5 Questions Every School Should Ask Before Choosing Literacy Training

How Halifax Learning’s Teacher Training Answers the Call for Evidence-Aligned Professional Learning

The Reading League recently published a blog post urging school and district leaders to ask hard questions before selecting a professional learning partner. Their core message is one we agree with: not all professional development is created equal! The difference between a one-off workshop and genuine professional learning can determine whether students actually learn to read.

At Halifax Learning, we’ve been training teachers in structured literacy for over 25 years. We’ve seen firsthand what happens when educators receive deep, sustained, practice-based training, and what happens when they don’t. The Reading League’s five questions are a welcome framework, and we want to walk through each one and share how our teacher training program responds.

1. Is the Training Rooted in the Science of Reading?

This should be non-negotiable, and yet the literacy landscape is still crowded with programs built on outdated assumptions about how children learn to read. The Reading League rightly insists that professional learning partners demonstrate clear alignment with converging scientific evidence about reading acquisition.

Halifax Learning’s program was born from the science. Our foundation is the SpellRead program, developed by Dr. Kay MacPhee and rigorously tested through clinical studies published by the Florida Center for Reading Research and the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse. Our training teaches educators to build phonological automaticity (the ability to master sound-letter relationships and process sounds with speed and accuracy) through explicit, systematic instruction in all 44 sounds of the English language, their spellings, consonant blends, and clusters.

We haven’t stood still. Over the past two decades, we’ve continuously refined our curriculum in partnership with university researchers, including our ongoing collaboration with Saint Mary’s University. Every update to our training materials is grounded in current reading science, not tradition or convenience.

2. Does the Training Go Beyond Knowledge to Build Actual Practice?

One of the most important distinctions The Reading League draws is between professional development and professional learning, where educators actively engage, practice, and apply what they learn over time. A two-hour after-school workshop on phonemic awareness, no matter how well-presented, rarely changes what happens in a classroom consistently afterward.

Our teacher training program is built around this principle. Educators learn about structured literacy, and they also learn to deliver it. Training includes hands-on practice with our carefully sequenced lesson plans, modeling, observation, and direct feedback. Every lesson in our program is clearly defined in instructor manuals and taught in an explicit, carefully sequenced manner. Teachers leave our training not with a binder of theory, but with the skill and confidence to teach a structured literacy lesson from day one.

Learning doesn’t end after initial training. Our program includes year-long mentorship and ongoing support, because we know that real professional growth is a continuous process, not a single event.

3. Is There Evidence That the Training Actually Improves Student Outcomes?

This is the question that separates credible programs from well-marketed ones. It’s not enough for a training partner to claim their approach is “research-based.” The real test is whether the teachers they train go on to produce measurable gains in student reading.

Halifax Learning has invested in rigorous, third-party assessment from the start. Our data consistently shows that teachers trained in our program produce statistically significant improvements in students’ word decoding skills, reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. In many cases, students close significant reading gaps within a single school year. Just 35 hours of instruction can change a student’s reading trajectory. These aren’t anecdotal claims; they’re validated outcomes drawn from the thousands of students we've served across more than two decades.

Our ongoing research partnerships ensure we’re continuously monitoring, validating, and improving. That research loop is what keeps a program honest.

4. Is the Training Scalable and Inclusive for Diverse Learners?

A professional learning partner’s approach needs to work across the full range of classrooms, students, and contexts that educators actually face. The Reading League emphasizes the importance of considering the context: the specific environments and challenges educators encounter every day.

Halifax Learning’s training is designed with scalability and inclusivity at its core. We train educators who work in clinics, schools, and online settings across Canada and beyond, from Nova Scotia to Ontario, New Brunswick to the United States. Our program works with students aged 4 through adulthood, including those with dyslexia, learning disabilities, and other reading challenges. The structured, explicit nature of our approach means it doesn’t rely on any single student profile to be effective. It works because it teaches the way the brain learns to read, regardless of the learner’s starting point.

We also deliver training in flexible formats, including in-person intensives and virtual options, so that geography and scheduling don’t become barriers to access.

5. Does the Partner Support Long-Term Implementation, Not Just Initial Training?

Perhaps the most critical question of all. Research on professional learning consistently shows that sustained support is what separates training that sticks from training that fades. This can include coaching, feedback, and collaborative problem-solving over time. The Reading League’s emphasis on moving beyond one-time delivery to a continuous, collaborative model is exactly right.

Halifax Learning was designed around this principle. Our teacher training is the start of a relationship. We provide ongoing mentorship, regular check-ins, and access to updated curriculum materials as our program evolves. When a trained teacher encounters a student who isn’t responding as expected, they have a team behind them. When the research advances, our training materials advance with it, and our teachers receive those updates.

This long-term partnership model is also why we’ve been able to support provincial-level initiatives and why school partners consistently describe the relationship as collaborative and responsive.

The Right Questions Lead to Better Decisions

We’re grateful to The Reading League for framing the conversation this way. Choosing a professional learning partner is one of the highest-impact decisions a school or district can make. When educators receive training that is grounded in science, focused on practice, supported over time, and validated by outcomes, students learn to read. It’s that direct.

At Halifax Learning, we’ve spent 25 years building a training program that can stand up to these questions. It's not because we designed it to pass a checklist, but because these principles have been in our DNA from the beginning. If you’re a school leader asking these five questions, we’d welcome the conversation.

Ready to explore how Halifax Learning’s teacher training can support your school or district?

Visit us at halifaxlearning.com/teacher_training or reach out to learn more about our evidence-based structured literacy training and mentorship program.