When it came to literacy instruction, United Schools of Indianapolis (USI) had been doing a lot of things right. They had strong curriculum, generous blocks of time for reading, and a deep commitment to and belief in their students.

But when a wave of teacher turnover hit, reading scores dropped and leaders realized that good materials weren’t enough. What USI needed wasn’t a one-off professional development session or a class-by-class approach. They needed cohesion. Clarity. A shared instructional vision that every classroom could rely on.

So they made a bold choice: invest in long-term, systems-level change.

With support from Lit’s Learn & Design program, a group of leaders at USI invested the time to more deeply understand the science of teaching reading and apply it to systems, structures, and decisions across their school.

The result?

• A literacy playbook grounded in research.
• A culture of shared learning and leadership.
• A reading ecosystem that’s working for kids and poised to support reading year after year.

We tell the full story in our latest case study. Download it now to see how USI designed an ecosystem for reading, one intentional decision at a time.