A few months ago, the English Department at my school found itself faced with a serious — but familiar — problem: the reading and writing that our students were doing was not relevant or rigorous ...

To help them succeed, the school — which last year enrolled about 500 high schoolers, roughly 80% of whom qualified for free or reduced-priced lunch — provides its teachers with daily ...

But Hackman also has another responsibility in class: developing students’ reading skills. For about 20 of the 80 minutes of almost every class, she engages her chemistry students in literacy skills, ...

Walley said most free reading passages for school districts were “written 80 or 100 years ago,” which can be a hindrance to achievement for students who do not read at grade level.