Unlocking the power of literacy in Missouri
Missouri’s Read, Lead, Exceed initiative promises to empower every student across the state to achieve literacy success. Using 95 Percent Group’s state-approved instructional materials, Missouri educators have begun to transform schools into literacy-focused powerhouses that provide cohesive, targeted instruction while sparking a love of reading in students.
Give Missouri educators and students the materials they need to experience targeted, structured literacy instruction. These 95 Percent Group products are approved by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and are included on the state’s K-5 supplemental instructional materials list:
95 Phonics Core Program®: Grounded in the science of reading, this Tier 1 structured literacy solution supports meaningful literacy progress and instructional cohesiveness linked across grades.
95 Literacy Intervention System™: A powerful reading intervention platform that brings assessment data, grouping tools, and evidence-based resources together to deliver just-right instruction for every level reader.
English Sound-Spelling Wall Classroom Kit: This helpful kit helps you explicitly teach letter-sound correspondence and develop both phonological and phonemic awareness through cards, posters, mirrors, and instructional guides.
What our customers in Missouri are saying
Spotlight Missouri: Aligned foundational literacy at scale
A large urban Missouri district transformed foundational literacy instruction by implementing 95 Percent Group’s One95 Literacy Ecosystem across K–8 classrooms, paired with sustained professional learning. The shift from inconsistent practices to a coherent, structured literacy system led to measurable gains in student achievement, reduced need for intensive intervention, and stronger teacher confidence across schools. Early results from pilot schools show significant ELA growth and increasing instructional alignment districtwide.
She described walking into classrooms across grade levels and hearing the same instructional language, watching students engage in familiar routines, and noticing fewer students shutting down during reading time. It was a clear shift toward a more unified and coherent approach—one that supported both teachers and students and could be sustained over time.
Deanna Kitson, Network 5 superintendent St. Louis Public Schools, MO
Spotlight Missouri: Science of reading success
For this feature on Fort Zumwalt School District’s efforts to implement explicit, research-based phonics instruction, we turned to Stephanie Sanker, curriculum coordinator for elementary English language arts, and second grade teachers Amanda Fowler and Marcia Biermann, to hear about their challenges and successes.
We’ve never had a systematic and explicit way of teaching phonics within the 24 years that I’ve been teaching. We had our basal readers. We did guided reading, but the true teaching of phonics—I had never done that. I know that our kids had been lacking that skill, not only helping them decode but also to encode with their writing. So we were really, really hoping to find something that could help these kids. I feel like this program has really filled that need.
Marcia Biermann Second grade teacher, Fort Zumwalt School District
Spotlight Missouri: Phonics instruction and intervention moves all students forward
Because we are now reporting progress on Reading Success Plans to parents, and want to show that students are growing, just being able to capture the data along the way with how students are progressing through the skills is really helpful to this process.
Libbie Bird, coordinator of elementary curriculum and instruction Joplin Public Schools, MO
On-demand webinar
“The shift is happening and is well underway. It’s encouraging to see that by aligning literacy instruction across all tiers, the at-risk population we serve is moving forward and becoming lifelong readers.”
-Sarah Wangi, EDD, assistant superintendent of learning services, Joplin Schools, MO
It's time to get intervention right
There’s no time to waste when it comes to literacy. And getting intervention right is critical. Watch as Laura Stewart, Chief Academic Officer at 95 Percent Group, shares effective best practices and proven tools to positively impact intervention outcomes in this EdWeek webinar.