9/15/2025
Unlocking the Full Potential of Edtech and Professional Learning
Sustained Literacy Gains Begin With Strong Partnerships
Have you ever invested in a literacy program that promised to boost students’ scores, only to find it never quite reached its full potential? Perhaps your vendor didn’t provide goals alignment, adequate training, or suggest how the solution could be adapted to meet your students’ needs.
School and district administrators spend millions of dollars each year on digital solutions, yet student achievement varies widely, even if two similar groups of students use the same tool. The truth is that student success isn’t solely determined by what tool you buy—success depends on how you put it into practice and who you partner with to realize its full potential.
Partnerships transform edtech tools and professional learning into meaningful literacy outcomes by building the bridge between adoption and impact.
Beyond Vendor Transactions: Why Partnership Matters
A science of reading-aligned partner actively supports educators in implementing practices grounded in evidence-based research. Beyond offering product-based training, these partners align their solutions through the lens of the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough’s Reading Rope, encouraging individualized solution usage with explicit, systematic, cumulative, and diagnostic reading instruction.
Transaction vs. Transformation
The difference between a vendor and a partner can mean the difference between a short-term purchase and long-term literacy transformation. Partners work alongside your team long after your initial training. They help teachers understand how to use product features and analyze data to improve instruction, providing each member of your team with the information and support they need. When you invest in a partnership, you gain more than a digital literacy solution; you gain a trusted collaborator committed to your success.
Partnership as a Literacy Strategy
If you’re looking to boost reading achievement for the long term, choose a literacy partner that helps you set and reach critical milestones.
A true partner provides additional coaching and data support that strengthen teacher capacity, giving them both the knowledge and the confidence to implement evidence-based practices in the classroom.
Partnerships increase student engagement and support consistent program usage, two factors closely tied to improved reading outcomes.
Long-term partnerships help school and district administrators build momentum and grow capacity across multiple academic years, preventing the “fade-out” effect that can occur when teachers implement literacy initiatives in isolation.
School-vendor and district-vendor partnerships bridge the gap between solution adoption and effective application. If your team receives guidance every step of the way, you’ll often see smoother transitions, build steady momentum, and ultimately achieve reading gains.
How Partnerships Transform Tools and Training Into Literacy Outcomes
Meaningful educational change occurs for multiple years, allowing you to optimize the impact of reading interventions throughout time.
Teachers benefit from ongoing professional learning and coaching support to fully utilize their science of reading resources and develop their domain expertise in data analysis and reading instruction.
Administrators get the opportunity to align literary tools with district strategic plans, literacy frameworks, Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) frameworks, and school improvement plans.
What Strong Partnerships Look Like
Partners move your literacy program forward in several ways that vendors cannot. From building teacher capacity to helping you turn student data into actionable insights, the partnership model allows school and district leaders to embed literacy tools into their broader strategies and sustain progress throughout time.
When evaluating partnership solutions, consider these questions:
Does the partner align products to our literacy goals?
A trusted partner collaborates with education leaders to connect tools to literacy priorities, such as Tier 2 interventions, meeting early literacy benchmarks, or addressing secondary reading gaps. This alignment keeps teachers from using tools in isolation and instead integrates them into a cohesive literacy strategy.
How will partners build educator capacity?
The best education tools and technology only work if teachers know how and when to use them. Research indicates ongoing professional learning and coaching are essential to effective classroom practice. That’s why good partners encourage professional learning alongside solution usage, empowering teachers to integrate literacy tools into daily instruction. When teachers buy into the benefits of science of reading-aligned tools, they are more apt to go beyond compliance-driven usage.
Will the partner provide year-round support and accountability?
A great tool adapts to meet the needs of all students, and so should great partners. Rather than waiting to see end-of-year test results, partners should help you monitor progress throughout the school year. Together, you should participate in regular data reviews, monitor usage, and provide coaching sessions to offer administrators and teachers opportunities to make midyear adjustments that improve student outcomes.
How can partners help us turn data into action?
Educational technology platforms generate enormous amounts of student data and reports that can overwhelm teachers and administrators, and sit untouched and unused. With the right partner, you’ll get guidance and meaningful data interpretation. This allows you to spot trends quickly and informs targeted instructional practices that small groups or individual students will benefit from.
How do partners sustain progress throughout time?
It’s easy to invest in a tool and generate educator excitement after you first purchase it. However, learning initiatives often lose momentum after the first year, leading to the so-called “fade-out effect.” Partners can help focus administrators and provide support across multiple school years. This ongoing partnership can transform small gains into lasting improvements in literacy.
The Evidence: Proof Partnerships Improve Outcomes
Does research prove partnerships really work? District teams that used Lexia Success Partnership services achieved higher student reading outcomes, and teachers gained more knowledge of the science of reading at a faster rate than their peers.
Lexia measured the impact of Lexia Success Partnerships, designed to support educators in achieving implementation success. Each Success Partnership includes a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) who partners with and supports school leadership teams in planning and monitoring program implementation. In a recent study Lexia® researchers measured the impact of Success Partnership services on student usage and progress in Lexia® Core5® Reading, a research-proven program that accelerates the development of literacy skills for students in grades pre-K–5.
Students in schools with a Success Partnership used Core5 more and with higher fidelity than students in schools using Core5 without Success Partnership services.
Students in schools with a Success Partnership made more progress in the program, completing more levels and gaining more grade levels of material than students in schools without Partnership services.
Furthermore, Lexia experts measured the impact of Success Partnerships on teachers who participated in Lexia® LETRS® Professional Learning, specifically examining completion of the full two-volume course and knowledge gains achieved during the professional learning experience.
Researchers analyzed district-level data to compare participant progress through and completion of LETRS, as well as associated knowledge gains, across five districts.
LETRS participants in a district with a Success Partnership were more likely to complete the full two-volume course than participants in districts without these services.
LETRS participants in a district with a Success Partnership progressed through the course at a faster rate and completed more units of study than participants in districts without them.
LETRS participants in a district with a Success Partnership showed greater knowledge gains than participants in districts without services.
This data shows that it’s not just using the right product; having the right support team to guide your solution makes all the difference.
Choose a Literacy Partner, Not a Vendor
While making strides to improve literacy, choosing a literacy partner is just as critical as selecting a science of reading solution. A digital literacy program alone may provide some tools and insights, but only a true partner looks at the bigger picture. As you reflect on your literacy initiatives, ask yourself: Are your current vendors acting as partners who build teacher capacity, drive student engagement, and help you turn data into lasting results, or are they simply selling technology platforms? The answer to that question can make all the difference in your journey toward stronger literacy outcomes.
A Cambium Learning® Group Brand
