The Literacy Trajectory

CEO Perspectives from Karl Rectanus

In upper elementary classrooms, students are often able to read grade-level passages with reasonable accuracy. They can move through the text without breaking down on most words. But when asked to explain what they read, their responses are often limited. They may restate a sentence without clarifying its meaning, miss connections between ideas, or struggle to draw even straightforward conclusions.

The issue is not that students are disengaged or unwilling to try. It is that the underlying demands of the text have changed, and instruction has not always shifted at the same pace.

This matters beyond literacy instruction itself. Reading is the gateway to every content area. When students cannot fully access meaning, they struggle not just in English language arts, but in science, history, and any subject that depends on text.

The improvements in early literacy instruction have been both necessary and effective. Systems have focused on building accurate word reading, and that work has led to stronger foundational skills.

But reading is not a single skill that is completed once decoding is in place.

As students move into more complex text, the demands of reading shift in specific ways. Words become longer and more complex, often requiring students to apply knowledge of syllable types and morphology to read them accurately. Word knowledge can becomes less familiar and more dependent on word structure and context. Sentences carry more information and require students to track how ideas connect within and across them.

Reading at this stage depends on more than recognizing words. It requires students to use their knowledge of word structure, language, and meaning to make sense of what they read.

When instruction remains focused primarily on word reading, students are left to navigate these demands without the same level of support.

Many systems treat decoding proficiency as a signal that students are ready to move on. In practice, that transition is where gaps begin to surface.

As text complexity increases, the demands of reading shift in ways that are not always fully addressed through instruction. Students are expected to navigate longer, more complex words, apply knowledge of word structure to unfamiliar vocabulary, and make sense of sentences that carry meaning across multiple clauses. Instruction often progresses, but it does not always expand in the same way. Support for word reading remains, while support for language and meaning is less clearly defined and less consistently delivered.

As a result, students who appeared to be on track begin to struggle in ways that are not always immediately visible. They can read the words, but they cannot consistently make sense of what they read. Their responses become less precise. They rely more on partial understanding or surface-level interpretations, and they have difficulty connecting ideas across a passage.

Over time, the impact becomes more pronounced. Progress slows, performance becomes less predictable, and gaps that were not visible in earlier grades begin to widen. What once looked like steady growth begins to plateau, not because students have stopped learning, but because the demands of reading have outpaced the instruction designed to support it.

This is not a failure of early literacy instruction. It is a signal that the work has not yet extended far enough.

This is not a shift away from the Science of Reading. It is a continuation of it. Strong decoding instruction remains essential. But it is only one part of what reading requires over time.

Systems need to be just as intentional about how they develop language as they have been about how they develop word reading. That includes vocabulary, sentence-level understanding, and the knowledge students need to make sense of increasingly complex text.

This is exactly the gap many districts are now working to address—what comes next after students can decode. At Really Great Reading, this is the focus behind our work with Orbit. It is designed to help students build the language, word knowledge, and understanding required to move from reading words to making meaning—so that early gains in decoding extend into sustained reading success.

This is not about adding something new to the system. It is about extending what is already working so that students can continue to grow as reading demands increase.

It also requires clarity about progression. Instruction cannot remain anchored in early literacy practices as student needs evolve. It must expand in a way that reflects the full demands of reading. When that progression is in place, early gains extend into sustained growth. When it is not, systems begin to stall.

Sustaining progress requires more than early gains. It requires systems that continue to build—so that students can access, understand, and learn from the texts in front of them.

Karl Rectanus is CEO of Really Great Reading (RGR), an impact-centered leader driving measurable literacy outcomes for all students. An entrepreneur and advisor, he previously co-founded and led LearnPlatform, pioneering rapid-cycle evaluation and evidence-based decision-making in K-12 education.

He writes The Literacy Trajectory, a series exploring how educators and school systems can improve literacy outcomes at scale.