Partnering for Literacy Growth: Keys to Literacy and Davis County School District

Our partnership with Davis County School District in Farmington, Utah began in the 2022–23 school year. Davis County School District is the second largest in Utah, serving approximately 78,000 students outside of Salt Lake City.

Initially, our work involved offering leadership institutes to all elementary principals, establishing three laboratory schools, and collaborating closely with district leadership on their literacy initiative.

Davis County School District shares instructional characteristics with many other large districts nationwide. The district had previously been steeped in a balanced literacy approach, provided a big-box, comprehensive reading program as a teacher “resource,” and offered a compendium of intervention materials.

As part of their participation in a state initiative and a strong desire of their own to enhance teacher knowledge, the district required all educators to complete professional development focused on how children learn to read. This formed the foundation for our subsequent work, strengthening instructional practices and further developing the instructional capacity of school leaders alongside the district’s literacy team.

Over the following three years, instructional coaches and principals were supported in aligning the reading program with structured literacy practices. Individual schools acquired additional decodable texts to assist reading development. A member of the district’s assessment department with expertise in literacy collaborated with the district’s literacy department to help educators make effective use of foundational reading assessments. Instructional coaches and principals became confident in their ability to mentor teachers and provide instructional feedback. All interventionists received training in a highly rigorous, scripted reading intervention program.

Since these changes, principals at laboratory schools—which have expanded from three to twelve—have assumed roles as instructional leaders, providing feedback aligned with structured literacy approaches. The district and schools have transitioned away from balanced literacy systems in favor of structures that support systematic literacy instruction.

We deeply value our partnership with Davis County—a district eager to learn, implement, and embrace vulnerability for the good of their students. Together, we are changing the outcomes for students.

Acadience Reading Outcomes