For Scott Loehr, making sure young students can read has been a lifelong mission. Two decades ago, Loehr was a reading coach working with K–2 students in schools in the Center Joint Unified School District. Now he’s the district’s superintendent, leading a revitalized reading program its second school year. As a 29-year veteran of the district, both as a teacher and administrator, Loehr has witnessed reading and literacy initiatives start to take off and then encounter hurdles.
In 2017, with support from the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), the district launched a new reading curriculum that produced good results. Then the Covid pandemic hit. Remote learning, then hybrid, upended instruction. Even when in-person school resumed, a wave of retirements robbed the district of some of its most experienced reading instructors.
So when SCOE launched the Sacramento County READS initiative in 2023, Loehr was fully on board. “Reading is the foundation for life in school and beyond,” Loehr said. “If you can’t read—and read well—you’re going to struggle. We want every student reading before third grade.”
Becky Lawson, the district’s Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction, agreed. “We want strong thinkers, and the impact we can make on students now and in the future is through literacy,” Lawson said. “It was time to refocus on our a reading curriculum.”
Loehr knew from experience that tinkering wouldn’t work; the district needed a comprehensive approach. In 2024, he and Lawson created a strategic plan with a concentrated focus on their curriculum based on Science of Reading research, aligned with the Sacramento County READS initiative.
Time and Training
Loehr and Lawson started by revamping elementary school schedules to carve out a new English Language Arts block every day for all students to focus on reading. All K–2 teachers would use the new block to teach a six-step phonics lesson plan promoting early literacy. In grades 3–6, teachers would reinforce those lessons to increase students’ reading proficiency.
Next came training. “If teachers don’t have the ‘why,’ it won’t be a successful implementation,” Lawson said.
The district invested time and funds into extensive staff training during the summer and early fall of 2024, including multi-day workshops and walk-throughs of the curriculum—and not only for English Language Arts (ELA) teams. Loehr and his team wanted the entire district to understand not just their piece of the new program, but the science behind it. So school and district leaders also participated.
Teachers appreciated the “all hands on deck” approach. “I like that our elementary principals, our Superintendent, and other administrators all attended [the training sessions],” said Andrea Kasai, a 35-year veteran teacher who is currently a reading specialist at Dudley Elementary School. “It gives everybody the same background.”
Once school started, the new ELA time block allowed teachers to focus solely on reading with the specific curriculum they had learned over the summer.
“When we have time and space to really focus on what is expected during the school day, it allows teachers to really stay in that space,” Lawson said.
“The six-step lesson plan was very helpful,” Kasai said. “Really, I’ve never seen this in my career: dedicated time with targeted literacy goals, and instruction decisions based on research and data.”
With the youngest students, teachers begin letter-naming games and songs with a short-term goal of knowing all letters by December. The team also emphasizes “phonological awareness” the ability to hear letter sounds—the building blocks to recognizing words.
After a few weeks, teachers assess students to mark their progress, adjusting lessons as needed. “We’re watching what the kids are showing us,” Kasai said.
Last year, three students in Kasai’s classes needed extra help, so the team adjusted to make sure they caught up. “I saw one of them in the hallway and told him, ‘I heard you know all your letters!’” Kasai said. “His face lit up. He was so happy.”
“When they have that first success and know they can do it, it’s magic,” she added.
District-wide, test scores confirmed what its K–2 teachers already knew: the focus on the curriculum was working. In Kindergarten, for example, the percentage of students who placed at grade level or higher rose from 21 percent at the first assessment to 82 percent by the third assessment.
“These small positive bumps in data confirm that when we target an area, provide professional learning, and develop our teachers, our students' achievement grows,” Lawson said.
Spreading the Word
Loehr and his team also sought to help parents and other stakeholders better understand the science of reading and the district’s literacy push with what he terms a “campaign of understanding.” Partnering with Luminous Minds, a leading producer of reading instruction resources, the district presented two Parent Literacy Nights at elementary schools during the school year. Parents were able to continue to engage with the Luminous Minds program online, giving them tools and motivation to encourage their kids to read at home.
Despite torrential rain that depressed turnout, the first Parent Night was a smashing success for those who attended, Lawson said: “They used sight words and played games, made puppets and learned about the science of reading. The feedback we got from parents is that they want more.”
To further emphasize the reading push (and have a little fun), the district also launched a social media campaign with a “Readers are Leaders” theme. It features district leaders, staff, principals—even the Center High football team and cheer team—enjoying books.
The district’s social media team also celebrated student success, such as when Loehr made surprise visits to classrooms to celebrate rising test scores.
As the district embarks on its second year of the new program, the 6-step lesson plans have been expanded to include grades 3–6. New teachers have been brought up to speed, and monthly Literacy Leader sessions will make sure that learning continues. Two Parents Nights are on the books.
With a year of experience under their belts, the district’s leaders, staff and teachers are confident the gains will continue.
“Seeing the kids who are so excited about reading is so great,” Loehr said. “I’m proud of our staff and how they’ve responded to our call for action.”
He also credits SCOE and the CJUSD Board for fully supporting the new push. “They provided the resources we needed to succeed.”
Heavy Backpacks
Adrianna Simmons brings a unique perspective to the district’s literacy curriculum. In 2023–24 she served on the CJUSD Board of Trustees, where she reminded her peers that “a lot of kids don’t have a parent who loves to read or is able to support it.”
Having helped approve the new program, she now sees it bearing fruit in her two sons, who are in 4th grade and 6th grade at Oak Hill Elementary.
Last year “both boys would come home with heavy backpacks,” Simmons said. “They were bringing books home that the school leant to them… sometimes I say, ‘how do you even know that?’ and they said it’s because of something they read.”
Simmons also touts the district’s outreach to families and the community to support reading, including family nights, so that “students can learn from parents and parents can learn from kids.”
The stakes, Simmons believes, are high. “Reading is going to be part of everything we do, even if it’s AI and robots. We need to be able to communicate,” she said. “In addition to education and jobs, it’s a form of therapy to read and write. We have to make sure that students have these skills.”