Brooke Tepper, a special education resource teacher at Columbus School in Carteret, N.J., works on reading fluency with first graders, giving them parts to read aloud in a short play. Credit: Caralee ...

The results of a recent study from Johns Hopkins University that the Chelsea schools took part in bear out the success of the program.

In early literacy, the goal is simple but urgent: Help students become independent readers and writers. Every instructional decision we make either moves them closer to that goal or keeps them ...