom, she felt at a loss for how to teach her students to read more effectively. So she applied for training in a well-known, evidence-based structured literacy intervention.

She was denied because the program was reserved for students who were expected to make progress.

Luisa didn’t like that answer.

She fought the decision, was eventually accepted, and went on to complete advanced training.

Then she told the story of one of her students, Irene.

Irene entered Luisa’s classroom using an AAC device and had a spoken vocabulary of just seven words. After receiving structured literacy intervention, she grew that to seventy-seven words.

Luisa showed us a Valentine Irene wrote for her mother, a note she may never have written if someone hadn’t refused to accept a low ceiling. Will Irene ever read on grade level? Maybe not. But does she feel proud and more capable as a result of her growth? There is no doubt.

We often say that 95% of children can learn to read with the right instruction. That’s true.

But Luisa asked the harder question: what about the 5%? Do they not deserve access to the best possible instruction, too?

Forgetting the 5% is doing harm.

And it’s a powerful reminder for me to spend more time learning how to support our most significantly struggling students. Because if we truly get the 95% there, imagine how much more energy and precision we could bring to the students who need it most.

Access to excellent instruction is not a reward for the children most likely to succeed. It is a right that belongs to every child.

What I Shared and What You Can Use

My session focused on how to use content as the portal for building a strong bridge between what happens in school and what families can do at home, without placing the burden of teaching on parents.

In Episode 7 of The Reading Symphony podcast, my friend Rosy and I discussed a TNTP study showing that the most effective schools make strong gains across all student groups. They do this by building a strong sense of belonging, maintaining consistent structures, and ensuring that all programming is coherent and aligned.

Here’s a line from the TNTP report:

“Young people’s lives are shaped by more than what happens at school. Research shows that when schools engage families and families are engaged in schools, students learn more…” (TNTP, 2024)

That idea of coherence between school and home is where my session focused. With that in mind, I shared a simple framework teachers can use when communicating with families about reading data:

1. Here is how your child scored.

2. Here is what your child can do.

3. Here is where they are struggling.

4. Here is how I will help at school.

5. Here is how you can support at home.

Then I showed teachers how this sounds in practice.

Instead of telling a parent:
“Your child is below benchmark. You can work on phonemic awareness by practicing medial and final sounds.”

Imagine saying this instead:
“Your child is below the middle-of-year benchmark. Let’s talk about what that means and how we can help. They are able to identify beginning sounds of spoken words—this is a great foundation. Right now, they’re still working on identifying middle and ending sounds, which are critical skills for reading and spelling. At school, I’ll support this through targeted practice using a game called ‘Build It,’ which supports blending and identification of beginning, middle, and ending sounds.¹ I’ll send a short video so you can play the same game at home.”

As I reflected on this, I realized families can use the same framework in reverse.

If you receive assessment data and aren’t sure what it means, you can ask:

1. How did my child score overall?

2. What does this mean they can do?

3. What specific skills do they need to strengthen?

4. How will the school support those skills?

5. How can I reinforce that work at home?

Families don’t need to become reading teachers. But they do need clear information and the confidence to ask for it.

The Through Line

When children are given access to excellent instruction, and when families are equipped to ask the right questions and push when something feels off, outcomes change.

And it raises a harder question. If we know what works, and we don’t do it, what are we doing?

Phyllis said it best.

Do no harm.

In partnership, always,
Katie

1. I learned about “Build It” from Dr. Marnie Ginsberg, and it is so great for learning to manipulate and blend sounds within the context of real words. https://readingsimplified.com/teaching-letter-sounds/