8 Steps for Systemic Change

Vision
Decide what percentage of third graders you want to read on grade level by the end of third grade. Say it clearly. Say it in policy and in your strategic plan. Put it on bulletin boards and screen savers. Paint it on your school buses.
The mere act of setting this policy transforms the environment in which most elementary educators work. On deep levels, it announces that the adults in the K-3 system are in control of the process that teaches children to read on grade level
Assessment
Standards
Define the expected level of performance in reading and reading-related skills at kindergarten, first, second and third grade. In the most specific terms, this is setting the cut scores on the test, ie., the score on which ever test instrument being used which a student must reach to be "at standard'. Assure sure that the standards set at kindergarten, first, and second grade gradually and logically ramp up to grade-level skills at the third grade.
Accountability
Determine your elementary reading goal, put it in policy, and put the reporting format in place. Set your third- grade reading goal for the next three years. Make sure that the numerator reports the number of students reading at or above grade level and that the denominator includes all students.
Numerator Students reaching the standard
Denominator All students

Other forms of accountability besides reporting by district and by each elementary school can include principal evaluation, peer review of building plans, and annual board workshops with each school.
Improved Learning Environment
Identify the barriers in your district to increasing reading skills. Change them.
Staff Training
Research shows that each dollar invested in staff training results in more improvement per dollar than if the same dollar were spent on almost any other alternative. Consider K-5 staff training programs so the entire school is using the same vocabulary and consistent programs. They help create the teams and the continuity in curriculum and techniques between grade levels that are necessary for consistent student learning.
Realignment of resources:
Consider a deliberate and deep resetting of district parameters and paradigms for K-3 reading:
1. Primary planning and program change occurs building by building.
2. Primary accountability rests with building principals.
3. Realignment of resources. Each elementary school should identify and alter decade-old patterns that divert staff time and classroom resources away from reading for students with significant reading difficulties.
4. Changes in K-2. The primary approach should be intervention at grades K-3, not remediation commencing in the fourth grade.
5. Results oriented: Programs will be evaluated on the basis of whether they work.
6. Expectations: All children, including those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, will reach the reading goal.
Community Partnerships
Establish a Reading Foundation in your community to mobilize parent support. Encourage daily reading aloud from birth as an experience that every child will have.
Continual Improvement
Change will not occur overnight. Expect planned, incremental, and continuous improvement from kindergarten through third grade from each school's baseline to the goal over the next three to five years. But prepare yourselves for growth in spurts and at uneven rates as individual schools surge and fall back, and retrain, rethink and retool.
It will be a fascinating trip.