Some people collect baseball cards, others vintage shoes. Literacy coach Amy Sell collects old phonics books: “I’ve always been fascinated by the evolution and history of reading instruction,” she says.

Now she’s part of that history herself. At Lower Dauphin School District in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Sell recently led the shift to evidence-based literacy instruction—and her success is part of what makes her this year’s winner of our Changemaker Award recognizing educators who move literacy forward in their schools and communities.

Becoming a reading leader

Sell has spent 28 years immersed in early childhood literacy education. “I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a teacher,” she says. Sell recalls her first-grade teacher, the person who taught her to read, as one of her biggest cheerleaders. “And now,” she adds, “one of my greatest joys and inspirations is seeing former students grow up and join me as colleagues down the hall. That’s when it really hits me that what we do matters.”

In addition to coaching at schools, Sell has also brought her expertise in literacy skills to the local Children’s Dyslexia Center. That’s what helped her become a believer—and leader—in the Science of Reading. “Watching my students graduate, knowing the challenges they overcame, was a moment that lit a fire in me to share the science with the world,” she says.

“As much as I love the history,” Sell continues, “I’ve learned that we have to keep evolving. We have a responsibility to learn, grow, and adjust as new evidence emerges. Effective reading instruction follows the science. Children deserve explicit instruction that aligns with how the brain learns.”

Turning research into classroom practice

Sell has learned that understanding the “why” behind an instructional method supports teachers in using it effectively. Her advice for other literacy leaders: Let data drive your decisions. “Ground everything in the science, and never lose sight of your vision for students. When instruction is intentional, evidence-aligned, and delivered with belief in what children can achieve, extraordinary things can happen.”

She is also always learning from her peers and colleagues. “We are part of an incredible community of humble, passionate literacy leaders who collaborate, question, share, and grow together,” she says.

And she’s also always learning from national experts. “Louisa Moats reminds us that teaching reading is rocket science, and she’s right,” Sell says. “This work is complex, but it’s also deeply rewarding, especially when we tackle it together.”

Advocacy beyond the classroom

As a board member of The Reading League Pennsylvania, Sell has joined rallies and action days at the state Capitol, meeting with legislators to advocate for policy that supports structured literacy instruction statewide.

“Literacy is a human right. Every child—every single one—deserves instruction grounded in the research, aligned with how the brain learns, and delivered with intention and belief,” she says. “Being a changemaker means believing that literacy is a right, not just a privilege, and acting accordingly.”

How Sell found success with Amplify

Sell points to Amplify’s materials and professional development as reliable partners in her district’s shift to evidence-based literacy instruction. “Their programs are grounded in the Science of Reading and designed to translate and bring the research to life in the classroom,” she says. “Amplify has truly been an important part of my journey.”

Lower Dauphin School District is part of the Amplify Transformer Cohort, and Sell credits the structured guidance it provides with keeping everyone—teachers, coaches, and administrators alike—moving in the same direction.

And when she’s working through a tricky question with colleagues, she has a go-to line: “Hold on, Amplify has a document for that.”

Read more about the 2026 Amplify Changemaker Award, explore the Science of Reading resource hub, or browse more Science of Reading success stories from educators across the country.

Grantsburg Elementary School sits in a rural area of Wisconsin beloved by birders. The school serves 235 students from early childhood through third grade.

For years, the school’s reading proficiency hovered around 35%, roughly in line with the Wisconsin state average. But for principal Elizabeth Moritz, who has been in education for 28 years and at Grantsburg for 12, that wasn’t good enough.

“At Grantsburg, we weren’t satisfied with being average,” she says. “In a community where 50% of our students live in poverty, literacy is the only permanent way out.”

The school had been relying on guided reading for years, with no vertical scope and sequence and instructional materials that were almost entirely teacher-created. “We worked with immense heart,” says Moritz, “but our traditional methods weren’t reaching every child.”

But today, they are. And Moritz’s leadership, along with the dedication of her team, have earned the school our 2026 Literacy Legend Award. They join the other winners of our annual Science of Reading Star Awards, which recognize educators, schools, and districts revolutionizing literacy through practices grounded in the Science of Reading.

Starting the shift to evidence-based literacy instruction

Moritz and her team recognized what was missing. “We realized that while our high-achieving students were doing pretty good, our average and struggling learners were being left behind by a system that lacked explicit, systematic instruction,” she says. “We needed a systemic change that prioritized foundational reading skills and deep background knowledge.”

In the 2021–22 school year, they made the decision to move to Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA)—and committed to implementing it with fidelity.

It wasn’t easy to let go of old habits, she says. “But my staff leaned into the research. I am surrounded by a team that is constantly looking for ways to help our students grow.”

She adds, “That refusal to settle—that choice to choose fidelity over what’s comfortable—is what changed our trajectory.”

What changed in the classroom

Moritz had worried that the Amplify CKLA content might be too challenging. Instead, students fell in love with it. “They actually play out the things they learn in the Knowledge units during recess and playtime,” she says.

The culture across the staff changed too, she notes. Classroom teachers, special ed teachers, interventionists, and aides—they all shifted from saying “my classroom” to “our students.”

Measurable outcomes followed. After years of hovering at 35%, Grantsburg’s reading proficiency climbed to nearly 75% in the 2023–24 school year. The school sustained those levels in 2024–25, while increasing its percentage of advanced learners by more than 10%.

What it takes to reshape literacy outcomes

Moritz’s top takeaways for other teachers and leaders:

• Cultivate a culture of shared accountability.
• Don’t let your staff settle for good enough or state averages.
• Encourage curiosity.

It’s also about initiative and intention, she says. “I realize that for a long time we were waiting for kind of a miracle. But we found that we don’t need a miracle; we need a method.”

For Grantsburg, that method was Amplify CKLA, which provided what Moritz calls “the rigorous framework that allowed our teachers to stop creating all those materials and start delivering expertise. It gave us the tools to match our teachers’ passions with proven results.”

Says Moritz: “When you pair a high-quality curriculum like [Amplify] CKLA with a team that refuses to be complacent and insists on finding answers for every child, student potential becomes limitless.”

For years, Keppel Union School District approached reading instruction the way many districts did: using practices educators knew, trusted, and had been taught to use.

Then district leaders took a closer look at the data.

After the pandemic, curriculum and instruction coordinator Lisa Martinez began digging into student reading outcomes. What she found was hard to ignore: 177 students in grades 3–8 were not yet reading on multiple measures. And looking more closely, district leaders discovered that 156 of those students did not have Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

That told leaders something important: The challenge wasn’t limited to specialized support. They realized that they needed to take a closer look at core reading instruction from the start of early childhood education, across the entire district.

Ultimately, Keppel Union shifted from a balanced literacy approach to one of structured literacy grounded in the Science of Reading. Martinez helps lead that work across the district’s five schools, supporting educators as they bring evidence-based literacy instruction into classrooms to support early literacy skills.

At the direction of Superintendent Darbari and with the help of an amazing Instructional Services team, Keppel Union’s district-wide commitment to turning reading research into practice—has earned the district a 2026 Science of Reading Star Award, which recognizes educators, schools, and districts transforming early literacy development through practices grounded in the Science of Reading. Together, they’re leveraging research to improve student literacy outcomes. 

“When we know better,” Martinez says, “we do better.”

Leading a district-wide shift to research-based instruction

Keppel Union serves approximately 2,500 students across five schools in a community Martinez describes as remote. “If you drive to Vegas on the 138 and blink, you’ll miss us,” she says. The district also serves a student population that includes 32% multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) and 73% economically disadvantaged students.

The teachers of Keppel Union care deeply about their students. And like Martinez, they were approaching classroom instruction with a system they’d been trained to use and believed in. Any new approach would need to engender the same kind of trust from the teaching community. 

“Buy-in is pivotal,” Martinez says. “Understanding is pivotal.”

To build both, district leaders focused first on teacher learning. They built shared understanding around reading research, studied implementation examples from similar districts, and brought educators and administrators into the work together.

The district also invested in tools to help teachers act on what they were learning. One early step was implementing mCLASS^Ⓡ Literacy assessments to better understand which students needed support and identify patterns across schools. The district later incorporated additional literacy supports and is now offering educators in the district the opportunity to pilot Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA). Today, Keppel Union is also participating in research exploring the impact of Amplify CKLA on ML/ELs.

From stronger instruction to stronger readers

The district is already showing encouraging signs. This year, Keppel Union saw positive growth at all schools from beginning-of-year to middle-of-year measures, including a 10% increase in third-grade students scoring at or above grade level and a 21% increase in students scoring advanced. At the pilot school where the work began, the district also saw a 37% decrease in students scoring well below basic.

But for Martinez, the most meaningful changes aren’t just visible in the data—they show up in conversations with students.

In classrooms, Martinez reports, students can now explain the strategies they use to break apart multisyllabic words. They talk about vocabulary with confidence. They describe the content they’re learning in language arts and make connections across topics. That kind of ownership is one of the clearest signs that the shift is working, Martinez says.

A commitment beyond implementation

Martinez’s advice to other districts is practical:

• Know your “why.” 
• Start with the data. 
• Learn from others. 
• Expect bumps in the road. 
• Bring people into the process.

And document the journey! “Take pictures, write articles, celebrate,” she says. “When you look back you can see how far you’ve come, and on those difficult days you can remind yourself of the wins.”

Keppel Union’s work continues, and their story is a reminder that shifting to the Science of Reading isn’t about changing everything overnight, but about working together to build sustainable change over time—and, ultimately, providing robust, research-backed instruction so more students have the opportunity to become confident, capable readers.