Reading specialists in several San Diego schools assist both in providing tutoring to students and coach peers, a dual role that has helped to create and sustain schoolwide improvements in literacy. In just a few years, these high-poverty schools have doubled the number of 2nd graders reading at grade level.

The Reading Success Network (RSN) is a model for improving literacy schoolwide through peer coaching, ongoing assessments of children's learning, using data to inform teaching, specific instructional strategies, and a support network of RSN schools. Federally funded regional centers across the country provide on-site professional learning for…