RSU 14 teacher’s reading curriculum earns Johns Hopkins University review

By Lorraine Glowczak

Reading is not just an area of study taught in school; it is the foundation for successful learning in all subjects. For the past two decades, kindergarten and first grade teachers across the country have noticed students lacking the foundational skills needed to read and understand text. Research shows that early intervention is far more efficient, with students achieving similar outcomes in significantly less time when support begins in first grade rather than later years.

Students and teachers celebrate RSU 14's Kirsten Chansky's
Sounds of Success phonemic awareness program has been
reviewed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and
meets ESSA Tier 4 evidence criteria, meaning it is 
grounded in established research. 
PHOTO BY LORRAINE GLOWCZAK  

RSU 14 educator Kirsten Chansky began noticing this trend years ago while teaching first grade in another district. Year after year, she saw the same challenge surface among her students and decided something needed to change.

“Every year I had a group of students who struggled,” Chansky said. “I followed the programs and used what I understood to be best practice at the time, but their progress remained slow – I knew something was missing.”

Knowing there was more to the pattern she was seeing, Chansky began examining her own instruction and connecting with other accomplished teachers and saw the same patterns among their students.

“I decided to dig deeper, researching the most recent studies on reading instruction, and discovered that the phonemic awareness program we were using, described as the latest and most effective, did not align with the research,” Chansky said. “Multiple studies confirmed the same conclusions, which conflicted with what we were teaching. I began to question whether our approach was aligned with how reading development actually works.”

In her research, she found two key differences that stood out. First instruction should connect sounds to letters – the way students use those skills when reading and writing. Second, instruction should focus on putting together and pulling apart the smallest units of sound – like in /k/, /a/, /t/ (cat)—rather than spreading attention across multiple skills like clapping syllables or rhyming.

“Reading is a decoding process,” Chansky said. “The brain must map sounds to letters. When students understand individual sounds they then have the building blocks for reading and spelling. They can blend sounds into words, and segment words into sounds to spell. If instruction starts with larger units, children may rely on memorization rather than understanding how words work, making it hard to read and spell unfamiliar words later.”

The development of her Sounds of Success phonemic awareness curriculum, which began more than seven years ago, has been reviewed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and meets ESSA Tier 4 evidence criteria – meaning it is grounded in established research.

Wanting to improve instruction for her students, she began applying what she had learned in research to her own classroom. Within weeks, she saw noticeable improvement.

Chansky eventually joined RSU 14, overseeing Title I interventions at Raymond Elementary School. With the support of Raymond Elementary Principal Beth Peavey, who prioritized a shift toward research-based instruction, the work began in intervention settings and kindergarten classrooms.

“We saw strong outcomes across students and classrooms,” Chansky said. “With that evidence, I approached Christine Hesler (RSU 14 Curriculum Director), Christine Frost-Bertinet (RSU Assistant Superintendent), and RSU 14 Superintendent of Schools Christopher Howell. Not only did they support the work, but they asked me to bring it to the curriculum committee and school board.”

With strong support, Jessica Melcher, the Literacy Coach for RSU 14, introduced Sounds of Success to teachers across the district’s elementary schools, with similar outcomes.

“At the beginning of the year, 66 percent of our students were at high risk for reading difficulty, and that was alarming,” Melcher said. “What’s been most impactful is not just the growth we’re seeing, but how it’s happening. When instruction is explicit, systematic, and grounded in research, students make meaningful connections between sounds and print – and begin to build the confidence to see themselves as readers.”

Chansky is currently working with Johns Hopkins University on an advanced level of evaluation that includes a formal research study, including an analysis of student outcomes, with results expected soon.

Frost-Bertinet said that Chansky's Sounds of Success phonemic awareness program stands as a powerful example of what is possible when expertise, dedication, and evidence-based practice come together.

“Since its implementation in our early elementary classrooms, we have seen remarkable growth in our emergent readers; this is a direct reflection of the thoughtful, research-aligned instruction at the heart of the program,” she said. “The recognition Kirsten has received from Johns Hopkins University only reinforces what our data already tells us: structured literacy instruction, delivered well and from the start, changes outcomes for kids. We are incredibly grateful for Kirsten's vision and unwavering commitment to our youngest learners."

Currently more than six school districts in Maine have chosen to implement Chansky’s Sounds of Success curriculum in their classrooms. <