Featured Professional Learning Opportunities
Shared Leadership for School Improvement
PreK-8In this 8-week online course for coaches and teacher leaders, you’ll learn how to promote a culture of shared leadership that can energize school teams.
Phonics, Vocabulary, Spelling, and Word Study in Grades K-8
K-8In this 8-week online graduate course for teachers, learn the importance of systematic instruction in vocabulary, spelling, and word analysis skills.
Effective Reading Instruction: Community & Practice, K-8
K-8This 8-week, online course will teach the rationales and organizational components of classroom reading instruction. You will examine effective instructional practices and strategies to strengthen reading development for a wide range of readers, including multilingual learners.
Over 35 Years of Academic Excellence in Literacy Learning
The Center for Literacy Teaching & Instructional Leadership at Lesley University has been engaged in thirty-five years of innovative, research-based, system-wide educational improvement efforts. We are focused on a single mission—to ensure that every child has the opportunity to live a literate life.
We have been working with educators in school systems to improve children’s literacy.
35 Years
of experience improving
childhood literacy
50,000+
educators served from
across the nation and
around the world
Millions
of children’s lives
improved through literacy
Featured Blog Posts
Reading Beyond November: Bringing Indigenous Voices Into Everyday Literacy Instruction
As educators, we have an opportunity to shift from occasional inclusion to sustained presence — integrating Indigenous perspectives into everyday literacy instruction in ways that are relevant, accurate, and ongoing.
A School Leader’s Guide to Observing Reading Comprehension Instruction
Teaching children to think critically, analytically, and deeply about texts is no easy endeavor. What should you listen for when observing text-based comprehension work in the classroom? Here are six questions to ask to help you sharpen your lens on comprehension instruction.
An Invitation to Rethink: What Research Says About Syllables
As literacy educators, we must think carefully about cognitive load, instructional payoff, and how word-solving strategies impact readers’ fluency and comprehension. If a strategy requires a lot of mental effort but works inconsistently, it’s worth asking whether it truly supports readers.