Last week, I was happy to be part of an Education Week webinar with Dr. Louisa Moats. With my assistant superintendent, Kim Bennett, we shared the story of how we achieved significant K–3 literacy results in the Rapides Parish School District.

LETRS has been reborn with new content, organization, and online elements. Dr. Louisa Moats shares where LETRS came from, what makes it a unique professional development experience, and why it endures as a widely used and respected approach to teaching teachers.

LETRS professional development determined my course as an educator, allowing me to be part of a successful professional learning community that is constantly improving the instruction for students in this rural Wyoming town.

There are many commonly proposed solutions to the shortage of qualified teachers for secondary students who are struggling in math or have learning disabilities. These solutions are expensive, complex, and they will take considerable time to implement. Many of them have been with us for years and have yet to be seriously implemented. So, what can be done in the short term?

At the heart of today’s challenge is finding a sufficient number of new teachers who have three distinct qualifications: 1) a sufficient content knowledge of mathematics, 2) a reasonable level of teaching or “pedagogical” knowledge of the subject, and 3) a capacity to differentiate instruction for struggling students. Finding all of these qualifications in one individual is rare, and the data confirm this.

American educators have a well-honed way of thinking about curriculum. Typically, district committees compare and then adopt a curriculum to meet specific goals or guidelines. More recently, curriculum adoption in math has been driven by state or national standards.