Michelle Sherman: Literacy instruction cannot stop at third grade
Even in a small group of readers, seventh grader Nyla couldn’t keep up. I watched her as she constantly looked around the room, as if she was trying to piece together what others already seemed to know, how they knew what to say, and what the words on the page meant. New to our school and district, testing showed that she was reading at a third grade level. So it wasn’t long before team conversations began amongst her teachers and me — our school’s reading specialist — not just about Nyla’s reading struggles, but across all subject areas. She was drowning in academic expectations.
Eventually, our talk turned to the question no one wanted to ask out loud: “How had Nyla made it this far with little to no support to help her overcome her challenges?”
Because of my own initiative and professional development, I have the training and tools to help Nyla begin closing her reading gaps. However, not all secondary educators have the same level of knowledge as I do, nor the financial freedom to receive the training, certifications, or degrees necessary.
According to the Nation’s Report Card, in 2024, 69 percent of Pennsylvania’s eighth graders were reading below grade level. Pennsylvania Standards of School Assessments results tell a similar story: over half of 8th graders are not meeting grade-level standards. If Pennsylvania ensured all K-12 students received evidence-based instruction in how the English language works––delivered by educators trained to provide it—far fewer students would experience what Nyla is facing now.
Two years ago, Pennsylvania took an important step forward with Act 135, which strengthens science-of-reading instruction in kindergarten through third grade. But literacy challenges do not disappear after 3rd grade, and neither should our commitment to addressing them.
To begin, state legislators must expand funding for evidence-based professional development for secondary educators, such as using explicit, data-driven teaching strategies, understanding how spelling works, and supporting comprehension of grade-level vocabulary across subject areas. For too long, we have assumed that by the fourth grade, students shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Yet, year after year, multiple students similar to Nyla sit in my classroom struggling to keep the pace and retain the information being taught.
Through professional learning at the Neuhaus Education Center, which I sought out and funded myself, I learned how to provide structured, multisensory instruction in advanced phonics and multisyllabic word reading. Instead of asking Nyla to simply reread a passage she couldn’t decode, I was able to break words into syllable types, explicitly teach morphology, and guide her through word-building routines that made the structure of English visible and predictable. For the first time, she began to approach unfamiliar words with a strategy rather than avoidance.
State law must also mandate universal reading screeners beyond the third grade. Reading difficulties don’t disappear after this grade level — the data simply stops being collected. Universal screening allows districts to identify gaps early, especially for students who transfer between districts with limited academic records. It enables timely intervention, appropriate course placement, and the confidence students need before they reach crisis points.
In my district, students are screened for reading difficulties from kindergarten through 8th grade and placed in courses aligned to their needs. The data showed Nyla had significant deficits in word recognition, particularly vowel-r patterns, unpredictable vowel teams, and multisyllabic words. She read only 88 words per minute, compared to her peers’ average of 104 words per minute. This meant that when she encountered words like confusion or character, she often guessed rather than sounding them out, losing meaning before finishing the sentence. Her slow rate made it difficult to keep up with grade-level texts, leaving her exhausted and discouraged before comprehension could even begin.
Today, thanks to our team approach from her early days at our school, Nyla is showing measurable growth in the very areas where she once struggled most. She approaches unfamiliar words with strategy rather than avoidance, and her confidence is beginning to match her effort. She is currently reading at a fourth-grade level. She still has a long way to go, but her progress proves what is possible when students are identified early and taught by educators equipped with the right tools.
If we act now, more students like Nyla won’t have to wait until seventh grade to be given the code to their own future.
Michelle Sherman is a reading specialist at Mechanicsburg Middle School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and 2025-2026 Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellow.
