Edina Schools Reports Major Gains in New Literacy Program
Edina Public Schools presented results from its overhaul of reading instruction, showing kindergarten literacy proficiency jumped from 59% to over 80% in three years. The shift, driven by Minnesota's $92 million Read Act investment, moves away from older teaching methods toward science-based structured literacy.
On Tuesday evening, the Edina City Council heard from school officials about "Literacy @EPS," a comprehensive initiative to transform how the district teaches reading. The program stems from Minnesota's Read Act, which mandates a statewide shift from "balanced literacy" — an older approach — to "structured literacy" based on brain science research.
The results are striking. Kindergarten students meeting literacy benchmarks rose from 59% in January 2021 to over 80% by January 2024. First-grade proficiency also showed substantial improvement over the same period. These gains came after the district trained over 300 teachers through a program called "LETTERS," which includes 144 hours of professional development. The University of Minnesota partnered with the district to deliver this training.
School leaders emphasized that the new approach is grounded in neuroscience. "We used to think there are many ways to teach reading, and now we know from recent brain scans that there's really one way that's sequenced," said an elementary school leader. For struggling readers, the district uses intensive interventions — five sessions per week, 30 minutes each — described as a "medical" approach to literacy support.
The initiative spans from early childhood through middle school. Young students focus on foundational skills like phonological awareness, while elementary students learn explicit phonics and fluency. Middle schoolers receive diagnostics and targeted help, with all subject teachers trained to support literacy across the curriculum.
School officials highlighted the importance of community partnerships and external funding from sources like the Ed Fund and local foundations. A new community engagement initiative called "Community Action for Kids Education" (CAKE) was announced to deepen involvement. While no votes were taken at the meeting, the presentation underscored the district's commitment to evidence-based reading instruction and its willingness to invest significantly in teacher training to support student success.
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Notable Quotes (8)
we are here to just show you our partnership with the an col schools how we have worked with the United public schools to bring together um our work and our funding to help meet reality in our school so that we can bring our students the best possible education that they deserve and our teachers the professional development that they need
we came early understanding that balance litery whole language was a problem and really being able to look at Str literacy and trying to make sure that we gave teachers and students the tool they needed to succeed
the read app um has many different components but it's a 92 million Investments and we are the such for starts febrary 12 um I don't know anyy but I'm really excited about hopefully getting 30 million more it's going to be my ass for reap this year
currently has over 300 teachers who are already inol we have cor finished all eight which is 144 hours the of about 25 teachers and now we have K3 already in and we're seeing an impact on students already which is really exciting
when you think about early childhood and the um development of early childhood teachers there is a very very strong focus on Child Development the cognitive development that's there's very um less focus on emergent learning skill literacy and numeracy
we used to think that there are many ways to teach reading and now we know recent brain scans that there's really one way that's sequence
research tells us we have to give that intervention five times a week at 30 minutes dose we're talking medical
what you're looking at right now over here on the left is kindergarten over here on the right and what this is this winter Trend data from okay so we have over in 2021 over see 2021 we had 59% in January 59% of our gardeners were in that's the 5% last year during this time it 76% and just this year in January we are now in% in three years this is significant this is why we the work right it's landing on kids
Ordinances & Resolutions (2)
State policy mandating changes in literacy instruction and investment.
The detailed implementation framework for the state's literacy policy.
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Other Topics from This Document
K-12 Literacy Program Outcomes and Data
Comprehensive Literacy Development from Early Childhood to Middle School
Community Partnerships and Funding for Educational Initiatives
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