A Blueprint for Literacy Success: How Elmbrook Public School District Elevated Reading Instruction

Located just outside Milwaukee, the Elmbrook Public School District is widely recognized for its academic excellence. With a student body of around 7,000 across five elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools, Elmbrook serves a diverse and highly educated community and is considered to be a destination district for both families and educators.

However, in recent years, leaders began to notice a concerning trend: not all students were achieving their potential in literacy.

“We started noticing trends that didn't reflect the progress that we would normally expect to see at our benchmarks, especially across early literacy,” said Elmbrook Reading Specialist Angie Slonac.

Elmbrook was beginning to see that traditional approaches to literacy instruction — while sufficient for many — weren’t serving all students equally. They needed a different approach.

As the Science of Reading began to gain momentum nationally, district educators embarked on a journey in 2021 to align their literacy instruction with those evidence-based best practices. Their solution included the adoption of a new literacy curriculum, myView® Literacy from Savvas Learning Company, combined with a new approach to professional development and a systemic shift in instructional philosophy.

The Challenge: A High-Performing District Confronts Hidden Gaps

The initial concerns came as the district reviewed student data after the COVID-19 pandemic. The disruptions of remote instruction, social distancing, and masking had a lasting impact on early literacy development.

Teachers as well as district and school leaders began to realize that some students had been succeeding despite what they had been using for literacy instruction, not because of it. The district’s Tier 1 instruction wasn’t reaching all learners effectively. While some students continued to excel, others were slipping through the cracks.

“We were seeing the data … and recognizing that we were not meeting the needs of a large population of our students and that we could do better,” said McKenna Ellis, director of elementary teaching and learning.

Initially, the district attempted to close these gaps with more interventions. But layering on additional support didn’t get to the root cause. It became apparent that the existing literacy framework lacked the cohesion, clarity, and alignment with cognitive research necessary to ensure consistent outcomes for all students.

“We really needed to align more of our strategies and teaching resources with the Science of Reading,” said Angie.

The Turning Point: Embracing the Science of Reading

The district's reading specialists were among the first to dig into the body of research known as the Science of Reading. They quickly realized that many existing instructional practices that were in place across the district didn’t align with what cognitive science said about how students learn to read.

“We were learning about the Science of Reading and recognizing that we were not meeting the needs of a large population of our students and that we could do better, we could be more explicit in how we teach our students,” said McKenna. “We know the research shows that if you have strong instructional practices, 95 percent of your students, if not more, should be proficient in literacy. We were not seeing those numbers and we felt that we could — if we had the right resource and the right knowledge from our teachers.”

As the district set out to establish evidence-based reading instructional practices in 2021, it also formed a Literacy Urgency Team — a multidisciplinary task force charged with analyzing and improving first-grade literacy outcomes.

By 2022, the district had launched a comprehensive professional development initiative. Reading specialists became certified trainers in the LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) program and began sharing their knowledge across all elementary schools. This internal capacity-building was a strategic move, ensuring that literacy leadership came from within.

“Our reading specialist became very comfortable in what they were learning,” said McKenna. “And we were very lucky that we had a staff who was willing to start pursuing this as well because they wanted to see the connection to the research. They wanted to see that in action.”

As professional development gained traction, teachers began noticing a misalignment between what they were learning about the Science of Reading and the materials they were using in the classroom. The demand for better-aligned instructional resources grew from the staff.

The Literacy Urgency Team recommended that the district move up the scheduled curriculum adoption timeline by one year and adopt a new, evidence-based resource aligned with the Science of Reading. So, they began their search for a new high-quality literacy curriculum.

The Solution: Finding the Right Curriculum Fit

Elmbrook was looking for a strong structure for delivering explicit and systematic instruction, a comprehensive scope and sequence, and a program that was going to cover all of the literacy components of Scarborough’s Reading Rope, which is a visual illustration that shows skilled reading as a complex process formed by the intertwining of numerous threads related to language comprehension, such as background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge, and word recognition, including phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition.

However, district leaders also wanted something that made room for teacher autonomy, so that while the teachers were all using common lessons, they could feel free to make decisions about how to teach the unique students in their classrooms everyday.

District and school leaders, along with several classroom teachers, conducted rigorous pilots of multiple literacy programs, including myView Literacy. While each had merits, none fully met the district’s needs the way myView Literacy did.

“With myView, it was unanimous,” said Angie, the district’s reading specialist. “Nobody wanted to go back to our previous resource because they really did believe that this is where we needed to go. It was a beautiful thing.”

Teachers, as well as district and school leaders, were drawn to myView Literacy’s comprehensive design. It aligned with the Science of Reading and provided them with everything they were looking for, yet allowed room for teacher autonomy. Elmbrook’s educators had spent years honing workshop models, small-group strategies, and student-centered approaches. They didn’t want to discard what was working — they wanted to build on it. myView Literacy enabled them to do just that.

Implementation: Strategic, Flexible, and Teacher-Centered

Planning for implementation began months before the curriculum officially launched. In the spring before full rollout, teachers attended their first myView Literacy training before they had materials in hand. Knowing that some teachers would dive in over the summer while others preferred to wait until fall, the district created multiple entry points for learning.

“That was one really intentional move that we made,” said Angie. “And then over that summer we had the opportunity to partner with Savvas to provide some training with the resource (myView), and that was received incredibly well.”

Once the school year began, Elmbrook provided a mix of external and internal professional development. Half-day trainings in late summer, followed by five full PD days throughout the year, enabled teachers to progressively deepen their understanding. Reading specialists and administrators remained actively involved, conducting classroom walkthroughs, gathering feedback, and responding in real time.

Importantly, the district established clear “must-haves” to guide teachers — expectations that preserved fidelity to the curriculum while leaving space for innovation. Teachers were empowered to make instructional decisions based on formative data, but within a shared framework that promoted consistency and equity across schools.

To foster collaboration, Elmbrook set up optional virtual meetings for grade-level teachers across schools to share resources and strategies. These peer-driven spaces created a sense of community and professional growth that extended beyond individual buildings.

“We don't want teachers feeling like they're in it alone because they need lots of air support in order to make sure that they have the time and space to work through their curricular resources to best support their students,” said Angie.

Results: Academic Growth, Engagement, and a Shift in Culture

Elmbrook’s new approach has yielded promising results — both in data and in classroom culture. While leaders expected a temporary implementation dip, student performance instead continued to climb.

“In our second grade, we had 10 students exit intervention, which means their universal screening data and their progress monitoring data showed that we have closed the gap of their reading challenges,” said Amy Benotch, principal of Elmbrook’s Brookfield Elementary School. “They needed that instruction and we were able to give it to them.”

Educators are also seeing an increase in student engagement. Classrooms are now thriving with academic conversations. Elementary students are not only learning to read — they’re reading to learn. One fourth-grade unit sparked over 80 student requests for the book Hatchet at the school library, showing how literacy instruction is igniting curiosity.

“Student requests for library books have skyrocketed this year because our students are learning about topics in their literacy block and they want to learn more about those topics when they go to the library,” said McKenna, adding: “Our students are so engaged in learning about the world around them, that we have now altered our scope and sequence for our science and social studies so that it aligns with the themes in myView.”

Teachers have become much more confident in their instruction. With their new curriculum, teachers no longer need to build lessons from scratch, allowing them to instead use that planning time to respond more thoughtfully to student needs.

Administrators and instructional coaches have also become more embedded in the literacy work, using building-level observations to spot trends and offer targeted support. This data-informed approach has allowed each building to refine its practices while staying aligned with district-wide goals.

“I feel like we have the right formula,” said Amy, the Brookfield principal. “I’m so proud of the work the teachers are doing. Being in the classrooms and watching the magic happen is the best part of my day.”