Nestled in a predominantly rural area of northern Kentucky, Grant County Schools  serves approximately 3,100 students across six schools- four elementary schools, one middle school and one high school. Nearly 70% of the district’s students are identified as economically disadvantaged. Recognizing the critical role literacy plays in student success, district leaders have begun shifting district-wide systems toward an intentional focus on structured literacy practices and high-quality literacy instruction.

Grounding the Work in Systems and Leadership  

To initiate this shift, district leadership prioritized the development of a systematic and phased approach. Grant County began by establishing a strong foundation at the leadership level. Leveraging guidance from the Model Curriculum Framework’s “Curriculum Development Process,” the district has created a phased approach to literacy improvement that prioritizes structured literacy instruction, the adoption of high-quality instructional materials, ongoing curriculum-based professional learning and the establishment of conditions to create consistency across classrooms. 

A key early step in this process was the intentional selection and adoption of high-quality instructional resources (HQIR) aligned with structured literacy practices. Through funding support from the Kentucky Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant (KyCL25), the district adopted EL Education for grades K-8 and My Perspectives for grades 9-12. This step ensured that all students and teachers had access to high-quality, research-based instructional materials. 

Building Capacity through Curriculum-Based Professional Learning  

Importantly, district leaders understood that successful implementation requires more than simply adopting new materials. As part of the district’s phased approach, they first focused on building the capacity of district and building administrators to lead the work effectively. “We view our school leaders as instructional leaders first,” said Todd Moody, Superintendent. “We’ve been very intentional about providing them (administrators) with training so they are trained on how to lead the work,” By prioritizing leadership at the start, the district has begun to establish the conditions necessary for system-wide change. 

Recognizing that materials alone would not transform instruction, Grant County also prioritized building a shared understanding of the “why” behind the shift to structured literacy. The district partnered with EPIC, a curriculum-based professional learning provider, to receive Science of Reading training to build an understanding of how the brain learns to read and effective structured literacy practices. The district leaders and teachers then received ongoing curriculum-based professional learning focused on implementing the HQIR. The curriculum-based professional learning provider continues to support the district with ongoing, job-embedded professional learning through training on lesson and unit internalization, coaching and district level implementation support.  

Administrators participated alongside teachers in the same professional learning experiences. Mr. Moody noted, administrators are “ trained in leading the work and then they’re also trained in the implementation at the teacher level.” This dual-layered approach helps build leaders who are equipped to support effective HQIR implementation. 

Conclusion 

Grant County Schools continues to move forward using its systematic and phased approach based on the Curriculum Implementation Framework to guide next steps and maintain focus. Mr. Moody shares this advice for others in the beginning stages of literacy shifts, “Really lean on that curriculum implementation framework because it anticipates the human behaviors that are associated with adopting an HQIR and its implementation. It’s really strategic and gives you guidelines on what you should be doing in Phase 1, 2 and 3, so that you’re not trying to do everything at once. It allows you to relax a little bit and focus on where we are. This is what we anticipated. We’re right where we need to be, but here’s where we are going to go (next).”