For Schools
Coaching & Embedded Support
PLL partners with schools and districts to strengthen literacy systems through embedded coaching – job-embedded, collaborative support that builds educator expertise and improves student outcomes over time. Our work is not a packaged program or one-time training. It is a partnership model designed to help schools develop the structures, routines, and instructional practices that sustain improvement efforts.
What Embedded Support Looks Like
We work alongside educators and administrators in the real contexts of classrooms and school systems. Depending on a school’s goals, embedded support may include:
- Co-planning and co-teaching to strengthen core instruction and small-group teaching
- Modeling and demonstration lessons with targeted feedback and reflection
- Side-by-side coaching cycles focused on high-leverage instructional practices
- Collaborative data and student work review to identify needs and plan responsive instruction
- Support for intervention systems (MTSS structures, decision rules, scheduling, progress monitoring)
- Team facilitation for PLCs, grade-level teams, and leadership teams to build coherence and shared practice
- Professional learning sessions designed to support teachers’ knowledge and practice
What We Focus On
PLL coaching is grounded in evidence-based reading development and aligned to each school’s context. We help teams strengthen:
- Foundational skills (phonological awareness, decoding, word recognition, fluency)
- Language and knowledge-building (vocabulary, morphology, syntax, background knowledge)
- Comprehension and strategy use (inferencing, monitoring for meaning, text structure)
- Equitable access and strong instruction for all learners, especially those who have historically been underserved
- Systems that support strong literacy instruction (assessment, student supports, professional learning
Why Schools Choose PLL
Schools partner with PLL when they want to move from isolated efforts to a coherent literacy system. Our embedded approach helps educators:
- Build shared language and expectations for instruction across classrooms
- Strengthen instructional decision-making and data use
- Improve the precision of intervention and progress monitoring
- Develop internal capacity so improvement continues year after year
A Partnership Model
Every PLL partnership is tailored. We start by understanding a school’s current reality, strengths, needs, structures, and goals, and then co-design a coaching plan that fits the schedule and priorities of the school community.
Needs Assessment
Building a clearer picture of what’s working and what’s needed in your literacy system.
At PLL, we believe strong reading systems don’t start with a program. They start with clarity.
Our Reader Systems Needs Assessment is a collaborative process that helps districts and schools understand the current state of their literacy system, where it’s strong, where it’s inconsistent, and where support is most needed. Through a combination of data review, interviews, and collaborative analysis, we work with your team to surface actionable insights that lead to smarter, more focused system-building.
What the Needs Assessment Does
The assessment process helps you answer questions like:
- Do we have a shared understanding of how reading develops, and how we support it?
- Are our assessments aligned and usable for instruction?
- How well are core, intervention, and special education systems working together?
- Where do educators need clearer guidance or better tools?
- What barriers are getting in the way of stronger student outcomes?
Rather than producing a static report, our process builds shared understanding and ownership among your leadership team, literacy coaches, and teachers.
What It Looks Like in Practice
We tailor each assessment to your local context, but most needs assessments include:
- Initial planning meeting to define goals, identify stakeholders, and determine scope
- A teacher survey to inventory current literacy practices, assessments, tools, and structures
- Educator interviews to listen to those closest to the work, including classroom teachers, interventionists, special educators, content area teachers, coaches, and administrators
- Classroom observations
- Strengths & Opportunities Analysis
- Collaborative sessions to map findings to PLL’s theoretical and research-based framework
- Debrief of data and the establishment of high-leverage priorities
- Co-development of an action plan with goals and priorities mapped out
We can complete a full system-level needs assessment in 4–8 weeks, with optional add-ons like student data analysis, deeper assessment audits, or follow-up strategy planning.
When It’s Most Helpful
Districts and schools often partner with PLL for a Needs Assessment when they are:
- Launching a new literacy initiative or program, and want to align it to real needs
- Seeking to strengthen alignment across tiers of support
- Seeing uneven outcomes and want to know why
- Looking to build coherence in literacy practices across a district or supervisory union
- Looking for an outside perspective grounded in evidence-based practices and practical experience
Reader Profile
The Reader Profile Project is a school-based improvement effort that helps educators use a shared process to understand students’ reading strengths and needs and respond with highly targeted instruction. Through a structured sequence of assessment mapping, profile development, instructional planning, professional learning, and ongoing coaching and data meetings, schools build a common language for reading development and strengthen alignment across classroom instruction, intervention, and special education. The project is designed to improve the quality of instructional decision-making and create more coherent, responsive reading supports so that students receive the right instruction at the right time.
For more information, contact us at info@pllvt.org
SPDG
The SPDG Project, funded through Vermont’s State Personnel Development Grant, is a capacity-building partnership focused on strengthening instructional practice and the systems that support it. PLL works alongside schools and districts to develop educators, coaches, and instructional leaders through sustained professional learning, collaborative problem solving, and consistent use of evidence-based routines. The work emphasizes coherence across core instruction, intervention, and data use, with particular attention to improving outcomes for students with disabilities and other learners who need more targeted support.
Interested in bringing PLL to your school or district?
Let’s talk about your goals and what embedded support could look like in your context.
