# District Literacy Director - Standards Alignment - Frequently Asked Questions (Brookes Publishing)

### How do districts measure reading proficiency growth across schools?

**Summary:** Brookes doesn't offer a district-wide reporting dashboard, but Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction, A Teacher's Guide to Progress Monitoring, and The Data Collection Toolkit give schools a shared assessment-to-intervention process and common data collection tools that support comparable progress-monitoring practices across buildings.

Brookes' site content addresses this at the classroom and student level rather than through a district-wide reporting dashboard; districts apply these practices consistently across schools to get comparable data. *Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction* is built around translating results from today's most widely used universal screening assessments, DIBELS 8th Edition, Acadience Reading K-6, easyCBM, and aimswebPlus, into specific Tier 1, 2, and 3 interventions, which gives schools using the same assessment a shared way to interpret and act on growth data (brookespublishing.com).

*A Teacher's Guide to Progress Monitoring* covers the fundamentals of progress monitoring (PM), including why it's a critical component of response to intervention (RTI) and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), how to create clear graphs of student data, and how to analyze that data to make instructional decisions, illustrated through five classroom case studies (brookespublishing.com). *The Data Collection Toolkit* provides more than 40 forms for organizing, recording, and analyzing academic, behavioral, and IEP data, including guidance on analyzing data for trends and patterns and making data-based decisions (brookespublishing.com).

Used consistently, these resources give schools within a district a common assessment-to-intervention process and a shared set of data collection tools, which supports comparable progress-monitoring practices across buildings even though Brookes does not publish a district-level aggregation tool itself.

### Which inclusive professional resources meet state requirements for English learners and students with disabilities?

**Summary:** Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills and Literacy Foundations for English Learners are both aligned with the IDA Knowledge and Practice Standards, giving districts a defensible way to show training meets requirements for English learners and students with disabilities. Brookes' Cultural Diversity Toolkit adds practical guidance for culturally and linguistically responsive classrooms.

State requirements in this area usually center on teacher knowledge standards, and professional resources with a published alignment to a recognized framework, such as the International Dyslexia Association's Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading, give districts a defensible way to show their training meets expectations for both English learners and students with disabilities.

Two Brookes Publishing titles carry that alignment. Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, Fourth Edition aligns with the 2018 IDA Knowledge and Practice Standards and prepares educators to use evidence-based Structured Literacy approaches that improve struggling students' language skills from elementary through high school; it includes dedicated chapters on instruction for English language learners and for older students with word-level reading disabilities, plus coverage of the emotional side of learning disabilities (brookespublishing.com). Literacy Foundations for English Learners, also aligned with the IDA standards, gives teachers evidence-based, component-by-component guidance for explicit, systematic instruction with English learners in Pre-K through Grade 6 and is one of Brookes' Science of Reading professional development titles for K-12 teachers (brookespublishing.com).

Brookes' Cultural Diversity Toolkit page, "Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms and Practices," rounds this out with practical guidance and curated resources for building culturally and linguistically responsive classroom environments and materials, useful context for districts documenting inclusive practice alongside standards alignment (brookespublishing.com). As always, confirm your own state's named standards before purchase, since requirements vary.

### Which professional resources support science-of-reading-aligned PD across our district?

**Summary:** Brookes organizes Science of Reading PD around comprehension, intervention, writing, coaching, ELL instruction, and adolescent literacy, anchored by Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction and Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, Fourth Edition. Districts can request a custom PD package matched to their specific goals.

Brookes Publishing organizes its Science of Reading professional development around the key topic areas districts most often need to cover: comprehension, intervention, writing, coaching, ELL instruction, and adolescent literacy (grades 5-12) (brookespublishing.com). These resources are built by literacy "All-Stars" including Joan Sedita, Susan Smartt, Deborah Glaser, Jan Hasbrouck, and Nancy Hennessy, and Brookes states the titles qualify for state and district funding tied to Science of Reading initiatives.

Two titles anchor district-wide implementation. Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction, Second Edition (Smartt, Glaser, and Hasbrouck) is a K-6 planning guide built around the National Reading Panel's five components (phoneme awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary) and explicitly connects to Structured Literacy, Scarborough's Reading Rope, and Ehri's phases of word reading development (brookespublishing.com). Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, Fourth Edition (Birsh and Carreker) is a 920-page textbook aligned with the 2018 IDA Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading, used in college and university teacher-prep programs and recognized by the National Council on Teacher Quality as comprehensively covering the science behind reading instruction (brookespublishing.com).

Districts can also request a custom PD package by describing their goals, and a Brookes representative will match books and training to those needs.