Experts guide innovations in literacy learning

The Cooney Center’s new initiative matters for kids and teachers

Early in my education career, I taught ninth-grade English in a small public high school. My vivacious, curious students came from all over San Francisco for our school’s strong community, youth leadership focus, and promise of college readiness. I was an enthusiastic and capable young teacher, excited to read and discuss compelling books with students and to coach them to find their voice and clarify their ideas through writing. My teacher education program had prepared me with these skills. And while my instructional approach made for a rich learning community for many of my students, I could see my classroom wasn’t working for all.  

At first, I thought it was about engagement. If I just strengthened relationships with students, designed lessons better, or incorporated more relevant content, they’d surely thrive. But I soon came to recognize that I faced a hurdle I didn’t know how to overcome: while most kids read proficiently (enough), a sizable number of my students did not. In fact, reading scores revealed ranges from second through 12th grade levels, together in a single class. I was wholly unqualified to address the gaps in reading for those at the lower end of the range. 

Over each academic year, I’d try different strategies to support struggling students–lunch time office hours, calls home when they were off task or missing work, and meetings with families to encourage more independent reading or systems for staying on top of assignments. But these strategies didn’t get to the root of the problem. I’d watch as kids would disengage further and further, not just from my class, but from school and from their identities as students and community members.

All too often, these were the kids who were not on the stage four years later at graduation. 

Tech solutions proliferate, yet proficiency still lags

Fast forward to today, middle and high school teachers are still working to offer instruction to a wide range of readers. The 2024 NAEP results show that fewer than one-third of fourth graders read proficiently. And because fourth grade is a critical point in academic development, at which instruction shifts from teaching kids how to read fluently to relying on kids to read and comprehend independently for subsequent teaching and learning, these results can have ripple effects for years to come.  

While gaps in achievement remain entrenched, in other ways, schools have changed dramatically in the last decade. Technology is an omnipresent force shaping kids’ lives and teachers’ workflows, with an edtech industry projected to reach $7.3 trillion in 2025 and kids accessing, on average, 45 different platforms over a school year (Instructure, 2024). Teachers today must juggle all I managed, plus a dizzying marketplace of “solutions,” very few of which are created in partnership with kids or teachers or can demonstrate efficacy (Kucirkova, 2024).

Guidance from experts to launch a new Sandbox for Literacy Innovations  

In this context, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center is proud to launch the Sandbox for Literacy Innovations with a commitment to supporting the creation of new tech-enabled solutions, designed in collaboration with kids and guided by the expertise of teachers and scholars in literacy development. 

To kick off the project, we hosted an all-day advisory meeting with experts from education, developmental and cognitive psychology, and human-interaction design to guide early findings and recommendations for the project and the edtech development teams with whom we would be partnering.  

The full report of the advisory meeting, From Big Ideas to Big Readers, is available now, detailing insights from the science of literacy and its current application in edtech. 

Recommendations for edtech developers

Coming from the advisory meeting, research presentations and literature review, and a series of expert interviews, the Sandbox launches with the following seven recommendations for edtech developers seeking to build products that contribute positively to children’s literacy development. 

  • Articulate a logic model tied to the science of literacy
    From the outset, articulate a logic model to inform the development process and clarify aims. Scarborough’s Reading Rope is recommended as a conceptual, evidence-based framework to guide the logic model for products focused on reading comprehension. Logic models can shape the product roadmap, including journey mapping, design features, assessment processes, and other points of interaction.

 

  • Embed co-design in the development process
    Using co-design or other participatory design methods early in the development process can help to test theories and collaboratively build approaches that work for kids, families, and/or teachers.
  • Design for and measure motivation
    Motivation and confidence are central to efficacy; they depend on culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate content. Use extrinsic motivators (e.g., points, wins, streaks, badges) judiciously and determine ways to boost and measure intrinsic motivation for reading.
  • Complement social learning
    Design tools to work in tandem with children’s social learning environment, complementing existing efforts by teachers, parents, or other caregivers to support children in developing into fluent, enthusiastic readers. Think creatively about ways that technology might encourage dialogue, co-engagement, or shared experience among kids and adults.
  • Round out the edtech ecosystem with new tools focused on language comprehension and writing
    Language comprehension depends on depth and breadth of knowledge, on extent of vocabulary, and on capacity to infer and interpret meaning. At present, the edtech ecosystem lacks products focused on the broad suite of skills that comprise literacy development. Products focused on language and writing skills, including for multilingual and older students, are especially needed.
  • Design with a key audience in mind
    Many products today are designed with a general audience in mind, yet specific audiences of children and youth have particular needs and motivations that technology could help bridge. Embedding adaptive features and personalized supports– supporting Universal Design for Learning– enhances efficacy for targeted students while strengthening the value of the product overall (Tare & Shell, 2019).
  • Leverage AI thoughtfully
    While the research base for AI-enabled edtech tools is still emerging, it is important to remember that fluent reading comprehension is rooted in language development, which is inherently social, so AI should be designed to support and deepen the efforts of teachers and parents. Promising applications include:
    • Responsively adapting content and instruction
    • Providing specific, just-in-time feedback tailored to age, preferences, language, and other factors
    • Coaching students through strategies for effective reading and/or writing
    • Offering translingual support to help a student access background knowledge or vocabulary from their home language
    • Offloading teachers’ cumbersome or time-intensive tasks (e.g., individual assessments, analysis of assessment results) to free them up to engage in social learning with children

Thanks to our advisors

We are grateful to the nine advisors who joined the project kickoff. The insights shared above, and elaborated in the full report, emerge from wisdom gleaned from their research and writing, their work with children, and their dialogue:

  • Jahira Alonso, Secondary School Coach, New York City Public Schools 
  • Alvin Irby, Founder and Executive Director, Barbershop Books 
  • Natalia I. Kucirkova, Founder, International Centre for EdTech Impact
  • Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
  • Susan Neuman: Professor, New York University 
  • Rachel Nugent, Instructional Specialist, New York City Public Schools 
  • Rebecca Silverman, Professor, Stanford University
  • Kimberly Smith, Chief Inclusive Innovation Officer, Digital Promise
  • Jason Yip, Associate Professor, University of Washington 

Join us as we bring recommendations to life

Over the next few years, at least 25 new literacy products will be part of the Sandbox for Literacy Innovations. Their product teams will continue to learn from research experts and kids as they bring new ideas to life.

We invite you to stay tuned to learn more about the project on LinkedIn or by signing up for the Cooney Center newsletter. And if you have a product that might be a good fit for the Sandbox for Literacy Innovations, we’d love to hear from you.