NM PED 2026 Literacy and Humanities Summer Conference

Implementing meaningful literacy change is rarely easy. When challenges arise, competing priorities, limited resources, staff turnover, or implementation fatigue, schools need more than commitment. They need systems, structures, and a clear framework for sustaining improvement.

This session introduces school, district, and state leaders to the research-based systems, infrastructures, and principles of implementation science required to build and sustain a successful Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) for literacy. Participants will explore the critical components that move initiatives from intention to impact, even in the most challenging contexts.

Through three compelling vignettes drawn from real elementary schools facing significant obstacles, participants will see how strong implementation systems led to measurable improvements in reading and writing outcomes. These stories demonstrate what is possible when leadership, structure, and persistence come together to support effective practice. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to persevere through implementation hurdles and the confidence that meaningful, lasting literacy improvement is achievable.

What is the relationship between RTI/MTSS, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension? In this session, you will explore how an understanding of this intersection helps you build the knowledge, structures, and practices most likely to yield student reading success.

Designed specifically for educators, leaders, and administrators working with students in grades K through 5, this session provides a roadmap for aligning your school-wide systems with essential reading skills. You will examine how fluency acts as a bridge between foundational skills and deep comprehension within a multi-tiered framework. You will leave with a clearer vision of how to refine your instructional practices and support structures to ensure that every student reaches their full literacy potential.

What does current research say about the literacy instructional needs of older students, including English language learners and students with disabilities? In this session, you will discover that while there is no one-size-fits-all approach, specific research findings can be integrated with your local context to drive student success.

You will explore how to combine individual study findings with your own student data and unique school structures to prioritize the practices that truly matter for literacy achievement. By examining the instructional needs of diverse adolescent learners through a research-based lens, you will gain a clearer understanding of how to focus your efforts. You will leave with a framework for making informed, high-impact instructional decisions that support the literacy growth of every student in your secondary classroom.

Everyone these days seems to know some of the major reading frameworks (e.g., simple view, reading rope, active view). However, these frameworks are about what readers do cognitively during reading. What about instruction? What about increasing children’s reading achievement? This presentation presents a practical teaching framework that educators can use to guide their reading improvement efforts. If you want to know what it takes to raise reading achievement -- in your classroom, school, or state – you’ll find this framework, drawn from research and Professor Shanahan’s nearly 60 years of practice, to be a valuable guide.

This engaging session is designed for district and building administrators and instructional coaches who are leading the implementation of evidence-based writing instruction. You will explore how to move beyond fragmented writing practices to create a cohesive, school-wide approach that yields measurable results.

Throughout the session, you will have the opportunity for deep collaboration and discussion with fellow leaders to solve common implementation challenges. You will examine the specific structures and professional learning supports needed to empower your teachers and ensure that high-quality writing instruction becomes a sustainable part of your district’s literacy culture. You will leave with a clearer vision for leadership and a set of practical strategies to monitor and support effective writing instruction across all grade levels.

Curriculum decision-makers frequently ask, “Does my curriculum truly align with the Science of Reading?” While many publishers make this claim, determining what constitutes genuine evidence alignment, and how it differs from standards alignment, remains a persistent challenge.

This session introduces the forthcoming 4th Edition of the Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines, developed by The Reading League to support schools and districts in making informed, research-based curriculum decisions. With an increased emphasis on oral language and reading comprehension, the updated guidelines reflect the depth and breadth of the current research base on how students learn to read.

Participants will engage with key concepts from the research and learn to identify both evidence-aligned practices and common “red flags” found in instructional materials. The session will also highlight how to use Curriculum Navigation Reports as a practical tool for evaluating the extent to which curricula address each component of evidence-aligned reading instruction. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of what true alignment looks like in practice and actionable strategies to ensure that instructional materials support strong, coherent language and literacy development for all students.

What does research tell us about effectively supporting students in grades 4–12, and how does this differ from early literacy instruction? While foundational principles of reading development remain consistent, older striving readers require distinct instructional approaches that address gaps in both foundational skills and language comprehension.

In this session, participants will engage with the research base through the lens of The Reading League’s Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines for Grades K–5 and the Reading Intervention Evaluation Guidelines for Grades 4–12. Together, these tools will be used to examine what works best for older readers who continue to need targeted support. Participants will explore key similarities and differences between early and adolescent literacy instruction and learn to identify high-impact, evidence-aligned practices for intervention.

The session will also provide practical, hands-on strategies to advance morphological and syntactic awareness that can be implemented in both intervention settings and content-area classrooms. Emphasis will be placed on one of the most consistently supported findings in the research: the importance of a coherent, schoolwide approach to literacy that ensures all educators share responsibility for advancing reading outcomes. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies and a clearer understanding of how to support older striving readers through aligned, system-level practices.