It sounds like you’re asking how to help colleagues feel ready and supported to make a change. I assume you’re asking specifically how you might help colleagues learn and implement a new evidence-based literacy practice while perhaps also moving away from a practice that isn’t effective or is less effective.
I don’t know your role in your school, so it’s challenging to understand what you can and can’t control. Regardless, I think the key to this task is to remember that people are at the center of the work and, in general, change is hard for us. This means that what you do to build buy-in is only part of the equation; how you carry out the work matters as much as, and sometimes more than, the work itself. In reality, your question is both about building knowledge and about compassionately supporting colleagues through what can, at times, feel like daunting work.
I think one of the first questions to ask is what is preventing folks from “buying in”? Do colleagues lack knowledge about evidence-based versus less effective practices? Or how these practices translate into instruction in their specific classroom? Are educators feeling hopeless and discouraged when they learn that 28 of their 32 students are reading below grade level? Do the curriculum and instructional materials teachers are given contradict the instruction they are expected to implement? I’d suggest you start by positioning yourself as the learner. Make it your job to figure out what barriers the educators you’re supporting are encountering. Someone asking “How will I fit this into my literacy block?” needs a different response from someone asking “Is this actually helping students?” With this information, you can begin to help remove barriers. I think this is an important shift in perspective. Rather than seeing defensiveness as irrational, you affirm colleagues' realities, honor their knowledge and expertise, and create a working alliance that makes change possible.
In my experience, a common barrier I’ve encountered is that the demands placed on teachers have continued to accumulate year after year. The example I like to use is assessment. Although ill-advised, some schools ask teachers to begin the year by finding a reading level for each student using something like the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). At some point, these same schools often layer on a universal screener (or even multiple screeners) to administer to students (something like DIBELS and/or STAR). Teachers may also be expected to give their students a beginning-of-year assessment from their reading program and perhaps even additional diagnostic assessments (like a phonics inventory). In this situation, a clear implementation barrier for any instructional initiative at the beginning of the year is that teachers are being asked to collect so much data (and often data that is unhelpful) that there is actually no time for instruction. In other words, what looks like resistance to a new practice may actually be a very reasonable response to an already unmanageable workload. In this case, the first step I’d like to take in this situation is to de-implement! I’d want teachers to spend their time only collecting data that is reliable and essential for instruction, and the only way to free up time is to stop giving unnecessary tests. To accomplish this, I might provide some training on the validity and reliability of assessments to support research-informed decision-making and build a team to problem-solve the necessary steps for supporting de-implementation.
The other thing I’d encourage you to consider is how you can make the change you are seeking from educators manageable. “Buy-in” is rarely something we create by giving people more information. Teachers, like all adults, need to play an active role in decision-making and opportunities to experience success with new practices. That might mean learning one manageable practice, co-planning how it will fit into an existing routine, trying it with support, and looking together at what happened for students. If the teachers you are helping to support are new to structured literacy, providing them with a few simple, actionable things to try (like those found in our Beginner Guides) might be a place to start. You also might consider connecting new work to practices educators already have in place rather than presenting everything as entirely new or trying to change everything all at once.
In short, listen first, remove barriers where you can, involve your colleagues in decisions, and give opportunities to experience success in increments. In this way, you build buy-in by making change meaningful, manageable, and collaborative.
Wishing you and your colleagues a productive path forward together!
