Loralyn LaBombard is the only reading specialist at Bow Memorial School, a middle school serving grades 5-8 in a leafy town outside Concord, N.H.
In the world of literacy education, that is not an unusual distinction. After elementary school, many schools reduce or eliminate positions for supporting struggling readers.
But several years ago, LaBombard started to feel like student needs were outpacing what she could handle. More middle schoolers needed help with foundational skills, like decoding words, and many students had the same gaps.
鈥淭his is not sustainable,鈥� LaBombard remembered thinking. She wanted a way to reach more kids at once, and, just as importantly, help them build a community. 鈥淲hen you have a group of students who are all struggling in the same area, they make mistakes, they learn from each other,鈥� she said.
Spearheaded by LaBombard, Bow has since launched an ambitious program to tackle foundational reading difficulties. In specialized classes across grades 5-8, students learn how to break down complex, multisyllabic words, improve their spelling, and practice reading fluently鈥攁ll while also digging into novels and other whole books.
It鈥檚 an innovative solution to a surprisingly common problem that has become more acute of late: What do teachers do when their middle or high school students struggle to read?
New data provide a sobering look at the scope of the issue. In a nationally representative, online survey of nearly 700 糖心动漫vlog conducted this fall by the EdWeek Research Center, the vast majority of respondents said at least some middle and high school students in their districts struggled with basic reading skills. Almost a quarter of 糖心动漫vlog said the majority of middle and high schoolers in their districts struggled.
Educators in the survey cited a number of reasons for this problem鈥攖heir students weren鈥檛 motivated to read, couldn鈥檛 read fluently or automatically enough, or didn鈥檛 have enough stamina. But underlying these perceived causes is likely something more fundamental, researchers say.
鈥淧eople still don鈥檛 understand that for so many adolescents who struggle with reading, their difficulty begins at the word level,鈥� said Jessica Toste, an associate professor of special education at the University of Texas at Austin, who studies intervention for students with persistent reading challenges.
Bow is at the forefront of trying to crack that instructional problem at scale. It鈥檚 taken careful planning and dedicated staff, but it鈥檚 a model that other schools can replicate, 糖心动漫vlog there say. Now, students in Bow鈥檚 structured literacy classes are making faster average reading progress than the rest of the school. This year鈥檚 8th graders have seen eight times as much reading growth on interim assessments over the past three years as their peers who aren鈥檛 in the program.
鈥淭he students started to share, 鈥業t鈥檚 the first time that I feel comfortable reading aloud,鈥欌�� said LaBombard. 鈥淭he data speaks. There鈥檚 an incredible amount of buy-in now.鈥�
Why older students struggle with reading
A picture-postcard New England town between two of New Hampshire鈥檚 largest cities, Bow is surrounded by forests and trails. Only about 6% of the middle school鈥檚 500 students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch.
But as Jessica Brown, the district director of special education put it, 鈥淲e鈥檙e not immune鈥� to reading difficulties. Four years ago, coming out of the COVID pandemic, the district was trying to figure out how to better support older readers with big gaps in their foundational reading skills.
鈥淚t was right post-COVID,鈥� said Kelly Ardita, the special education student-services coordinator at the school. 鈥淲e had a lot of kids who missed out on that direct, phonetic instruction. They had it behind a camera.鈥�
Students who received special education services met one-on-one with case managers, including LaBombard. But not all had her background in providing effective word-reading interventions.
Nationally, while more states and districts are now requiring young students to get explicit, systematic instruction in skills like phonics that set children up for reading success later on, many older readers are missing some of these critical building blocks.
Some may have never been flagged for reading intervention early on and need basic sound-letter instruction to 鈥渃rack the code of how language works,鈥� said UT-Austin鈥檚 Toste. But more commonly, she said, older kids and teenagers who can decode short, phonetically regular words such as 鈥渃at鈥� and 鈥渄og鈥� have trouble with more complex, multisyllabic words.
Those are the kind that start to show up not just in English classes but in science, math, and social studies too: 鈥減hotosynthesis,鈥� 鈥渦nbelievable,鈥� or 鈥渢ransportation,鈥� for example. A typically developing reader might apply their decoding skills intuitively, Toste said. But there鈥檚 a group of students who need more explicit instruction to make that leap.
鈥淭hose multisyllabic words, they often carry the content or meaning of the text,鈥� said Kelly Williams, an associate professor of special education at the University of Georgia.
Research bears this out. Several studies over the past five years have found that middle-grades students whose decoding ability was below a set point鈥攁 鈥�decoding threshold鈥濃�攎ake much slower progress in vocabulary and comprehension over time than their peers.
It鈥檚 hard to know exactly how many middle and high schoolers fall in this group. Reading tests for older students are usually general measures of comprehension, not diagnostic measures that probe into underlying component parts of reading difficulty.
But at least one study, published in 2022, suggests that a large share of children have . The research examined the third of American 4th graders who scored below basic on the reading portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and found that this group struggled to understand multisyllabic words, especially those with three or more syllables.
Even so, services often disappear when students leave elementary school.
Only about 60% of the middle school 糖心动漫vlog in the EdWeek Research Center survey said their schools or districts provided support for struggling adolescent readers, like dedicated intervention time or screening tests. Fewer鈥攐nly a third鈥攐f high school 糖心动漫vlog said the same.
Then there are the logistical challenges. Fitting in time for reading support classes competes with departmentalized schedules and credit requirements that students must meet for graduation. And middle and high school English/language arts teachers, trained to be content-area experts, rarely have a background in teaching foundational reading skills.
Imagining a reading class that works differently
LaBombard, or 鈥淒r. L,鈥� as she鈥檚 known at Bow, has a relentless energy. At the front of the reading classroom, she operates like a conductor: gesturing to the students she wants to speak up, then tracing letters on the board, finally throwing up her arms with joy as students deliver a correct answer.
She greets students by name walking down the hallways, asking about their other classes, their swim meets, their families.
鈥淚 see myself in so many of the kids I work with,鈥� LaBombard said. She struggled with reading and math throughout school. 鈥淢y guidance counselor told me not to go to college,鈥� she said. LaBombard left his office determined to prove him wrong. Later, she dedicated her doctoral dissertation to him.
LaBombard鈥檚 expertise and passion built up 鈥渁 perfect storm鈥� to get the structured literacy program at Bow off the ground, said Brown, the district special education director.
At Bow, LaBombard found her road map from one of the few districts in the country that has been doing this work with adolescents for more than a decade: Mountain Views Supervisory Union in Vermont. There, educator Julie Burtscher Brown launched a program for middle and high school students to provide explicit, systematic instruction in word-reading and spelling, coupled with time to practice in real books.
鈥淲hat our model demonstrates is that it鈥檚 absolutely possible to do this, even in a small rural school without a lot of extra resources or staffing, if we follow the research and work collaboratively together to find a way to provide effective instruction,鈥� said Burtscher Brown, in an interview.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important on a philosophical level and a moral level, because it鈥檚 our students鈥� right to be fully literate. If we really believe that, we need to ensure that no child is graduating without the skills needed to be fully independent in life.鈥�
LaBombard knew Burtscher Brown professionally, and remembered thinking, we could do this here.
During the 2022-23 school year, LaBombard approached Kerri Harris, a special education teacher at Bow, who already taught a special education reading class that focused mostly on comprehension. LaBombard pitched turning it into a structured literacy class for 7th and 8th graders, and team-teaching鈥攊ntegrating the word-level instruction that LaBombard had been providing to students one-on-one.
In summer 2023, blessed with district permission and some creative scheduling from Bow鈥檚 leaders, the two teachers planned the year ahead on trail runs through the New Hampshire woods. They brainstormed how to repurpose intervention materials they already used in one-on-one instruction to fit a whole class setting.
Having district support and a team of dedicated 糖心动漫vlog makes a program like this more likely to be successful, said Burtscher Brown. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just one teacher in a building understanding what kind of instruction needs to happen,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the leadership team empowering the teachers.鈥�
In middle school, where English teachers can feel pressure to move fast to cover the many standards students need to master, the class led by LaBombard and Harris would work differently.
They would track students鈥� progress toward mastering the foundational skills they needed to read words quickly and accurately. 鈥淲e only move on when we鈥檙e ready to move on,鈥� Harris said.
Creating a safe environment for students to learn
Now in its third year, the 7th and 8th grade structured literacy classes have become fixtures on the schedule. Bow has since expanded the program, offering structured literacy in 5th and 6th grade as well. LaBombard works with both of those teachers, while Harris has taken on the older students solo. 鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 a co-teaching model,鈥� said LaBombard. 鈥淚鈥檓 trying to build capacity.鈥�
On a sunny October morning this year in the 8th grade class, Harris was introducing a new set of suffixes鈥攁ppendages like 鈥�-less鈥� and 鈥�-est鈥濃�攖o her group of eight students. Learning how to identify word parts like these, and understanding how they modify bases, can help students more easily decode and understand new multisyllabic words while reading.
Harris led the class in chanting the suffixes together, then went on to define each in turn and ask the students for examples of words that include them. 鈥淭hey all have meaning,鈥� she said.
Later, she would connect this lesson in morphology and multisyllabic decoding to the young adult novel that students were reading as a class.
Reading aloud from the book, Harris asked students to follow along and note all of the words that ended in the suffixes they just learned. Most of these words are adverbs and adjectives that describe how the characters act, she said. She asked: What do these words reveal about their personalities?
The opportunity to immediately practice multisyllabic word-reading in authentic text is crucial, said LaBombard, in an earlier interview. 鈥淎 lot of times, students see this as an isolated skill, and they don鈥檛 transfer it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want my students to not only read controlled text, I want them to read good literature. It鈥檚 the hardest part to fit in.鈥�
Harris keeps the class moving quickly, with the kind of dry humor that wins grudging respect from preteens. (鈥淪urprise,鈥� she deadpanned, before she began to read aloud, 鈥淚 want you to highlight evidence.鈥�)
From the start, she and LaBombard tried to head off any stigma or shame that could come with being enrolled in the class.
鈥淲e have very frank conversations with them,鈥� Harris said. They talk with the students about how literacy skills will help them with their goals, in and outside of school. If students start to make fun of each other, Harris said, 鈥渨e nip that in the bud real quick.鈥�
In the 8th grade classroom, a quiet space set back from the building鈥檚 main hallways, autumn light filters in wide windows through red and gold leaves, illuminating student work on the walls. It was important that the class not be in the 鈥渄regs鈥� of the building, where so many special education courses are relegated in schools, LaBombard said.
This attention to the student experience has paid off, said Shannon Bader, the mother of a current 8th grader. Her son Fletcher is in his second year of structured literacy classes.
鈥淗e can walk in, and say, 鈥楾his is what we鈥檙e working on, and I don鈥檛 get it. I don鈥檛 understand; I missed a step,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淗e feels safe to say that. No one else in the class is going to say he鈥檚 dumb.鈥�
Bader was initially skeptical of the program. Fletcher had received speech, language, and reading intervention since before kindergarten. She worried about him missing content-area instruction for reading classes in middle school. 鈥淚 was very anxious about it,鈥� she said. 鈥淒r. L said, 鈥楪ive it a chance. Give it a try.鈥欌��
Now, she thinks the foundational instruction Fletcher gets in word-reading is propelling him forward in his other classes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the preparation,鈥� she said. Learning how to break down complex math and science terminology frees up more of his brain space to focus on content demands. 鈥淭hat is no longer taking up his full energy,鈥� Bader said.
Fletcher offered a more mixed review.
The class鈥檚 regular skill practice can feel repetitive, he said, and he still wouldn鈥檛 say he likes to read. But he鈥檚 learned to pay more attention to his spelling. And the writing structures Harris has taught has made it easier for him to get down a full thought on paper, he added.
Having someone break down the reading and writing process, he said, 鈥淚 found that it helped a lot.鈥�
Expanding support to fit every student
As the structured literacy program has grown, so have the districtwide systems that prop it up. And within Bow, LaBombard and her colleagues are slowly integrating more opportunities for reading support throughout the school day.
In the spring, she and the special education case manager for 5th grade meet with the 4th grade teachers at Bow Elementary to review student data. They identify which kids are struggling with decoding and might be good candidates for the 5th grade structured literacy class. Most, but not all, of these students have been identified for special education services.
For some students, one year of support is all they need. Last school year, three 5th graders in the class were able to 鈥渆xit鈥� intervention and no longer needed additional classes. LaBombard sees the early support as preventative: 鈥淚 truly believe it would have been a special education referral at some point,鈥� she said.
Others have been in the class for multiple years. Ultimately, LaBombard said, the goal is to get to a place where these students can exit, too.
Schoolwide, 5th and 6th grade teachers are taking LETRS, a professional learning course on evidence-based reading instruction. Depending on their needs, some students still receive one-on-one intervention. And Bow is piloting a new reading class this year, for students who don鈥檛 struggle with word-level decoding, but need help with other elements like fluency or reading comprehension. Co-taught by LaBombard and English teacher Alexandra Stewart, it operates as an extra English period, which students can choose to take in place of a foreign language. It enrolls both students who have and have not been identified as needing extra reading support.
Still, all of these structures鈥攄edicated reading classes, a school full of teachers trained in foundational reading science鈥攚ill end when 8th graders at Bow move on to high school. At that level, 鈥測ou don鈥檛 look at discrete skills as much as, how do I have a comprehensive plan to get this student to graduate?,鈥� said Brown, the district special education coordinator.
But the teachers at Bow hope that the work they鈥檙e doing will buoy their students as they make the leap to 9th grade. Stewart, who just started working with LaBombard in the reading class this year, is already seeing dividends.
In a role in a previous district, she worked with 9th graders who were mostly reading at a kindergarten level. By that point, she said, 鈥渋t鈥檚 like triage. What do they need to survive in a literate world?鈥� Middle school intervention offers something different and more powerful.
鈥淭his isn鈥檛 survival,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about, what do they need to reach their potential?鈥�
