Biology, literature, calculus, U.S. history鈥攁ll high school courses, regardless of subject, require a strong grasp of one critical skill: reading.
By the time students are in high school, especially in advanced courses, it鈥檚 taken for granted that they can learn new, complex ideas through text. However many still struggle with reading comprehension.
That鈥檚 why Jennifer Norrell, the superintendent of East Aurora schools in Aurora, Ill., knew that she would have to boost students鈥� reading abilities before she could expect them to take on college-level work.
As part of the district鈥檚 push to enroll more students in Advanced Placement classes, East Aurora instituted mandatory reading classes for students who scored below a certain threshold on interim tests and end-of-year assessments.
The classes give students practice with constructing viable arguments, citing textual evidence, and notetaking.
鈥淣o one really teaches high school kids that, and they encounter some of their most difficult, challenging, technical, reading and writing in high school,鈥� Norrell said.
Education Week spoke with Norrell, a 2025 EdWeek Leaders To Learn From honoree, about how she implemented this extra reading support for students in East Aurora. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why dedicate an entire class period to reading instruction for high school students?
We have the third largest population in the state of Illinois of [English] language learners. It鈥檚 us, it鈥檚 [Elgin Area School District U46], it鈥檚 Chicago Public 69传媒, where they have 350,000 kids. We have 13,000 kids, so we鈥檙e a pretty densely populated group of [English] learners.
So for me to move kids, we had to do some other things. One of the first things that we did was to really look at our literacy in the district as a whole.
Were the reading classes designed specifically to support English learners, or were they designed to improve reading for everybody?
We implemented mandatory reading classes at all levels. They were designed based upon what your needs were.
We have three levels of reading classes. The first level was for kids who were struggling for whatever reason. We have programs that are in the reading classes where we could count that [as an ESL class]. 鈥� That reading piece, for them, it looks different, but the time is still allotted.
And then for everyone else, we have general level reading, and then we even have honors reading for the kids who are scoring at the highest level to really push them鈥攏ot just reading, but also, argumentative writing, rhetorical analysis.
There were levels so that every kid was really getting what they needed. It wasn鈥檛 just checking a box. It was targeted toward kids鈥� skill sets and [abilities]. And more importantly, it was targeted to how we could push them to exit this [reading class] with a whole new skill set.
How did you introduce the idea to the staff?
The first thing that I did was conversations with the leaders and the teachers, because they needed to understand the context of why. Because oftentimes that is a hurdle, right? You go in, you put things forward, and then you get pushback and resistance.
What kind of pushback and resistance did you experience?
[Educators] reaching out to board members, emails鈥攏ot happy鈥擺critics] showing up at the board meetings.
Then one of my strongest parent leaders [supported me], the president of my Bilingual Parent Advisory Council [a district-wide group to foster relationships between parents and school staff]. She is a powerhouse. She does work all over the state of Illinois, and now she鈥檚 doing work nationally. And she鈥檚 a language learner herself.
What [she] said to me is, 鈥楳y son graduated from this district. 鈥� He got to college, and because he was a good kid, he was one of the kids that made it in AP. He said when he got to college, he struggled mightily, because he really wasn鈥檛 reading at that level.鈥�
She said, 鈥業鈥檓 going to tell the parents to stand down and not join forces with the staff. 鈥� I hear you. I believe you.鈥�
I would meet with [the Advisory Council], and other large parent groups, and they could understand it, and a lot of them had seen it. By me really forming those relationships with the parents, it enabled me to be able to get them on my side.
What effect have the reading classes had on student achievement?
It really was a game changer鈥攖o allow us to not only increase the numbers of AP [students], but also to allow us to increase the numbers that were receiving 3s, 4s, and 5s [on AP exams].
I wanted to make sure that our [AP enrollment] numbers went up, but it didn鈥檛 jeopardize our percentages. I think that removing the barrier of literacy being a challenge, or tracking literacy in a greater amount of time that we had built into the schedule, was allowing us to set the groundwork for the success of kids in AP later on in their high school career.
We haven鈥檛 been perfect at everything we鈥檝e tried.
We certainly didn鈥檛 expect the pandemic, and we certainly didn鈥檛 expect our SAT scores [declining during that time] to be such a setback. We鈥檝e got to rebuild all that up again. It hasn鈥檛 been perfect, but the reading continues to pay off.
