If We’re Serious About Supporting Teachers, Why Aren’t Students Reading?
What it takes for strong literacy instruction to actually show up in Memphis classrooms every day
Written by: Dr. Megan Salemi
We do not have a knowledge problem in early literacy.
Across Memphis, schools are investing in curriculum, training, and support. Teachers are working relentlessly to meet the needs of their students. And still, too many students are not reading on grade level.
The challenge isn’t whether we know what to do. It’s whether our systems are designed to make that knowledge show up consistently, in every classroom, every day, for all students. The question is: how does strong instruction move from something we know into something that happens, consistently, across classrooms and schools?
Seidenberg, Borkenhagen, Kearnes (2020) have described this as the “last translational mile,” the space between knowing what to do and actually doing it in classrooms every day. That space is where outcomes for students are won or lost, and where many well-designed efforts begin to break down.
So what do we need to do next?
Our efforts to improve literacy are often built around adding new inputs like curriculum, training, and expectations, without changing the conditions that determine whether those inputs take hold. Time remains fragmented. Coaching is inconsistent. Instructional priorities compete with one another. Over time, even strong practices become diluted, not because they are ineffective, but because the system around them cannot sustain them.
At MTR, we’ve seen strong student outcomes: graduates in their first three years help students meet and exceed expected growth at rates well above the state average, with about half of MTR trained teachers growing students more than a full grade level in a year. But what matters most is what’s underneath those results, and whether those conditions hold across classrooms over time. Every child deserves to grow to their full capacity every year.
You can have strong preparation, curriculum, and leadership in place and still not see it show up consistently, not because the pieces are missing, but because they aren’t designed to work together in the moments that matter most. Knowing doesn’t become doing on its own. Under the pressure of real classrooms, practices only hold when they are reinforced through consistent support and repetition.
This isn’t just theoretical. As a principal, I saw this firsthand. We trained teachers on strong small group instruction, but scheduling conflicts pulled students out during those blocks. I had effective coaching conversations, but couldn’t return for days to reinforce the change. The right practice under the right conditions never took hold.
Over time, it became clear the issue wasn’t whether teachers understood what to do. It was that our structures weren’t aligned to support it consistently. And without that alignment, even strong practice didn’t hold.
A Model for Making Strong Instruction Hold
Over the past five years, through our internal Memphis Literacy Institute (MLI), MTR has worked within partner networks, inside classrooms and alongside leaders, to understand why the reading achievement gap persists and what it takes to close it. MLI has developed and implemented the MLI School-Based Model, a synthesis of research and long-standing experience in high-needs school environments.
The model identifies four essential elements needed to improve student literacy outcomes:
Teacher Content Knowledge
Curriculum
Equitable Systems
Instructional and School Leadership
Literacy impact begins with teachers who deeply understand how reading develops. It is supported by curricula that reinforce that knowledge, shows up in instructional practices that are consistent across classrooms, and is sustained by leadership that ensures that vision is lived out day to day. And coaches bridge the work to ensure alignment across a system.
Coaching Bridges Systems to Practice
Coaching bridges model components to daily practice. When embedded in the instructional rhythm of a school, it reinforces a small number of high-leverage moves through observation, feedback, and repetition. Over time, that consistency allows strong instruction to hold across classrooms.
Without coaching, improvement depends on individual teachers, not the system itself. And we will leave people behind: teachers, students, and communities.
If We Want Results, Conditions Have to Change
If we’re serious about putting teachers at the center of this work, then we have to be equally serious about the conditions around them. Consistency of student outcomes is not the result of any single component. It’s the result of alignment.
That means protecting time for core instruction, staffing and aligning coaching to daily practice, and reducing the number of competing priorities teachers are expected to hold. Without those shifts, we are not actually centering teachers. We are relying on them to compensate for a lack of coherence in the system.
That approach is exhausting, and it doesn’t lead to the consistency students need. In many cases, it makes it harder for teachers to focus on the few things that matter most.
The work in front of us isn’t about adding something new. It’s about intentionally and strategically organizing what’s already happening so that teachers and leaders are clear on what matters most and supported to do it well. In partnership with literacy organizations, schools, and networks across Memphis, we are continuing to study, refine, and apply this approach as we work to improve literacy outcomes at scale.
For school and system leaders, this shifts the work. The question is no longer just “What should teachers be doing?” but “What conditions are we creating that make that work possible and sustainable?”
And for those investing time and resources, it raises a different bar: not whether a model works in isolated classrooms, but whether it can hold across schools, over time, under real conditions.
In the coming pieces, MTR will share how each component of the MLI School-Based Model is necessary for consistent, reliable change to student outcomes across schools and systems. Stay tuned. We think you’ll learn something you can use in your own teaching and school leadership. We hope to learn back from your practice as we commit to literacy change together.
Because ultimately, the question isn’t whether we know what to do. It’s whether we’ve built systems strong enough to ensure it happens - consistently, across classrooms, and over time. And that is a question that extends beyond teachers alone to the systems, leaders, and decisions that shape their work every day.
