Bridging The “Knowing-Doing” Gap: Implementing High-Impact Literacy Practices with Striving Adolescent Learners

This doctoral capstone study investigates the conditions necessary for the consistent implementation of high-impact literacy strategies, specifically active reading strategies and text-based writing strategies, across grades 4 through 8 in three Pennsylvania school districts. Each district serves a student population in which over 90% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and approximately 75% identify as Black or African American. Despite the adoption of evidence-based literacy curriculum across all three districts, student literacy performance has not improved consistently, and a gap persists between curriculum adoption and measurable student growth. Drawing on a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, the study triangulates quantitative data from the i-Ready Reading Diagnostic assessment, writing benchmark assessments, and student work samples with qualitative data from a teacher perception survey and structured focus groups. Four research questions guide the inquiry: how strategy implementation affects student achievement; teachers’ perceptions of their own efficacy in implementing these strategies; the conditions teachers identify as necessary for consistent implementation; and the scheduling, curricular, and professional learning structures that support or impede implementation. The study is grounded in research on high-impact literacy instruction, culturally responsive pedagogy, collective teacher efficacy, and the research-to-practice gap in schools serving historically underserved communities. Findings are expected to inform professional learning design, instructional coaching priorities, and school improvement planning across the three districts.