Summer 2026 Newsletter
READS Lab researchers receive International Literacy Association Outstanding Article Award!
Congratulations to READS Lab researchers Jackie E. Relyea, Joshua B. Gilbert, Mary Burkhauser, Ethan Scherer, Douglas M. Mosher, Zhongyu Wei, Johanna Tvedt, and James S. Kim for receiving such a prestigious award!
The International Literacy Association (ILA) Outstanding Article Award honors an outstanding article published in Reading Research Quarterly that demonstrates exceptional scholarly contribution to the field of literacy. The paper asked, can structured teacher adaptations lead to better student outcomes, and finds that the answer is “YES!”
Read the full paper or, for a more digestible read, view the two-page summary.
MORE Summer Leadership Institute 2026
In June, we welcomed back our rural partners for their second Summer Leadership Institute (SLI). SLI brought together seven district partners from across the country to share exciting results from their first year of implementing the Model of Reading Engagement (MORE) curriculum and continue to move the needle on literacy outcomes.
MORE takes a new approach to research-practice partnerships. We gathered reading specialists, district administrators, principals, teacher leaders, and others directly involved with MORE, to listen, learn, and reflect—spotlighting year-one successes (spoiler: we saw positive and significant effects) and exploring how teams can strengthen and deepen their implementation in the years ahead.
We are beyond proud of everyone’s hard work this past year and can’t wait for year two!
If you want to learn more, the Center for Education Policy Research recently blogged about the experience.
READS for Summer Learning is off to a great start!
READS for Summer Learning (RFSL) is a low-cost, evidence-based, at-home program that scaffolds students’ engagement with personalized books over the summer. This summer’s implementation is off to a great start—and we’re already recruiting for next year. If you’re interested in bringing RFSL to your school, district, or non-profit in 2027, please complete our interest form. We’d love to connect!
Congratulations, Dr. Joshua Gilbert!
READS Lab is thrilled to congratulate Dr. James Kim’s most recent PhD advisee Dr. Josh Gilbert on successfully defending his dissertation!
Dr. Gilbert has been working with the lab since 2018 and has brought such expertise and thoughtfulness to our research. We will miss his clever jokes for the app and the catchy songs he created for our MORE lessons.
We are excited to follow him in his next chapter and know he will make incredible contributions to the field.
What does it take to help students not only decode text, but build knowledge, vocabulary, engagement, and understanding over time?
READS Lab Principal Investigator, James Kim, chatted with Phil Capin in Episode 6 of The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Usable Knowledge Series. James and Phil explore what research tells us about supporting strong reading comprehension and what that means for classroom practice. Together, they explore:
- Common misconceptions about reading comprehension and what the science of reading actually tells us about how students understand text
- What research from literacy interventions suggests about improving comprehension within and across subject areas
- What it takes to translate evidence-based comprehension research into approaches that are practical, scalable, and meaningful in real classrooms
Stay connected
Visit the MORE website to follow our work.