In a world where AI is cannibalising writing and technology can trump reading books, promoting literacy may be more important than ever.
Literacy leadership in schools and colleges in this context proves a perennial improvement priority, but as every literacy leader knows, we have to been trying to tackle this challenge for years. Whether it is in England, or Australia, the UAE or the USA, issues are similar and busy leaders are looking for practical solutions.
We all share a truth hard-won by experience: literacy leadership is a marathon. There are no miracles.
The challenge of implementing change
When faced with the steep challenge of literacy it can be compelling to seek out quick fixes, but the reality is rather more effortful and that effort must be sustained.
Exploring how people approach the issue around the world can be instructive for English schools. In the USA, falling literacy rates nationally have seen a slew of policy changes - including a focus on phonics instruction and a focus on the 'science of reading'. The state of Mississippi has been bucking the trend of US states seeing steep literacy decline, going from struggling to success, despite some of the social challenges of being a southern state.
The Mississippi literacy improvement - in the face of poverty and inequity - has been termed the 'Mississipi miracle'.
But in a recent report by Rachel Canter, from the Progressive Policy Institute, she has more accurately termed it the 'Mississippi Marathon'!
Canter states bluntly:
"Mississippi’s progress is neither a miracle nor a myth, as some skeptics have insisted; it’s been a two-decade marathon."
'Inside the Mississippi Marathon'
Canter identifying a collection of factors over time that made the difference. Standards, testing, accountability, research evidence all feature. Alongside these factors, 'support for implementation' stands out.
Perhaps most strikingly, their improvement didn't just occur in leafy, middle class schools. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds "met their (national average) peers in reading and maths by 2015 and have topped them since 2019".
Supporting implementation is a the less exciting stuff that gets forgotten in a blizzard of announcements, new programmes and striking and glossy strategies. The 'new big idea' replaces the effortful grind of sustaining practice with tricky approaches such as phonics instruction or writing instruction. This might just be especially true when circumstances are most difficult and quick improvements are in demand.
Mississippi appears to do the stuff of screening for literacy issues early and well. Teachers appear well trained in early reading and phonics implementation. But, crucially, they build on strong foundations. They appear to focus on sustained implementation, with people and leaders at the heart of the work.
"Mississippi combined what I have come to think of as the three Ps of reform: policy, people, and persistence."
What does the Mississippi Marathon mean for literacy leaders here?
The three Ps translate readily enough into school and trust improvement work. But they demand honest self-audit and perhaps more daily grind of jobs than would be attractive.
It offers us reflective questions:
- How coherent is your literacy policy, and does it have genuine teeth in terms of accountability and resourcing?
- Are your people (not just the literacy lead, but every teacher) well trained and well supported to actually implement what's asked of them?
- Is your leadership team genuinely committed to persistence, or are you quietly preparing to pivot to the next big thing for the new school year?
The 'Mississippi marathon' offers some wise principles and a few practical starting points for the busy literacy lead to consider:
1. Resist the replacement cycle. The greatest threat to literacy improvement is not a bad CPD programme or approach; it may just be abandoning a good one too soon. Before adopting anything new, ask what it replaces and why. Think about whether doing a new thing makes the recent thing fade out and lose its effectiveness. The sustained implementation of an imperfect approach might just outperform the perpetual search for the shiny new one we try and introduce each September.
2. Screen early, respond systematically. Mississippi's gains were built on knowing who was struggling and when. Early identification of reading difficulties, followed by structured, trained responses. is unglamorous work, but it is the engine of improvement. If your screening data is not yet driving provision, that's the gap to close first. Then understand the limits of such assessments, considering what teachers need to do in classrooms.
3. Invest in people, not just programmes. Resources and guidance reports matter, but they don't teach children. Professional development that builds genuine subject knowledge and confident classroom practice is where the return on investment lives. This means time, repetition, and follow-through, not a one-day training event and a hope for the best. It means focusing on teachers and teaching assistants and sustained, high quality CPD.
4. Support the implementers. Middle leaders and literacy coordinators are often expected to run marathons alone without water or timely social support. Literacy leadership that genuinely makes a difference requires senior buy-in, protected time, and structural support — not a coordinator's job title bolted onto an already full timetable.
5. Play the long game, and say so. One of the most useful things a literacy leader can do is name the timeline honestly with governors, trustees, and staff. And make it marathon length! Improvement that sticks takes years, not mere terms. Framing this as a marathon from the outset manages expectations and creates the conditions for persistence to be valued rather than mistaken for stagnation.
Mississippi didn't get their positive outcomes by discovering a rare miracle. They got there by doing the hard, unglamorous, sustained work. They likely resisted the shiny new programmes and practices even if progress felt slow. That's the lesson. This stuff is a difficult marathon. That is a truth every literacy leader already knows, even if we rarely share it plainly.
If you are a literacy leader looking for some end-of-year inspiration, I am running my final literacy leadership masterclass of 2027. It is in Manchester and online on the 2nd July. FIND OUT MORE HERE.
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