S6 E3 - How Do We Prevent Progress Being Wiped Out In a Swing Of The Pendulum?

When I think about the changes in our profession over the last 10 years , it's clear that we are operating in a different landscape . We haven't quite moved to a different planet , but in some ways , literacy instruction has undergone a tremendous transformation .

Sight word programs , benchmark assessments , group rotations and leveled text for novice readers are increasingly being replaced with explicit phonics , normed assessment and decodables . We've done our teacher voice survey since 2021 , and in 2021 , the number of teachers who reported that they had a sight word program taught as whole words was 30% .

At the end of 2023 , that number was 19.6% . I'm so curious to know what that number is at the end of this year , in 2025 . When asked about sending predictable texts home in the first two years of school in 2021 , 62% said yes , that's what their school did . In 2023 , that number was down to 36% .

Again , I cannot wait to see what the numbers are at the end of this year . So changes aren't new in education . Whole language was once the new kid on the block and balanced literacy in turn . Success was measured by self-reported measures and observation of compliance of particular practices .

But here's the thing the presence of particular resources and the rollout of pedagogical practices are not the same as student outcomes in real terms . They never have been and they never will be .

If we're going to make sure that structured literacy doesn't disappear in a pendulum swing and we're going to grow our capacity in addressing student needs , we need to have data .

There's a huge difference between knowing what should be included in instruction and getting results from that , so what we're going to do now is focus on simple ways that we can be data informed . Data is necessary .

It's part of instruction , it helps us to evaluate the effectiveness of our work and it makes decisions for future instruction a lot more targeted and effective . Data reliable data that is shifts our decision making from being emotional to being empirical . How can we operate in a way that's data informed without ending up drowning in admin

? How do we keep things simple when the pace of change feels like it's outstripped our capacity to cope , and how do we use data as a vehicle for exercising professional judgment rather than as a compliance driven task . The answer is to make it a part of how you do business , and in today's episode I'm sharing simple ways you can make it your friend .

So , firstly , make sure that you know the purpose of the assessments you are using . This prevents you from going down a path of action that doesn't get you results . Your norm screeners don't help you decide what next to teach .

The phonics inclusions in the non-word fluency measures are very different from the range of correspondences we will teach in our phonics lessons , and I'm seeing this confusion all the time .

Teachers looking at a screening tool like Dibbles and thinking that , because it includes phonics elements , that they don't have to do any other phonics assessment and they can use that Dibbles data to plan the next step in phonics instruction . But that's not what these tools are designed for .

They're designed to identify students who might be at risk and need additional support . They're not designed to tell you whether to teach AI or EE next week . Secondly , use a phonics assessment that is aligned to the scope and sequence of your phonics program . It's virtually impossible to use the data effectively if you don't think about it .

Your phonics program teaches graphemes in a particular order ,

but your assessment tool presents them in a completely different sequence . How are we supposed to make sense of what students know and what they need to learn next ? Well , you can't . High quality systematic synthetic phonics programs come with their own assessment tools , and if yours doesn't , you can just make a simple one yourself .

The key is that the assessment needs to match what you're teaching and in the order you're teaching it . Third , at the start of your journey , take the pressure off yourself and recognize that your first job is to fill gaps in knowledge . Only when we've done that can we move forward .

So when we're transitioning from balanced literacy practices to structured literacy or we're changing program , many of our students will have gaps in their phoneme grapheme correspondence knowledge . This could be because there's simply knowledge that they haven't learned or that the scope and sequence documents work in a different order .

So what one program may be expecting you haven't actually taught yet . But don't feel pressure to race through new content when students haven't yet mastered the foundations .

I'm often working with schools where teachers are feeling anxious because the year two students don't know all of the basic code correspondences yet , and that is a reason to really put our foot on the pedal and get going . But here's the thing if they don't know the basic code , jumping ahead to the complex code isn't going to fix the problem .

We have to fill the gaps first and then move forward . Fourth and this one might get me into a little bit of trouble , but I'm okay with that If your phonics program has a prescriptive pacing guide , throw it out , not the program , just the guide guide . Throw it out , not the program , just the guide . Guides should indicate optimal ideal pacing .

But the decisions about whether you move on or not should be about what you're seeing in your student data . You cannot be both responsive to students and stick strictly to the pacing

guide . You really need to choose the data and know what your ideal at least points are at the beginning , middle and end of every grade . I know this can feel scary , especially for new teachers or those new to structured literacy . We want to get it right . We want to make sure that we're working with fidelity .

But here's what I want you to remember the pacing guide was written by someone who doesn't know your students . They're not in the room . They're not seeing the response of the students in real time . You're doing that If your data shows that students need more time to consolidate learning , then give them that time .

Don't go too slowly , but give them the space they need to build to mastery .

If your data shows that they're ready to move faster , do that instead , because if we're not hitting the mark on meeting student need , we're going to have children sitting in classrooms wasting time because they're either not able to engage with what they're doing because it's too far ahead , or they already knew it and they really could be moving on .

Fifth is check in more frequently . Rather than waiting until the end of the term to evaluate the impact of instruction , do it fortnightly through a simple check-in . Every week that passes without checking on progress is another week where gaps are probably forming .

We have an episode about simple phonics assessment which we'll link to on our website , justinsimaeducationcom , in the show notes for this episode . But basically , every two weeks , spend 10 minutes or five minutes with each student doing a quick check of their phonemograph and correspondences .

Note which are automatic , which ones are emerging and which ones they just simply don't know yet . This doesn't need to be a super formal sit-down 50-minute assessment per child . Please don't try and do that . It's not necessary and it's not workable . It can be done during a morning routine transitions or while other students are engaged in independent work .

And please work with your classroom colleague . If you have an assistant in your room , please work with them to get this work done . You don't have to do it all on your own . Sixth , use personalized practice to help students consolidate the exact gaps or wobbles they have .

Resource room members have access to printables on this and a mastermind to explain how to do it . Well , but you can create your own simple practice materials . Include your classroom support staff in putting them together . They can look at an assessment and identify gaps . They can do that , no problem . The beauty of personalised practice is that it's super efficient .

We're not wasting students' time in spending a lot of time reviewing things they already know while not providing enough time on the things they need with a greater intensity . Finally , pay attention to the correspondences and irregular high frequency words that are wobbly in your daily review . Your best daily review is aligned with the exact needs of your students .

Include both recognition and recall To keep an eye on student development . Both of these are important . So instead of just showing them the grapheme and asking them to say the phoneme , include recall During your daily review sessions . Notice which correspondences students hesitate on which ones they get wrong and which ones they're confusing with others .

Make notes mentally or on paper , and revisit these in future lessons . I want to be really clear about something Implementing programs and adopting new practices means nothing if we do not measure success and

growth with timely , valid and reliable assessment . This shouldn't sit outside of us as an additional burden . It needs to be a baked in part of what we do , because if we cannot measure our impact , we can't manage it .

We also can't ensure that we're actually achieving the success we're claiming we're going to achieve , because that is a huge protective factor against pendulum swings .

I do want to acknowledge , though , that data collection and management can feel overwhelming , especially when you're already managing behaviour , lesson planning , communicating with parents and all of the other things that come with teaching . The key is to start simple and build capacity over time , working as a team .

Choose one simple data point to track consistently and it might be that regular check-in in the phoneme grapheme correspondence . Pick one thing , get good at collecting and using that data , and then add more elements over time . The other thing I want to emphasize is that this data should inform us as we use our professional judgment .

The numbers tell us part of the story , but not everything . So we have to triangulate . We have to connect data with our observation . So a student might know all their phoneme graphing correspondences on an assessment but still struggle to apply them reading connected text , that observation is a valuable one .

You don't have to sit your foundation students down for 50 minutes to discover that you can record that during your observation . That is also not about labeling students and putting kids in the dumb group . It's about understanding where each student is in their learning journey so that we can meet them there and move them forward .

As we know , some students will move quickly , others will need more time and support . Both of those scenarios are perfectly normal and both deserve our best efforts . I also want to talk about the emotional side of data . It can be disheartening when you've been working so hard and the data doesn't show the growth you were hoping for .

But here's what I've learned in my years of teaching and working with schools If students aren't making the progress you expected , the data is a gift of feedback . Maybe the pace is too fast , maybe the pace is too slow . Maybe there are gaps that we haven't properly identified . Maybe the instruction needs to be more explicit or include more practice .

Or maybe we haven't got our groupings right . Maybe we're not teaching the right content to the right students to enable them to fully engage . The goal isn't to have perfect data or to have every student progressing at the same rate . That's a bit of a pipe dream . The goal is to use have perfect data or to have every student progressing at the same rate .

That's a bit of a pipe dream . The goal is to use data to make informed decisions about instruction and to ensure that every student is learning and growing at a rate that is ambitious and yet realistic . As we wrap up today's episode , I want to come back to my key message .

We've made tremendous progress in moving towards evidence informed literacy instruction , but the job is not nearly done just because we have a program in place . And when will the job be done ? The job will be done when every student in our schools is successful . If we're going to prevent another swing of the pendulum

that undoes the gains we've made , we need to make sure that our practice is effective , and the only way to know if practice is effective is through regular , thoughtful use of data . Remember , you don't have to drown in the data to be data informed .

Start simple , be consistent and be brave enough to make the adjustments you need to when things are not working as you want them . To Make data your friend , not your foe . Until next time , happy teaching everyone . Bye .