Elevating Teacher Voice: Perceptions and Feelings of K-3 Educators Implementing North Carolina Literacy Policy

Over a decade ago, North Carolina legislators wrote the first North Carolina early literacy policy named Read to Achieve. When Read to Achieve was first introduced in 2012, it sought to improve student outcomes through the mandate of a retention policy, reading camps, and the use of benchmark assessments. Since the creation of the Read to Achieve policy, state normed, third-grade end-of-grade assessment scores, as well as the National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for fourth graders, have shown that the reading proficiency needle for students was not moving as was hoped when the policy was first written by North Carolina legislators in 2012. Early literacy policy was revisited and updated in 2021 with the Excellent Public Schools Act-SB 387 (EPSA). Quantitative measures, such as standardized assessments, are often used to determine the effectiveness of not only teacher impact but early literacy policy. This study focuses on stakeholders’ personal experiences and perceptions as they learn about, implement, and put into practice North Carolina’s most current early literacy policy, EPSA. This qualitative focus serves to highlight the thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and perceived impacts of K-3 classroom teachers engaged in implementing EPSA. Classroom teachers are essential in EPSA implementation, and their beliefs and perspectives are a vital part of the EPSA legislation implementation story. This study utilizes a mixed methods, explanatory sequential design. Quantitative data were collected using a survey previously developed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Office of Early Learning, based on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). This data was used to assess the intensity and distribution of concerns among teachers regarding policy implementation. Following this, qualitative interviews were conducted to further explore and contextualize survey findings. The survey data revealed a dominant Level of Concern at Stage 1 (Unconcerned), with Stage 2 (Personal Concern) following. Notably, while survey responses did not indicate widespread resistance, interview data revealed undercurrents of concern related to time constraints, lack of implementation support, and professional learning demands. Participation in the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) professional learning piece of the policy was noted as beneficial, but again, the amount of time and support in completing the professional learning was an area of concern participants shared. Three key findings emerged from this study. First, educators found the LETRS professional learning to be beneficial and valuable to their instructional practice. Second, implementation challenges and broader systems-level issues significantly affected educators’ ability to fully understand the policy and determine appropriate instructional responses. Third, the process of implementing the policy at various levels contributed to a gradual erosion of educators’ self-efficacy, highlighting an unintended consequence of the policy rollout. The self-efficacy of North Carolina educators was collateral damage from the policy implementation at all levels.<p></p>