New Elementary School Reading Program Pilot Is a Success for all Readers

Northwood fifth grade teacher Marisa LeVeque and students reading during a focused literacy block.

Mercer Island, WA, May 27, 2025 - Nationally, reading scores for elementary schoolers are decreasing. In Washington state, only half of students are reading at grade level. Mercer Island School District (MISD) is working to keep all of its students ahead of the curve. 

Parents of students in MISD worried their students, both neurotypical and those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, were falling behind without further intervention. The Mercer Island PTA group, Special Services and Learning Differences (SSALD), decided to do something about it. 

Their efforts and the Mercer Island School District’s responsiveness spawned a new pilot reading program, Access for All, in Northwood and Island Park Elementary Schools that has been unprecedentedly successful.

As of early May approximately 90% of the students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP) who are being progress monitored have met their accuracy goal on passage reading fluency. This number indicates to educators if there is a potential phonics deficit, a byproduct of their disability for many learners with dyslexia. Evidence indicates students need between 97% and 100% accuracy to independently read and comprehend text at grade level. 

A second score in passage reading fluency relates to the speed at which the child reads. This typically comes after accuracy, as the student must be able to read the words to read swiftly. Over half of these students have met that threshold as well. 

The work appears to benefit students who are on and above level readers as well. Of those students reading at or above grade level in the fall, 55.8% increased their proficiency by about one year at the January benchmarking point. The District believes the spring benchmarking window will show even more success with students.

What is the program?

Nova Williams, MISD’s Executive Director of Learning Services, said the district chose Island Park and Northwood elementaries for the pilot because they had the highest number of students identified with reading difficulties. The pilot is designed to support all learners, but especially supports students with reading difficulties and disabilities, particularly those with dyslexia or indicators of dyslexia.

The program gives elementary schoolers at Island Park and Northwood expanded literacy-focused learning blocks each day, leveraging additional tools. The lessons focus on multi-sensory education, which includes explicit instruction in phonics and morphology, on top of the core program.

“We are using literacy as the driver for all things,” Williams said. “We want kids to transfer the skills they learn in their reading block to other areas of the day. And, that is hard for many kids, and particularly hard for kids who struggle with learning to read. So, we wanted to try to find a way to make sure that transference could happen for our students.”

This kind of intensive work requires a lot of staff. At one time, five different adults could be helping small groups of students in their reading blocks. These include the core classroom teacher, the learning support teacher, a paraprofessional, in addition to a special educator, and/or an English Language Development (ELD) specialist. 

They’re also in a room learning with other students who have the same struggles. 

“Some unintended side effects have been that students are finding humans who have similar challenges to them,” Julie Newcomer, the principal of Northwood, said. “You sit in a small group more confidently when the person next to you is also having those same challenges, and it normalizes it.”

The pilot programs have been a success thus far. They wouldn’t have existed without the parents of MISD.

How did it start?

As parents of students with special needs began leaving Mercer Island schools for private schools, parents in SSALD worried about potential gaps in literacy programming, especially for special education students. 

“We wanted to find out what was going well, what was maybe not going great, and highlight that and work closely with the district to try to create a program, services, or supports that would help families confidently stay in our community schools,” Jessi Biagi, a parent in SSALD said. 

As a parent with a dyslexic child, SSALD’s Gwynna Norman was especially in tune with the experience of those students in MISD schools. 

“The district was ahead of the curve with starting dyslexia screenings that were required by the state, and got ahead of that and started before it was mandated,” Norman said. “It naturally made sense to also have our dyslexia instruction in the district improved in conjunction with the screenings.”

SSALD parent Jennifer Crespi compiled a survey full of questions to send out to parents in MISD. The response they got was extraordinary. Crespi made a 24-slide slide show of all the responses to present to the district. 

“There was a lot of positive feedback, but there were definitely honest answers about things that could be done or added or done differently to keep some of these families here and to get some to return to which is a goal for us,” Biagi said. 

The district asked for a parent listening session. That happened at Norman’s house. Williams from MISD was in attendance. 

“She basically said, ‘Got it, we're gonna get to work,” Norman said of Williams.

On Williams’ side, she had to find a curriculum, organize training for teachers to have them become dyslexia specialists, and then orchestrated the implementation of the pilot program in the two elementary schools. But first, she needed funding. 

“Each teacher costs $1,500 to train,” Williams said. Plus, the materials cost money. As did training for other educational support staff for the program, like paraeducators. Williams looked to the Mercer Island Schools Foundation. 

Through their fall fundraising campaign, the Schools Foundation provided all the funding for staffing, curriculum, and training.

And, it’s been paying off. 

According to Liia, a parent of a student with dyslexia in one of the pilot programs, she was looking at pulling her daughter out of MISD for another school because of how much she was struggling. Now, after participating in the pilot program, Liia’s daughter has improved immensely.

“This year, I’ve had a student in the house who’s always happy to go to school and genuinely loves their teacher,” Liia wrote in an email. “I feel she has been able to be herself, which has completely changed her attitude and also allowed her to better focus on learning.”

Because of the structure of the program, Liia’s daughter is able to keep up socially, too. 

“As the small group instruction takes place within the classroom, it is a natural part of the school day,” she said. 

With previous programs, Liia’s daughter was pulled from class and she felt self-conscious and behind socially. 

“This program has two key components that have answered our needs: academic and social,” Liia wrote. “The structure that places all the services within the classroom has helped our daughter feel integrated to the class, which helps her be open to learning in a more relaxed way.”

A success?

In Northwood fifth-grade teacher Marisa LeVeque’s class, the program functions by students rotating through small groups to receive targeted literacy instruction. Their focuses vary from phonics to book clubs or specific comprehension skills. In the time since its implementation, LeVeque has noticed a change in her class.

“I am seeing students improve their fluency and achieve scores they have not met before,” LeVeque wrote in an email. “We recently celebrated a student who improved their number of words read per minute by 56% over the course of one month! She even visited our principal to share her great report and felt so proud of herself! What makes me overjoyed is not only seeing students improve their reading skills, but also witnessing students feeling pride and seeing themselves as readers!”

As for what’s next, SSALD parents would love to see the pilot expanded. 

“I'm hearing from parents who want it to expand as fast as possible,” Norman said. “They want to see it in all four of our elementary schools, not two.”

The district aims to expand Access for All, as funding becomes available, and as the extraordinary growth data demonstrated this year, it certainly warrants it. Conversations are already in progress about expansion to other elementary schools and Islander Middle School. Williams intends to ask for funding from the Schools Foundation, with support from SSALD.

“We’re really thinking about using the data to drive our decisions around where we place this investment, because it is costly, but it is seemingly hugely beneficial for students,” Williams said.

Nathalie Graham is a freelance writer based in Seattle. She regularly works with the Seattle Times, GeekWire, and The Stranger. She is highlighting MISD students, schools, and staff during the 2024-2025 school year. You can read more of her writing here. Read Nathalie’s Lakeridge, Crest, West Mercer, IMS, MISD, and Island Park stories.