Across the country, districts are investing in instruction aligned to the science of reading. The real challenge isn’t finding a framework to adopt, however, but implementing it consistently, at scale, and in a way that holds over time. Mt. Healthy City Schools in Ohio offers a positive example of what that process actually looks like.

 

The Scenario

 

Mt. Healthy serves a community where 100% of students qualify for free lunch, and about one-fourth of students move in and out of the district during the school year. Many children enter kindergarten without foundational literacy skills, and more than half are not school-ready. Historically, factors like chronic absenteeism and teacher turnover further complicated the strategic environment that the district’s literacy leaders had to work in.

Before Mt. Healthy discovered IMSE, literacy instruction varied from classroom to classroom. Maintaining sustained progress proved challenging as practices were drawn from a variety of sources and taught in isolation rather than through a clear, cumulative program.

Today, the progress the district has accomplished with IMSE is earning national recognition. Recently, two of Mt. Healthy’s elementary schools earned the 2026 Ohio Governor’s Science of Reading Award, a distinction awarded to just 109 schools statewide. The award represents years of hard work and strategic adjustments throughout Mt. Healthy, a testament to the district’s commitment to transform literacy instruction for its students and teachers.

 

The Solution

 

The turning point came when district leaders moved beyond understanding the science of reading and focused on implementing it in daily practice. Professional learning in Structured Literacy through IMSE’s Orton-Gillingham Plus (OG+) and Morphology+ curriculum provided teachers with explicit routines they could use immediately, creating consistency across classrooms. As Jennifer Harry, ELA Instructional Coach and IMSE Level 5 Master Instructor, recalled: “When I went through IMSE’s training, I finally understood the code. I knew what I was doing and how to teach students to decode. I came back and immediately started implementing it, and I saw the most growth I’d ever seen in my entire career. Every single student was making progress.” In a short time, teachers began to see the difference, with students reading and writing words within weeks and engaging more confidently in instruction.

 

Building for Sustainability

 

From the start, the district approached this as a system-wide effort. Early-grade teachers were trained first, followed by expansion across grade levels, ensuring students built skills cumulatively over time. As Jana Wolfe, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, reflected, “We had changed what teachers knew, but the real work was changing what they actually did in the classroom every day by making it routine and making it just what we do.”

Just as important, the district invested in internal capacity. Jennifer became an IMSE instructor, allowing Mt. Healthy to continuously train new teachers and maintain consistency across classrooms.

Students at Mt. Healthy are now building foundational skills earlier, gaining confidence in reading, and carrying those skills into later grades, where instruction can focus more on comprehension and writing. Teachers report a stronger sense of clarity in their instruction and greater confidence in their ability to support every student.

Mt. Healthy’s approach, crowned by the Governor’s Award, underscores that sustainable literacy improvement doesn’t come from training alone. It happens when teachers are equipped with practical, evidence-based instruction, and leaders align systems, expectations, and support to ensure consistent implementation. That alignment is what transforms a school district and the students it serves.

 


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