Learning Through Inquiry: How Improvement Science Transformed My Students’ Reading and Writing
April Ferguson was selected to participate in the inaugural Teacher Leaders Institute sponsored by Schools That Lead, an organization whose mission is to equip teachers to lead using the tools of improvement science to transform how schools improve from the classroom up, centering student voice, leveraging new data in new ways, and creating schools that work for the people inside them. This mission aligned seamlessly with April’s own commitment to reflective practice and meaningful instructional change.
Setting an Aim to Improve Student Reading and Comprehension
I began the quarter with a clear aim: I wanted my students to become stronger readers by becoming stronger thinkers. I focused specifically on improving their comprehension and writing skills with informational texts — an area where many of them had faced persistent challenges. Rather than relying on traditional comprehension drills, I turned to a strategy I believed could fundamentally shift the way my students processed information: CER writing — Claim, Evidence, Reasoning.
Practice-Based Research: The Initial Evidence of Impact
From the very first week, I immersed my students in historical primary sources, using these complex texts as a gateway to deeper informational reading. I asked them not simply to read, but to analyze. Not just to summarize, but to construct arguments. Throughout the quarter, they drafted and revised CER responses to speeches, letters, photographs, and political cartoons. I examined their writing closely, looking for clearer claims, more purposeful evidence, and reasoning that demonstrated an understanding of cause and effect.
Early on, many students struggled. Their claims lacked clarity, their evidence was sparse, and their reasoning often drifted into retelling. I responded with intentional scaffolding, especially for my ESL and EC learners, ensuring that each student had access to the support they needed. As the weeks progressed, I began to see a noticeable shift. Students started selecting evidence more deliberately. Their explanations became more precise. Their writing reflected a deeper grasp of the historical content — and a more sophisticated understanding of how ideas connect. With each CER cycle, I gradually released supports and raised expectations, guiding them toward greater independence and analytical confidence.
Using Improvement Science to Improve Student Reading and Comprehension
Embedded in my approach was the core discipline of improvement science. I treated each instructional cycle as a small test of change, studying student work, identifying patterns, and adjusting my supports accordingly. Improvement science emphasizes learning through iterative practice — trying something, studying its impact, and refining it. I embraced this mindset fully. Each CER assignment became both a learning opportunity for my students and a data point for my own professional inquiry. This disciplined, reflective process allowed me to respond quickly to student needs and continuously strengthen my instructional moves.
The Results: Evidence of Improvement and Meeting Goals
By the end of the quarter, I compared students’ early writing to their later drafts and paired those observations with Achieve3000 data focused on informational text performance across my three classes. The results told a compelling story.
5 out of 7 exceeded expected growth and gained an entire year's worth of growth or more in one quarter
1 met the expected quarterly growth
1 maintained
Their CER writing had become stronger, and their reading comprehension data reflected the same upward trajectory.
The Conclusion: A Simple Yet Transformative Idea
For April, the project affirmed what she believed from the start — that writing can be a powerful tool for developing deeper thinking and that it can unlock deeper comprehension. Her students didn’t just learn to write better; they learned to understand more fully. And in that growth, April saw the impact of a simple yet transformative idea, strengthened by the disciplined, reflective cycles of inquiry and carried out with consistency, curiosity, and empathy.
April Ferguson
April Ferguson is a social studies teacher at Southern Alamance Middle School and an inaugural member of Schools That Lead’s Teacher Leader Institute.