Improving literacy and numeracy outcomes requires careful decisions about instructional time, professional learning, and school resources.
For Canadian school and district leaders, one question deserves particular attention: How effectively are we supporting the classroom instruction every student receives each day?
Targeted interventions remain essential. Alongside those supports, investing in strong core instruction gives leaders a practical starting point for improving learning and planning resources more sustainably.
Start with the classroom experience
Core instruction is the teaching all students receive as part of their regular classroom program. Within a tiered approach to student support, it is sometimes called Tier 1.
For planning purposes, consider three connected levels of provision:
- Core classroom instruction: Teaching designed to make curriculum learning accessible to all students.
- Targeted support: Additional instruction focused on particular skills or learning needs.
- Intensive intervention: More individualised support, informed by assessment and progress monitoring.
Ontario’s language curriculum describes this tiered approach, with additional support provided alongside core instruction. It offers a provincial example rather than a framework that should be assumed to apply identically across Canada.
For leaders, the key question is how well these elements connect in students’ daily learning.
Build the investment case around your students
Before purchasing another resource or changing an intervention model, establish what is happening across classrooms.
Ask:
- Which literacy and numeracy skills need attention?
- Are similar difficulties appearing across several classes?
- What opportunities have students had to learn and practise those skills?
- How does additional support connect with classroom teaching?
- What would help teachers respond more effectively?
Look at student work, assessment information, classroom experience, and teacher feedback together. Where a difficulty is widespread, examine the learning sequence, materials, and implementation support as well as individual student needs.
This gives leaders a more useful basis for investment than assuming every learning gap requires another program.
Review literacy instruction and support together
The Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Right to Read inquiry provides a Canadian reference point for reviewing early reading provision. Its recommendations address evidence-based instruction in foundational word-reading skills, screening, intervention, accommodations, and professional assessment.
Use those areas to frame practical questions about your own setting:
- How clearly do resources support the skills teachers intend to teach?
- How are students’ difficulties identified?
- What happens when a student needs more explanation or practice?
- How do classroom teachers and specialist staff coordinate their work?
When considering Science of Reading resources, ask which aspects of reading they address, what evidence supports their approach, and how they fit the applicable curriculum.
Give math resources a clear instructional purpose
A purchasing review should establish how a math resource will contribute to teaching.
Ask teachers to consider a specific lesson or learning sequence. How would they use the resource to introduce an idea, represent it visually, provide practice, or examine students’ thinking?
Then consider what happens next. If students answer incorrectly, does the available information help the teacher decide whether to revisit a concept, model a procedure, or provide additional practice?
These questions make it easier to judge a resource against its intended classroom role.
Plan for local curriculum and implementation
Canada’s provinces and territories have distinct curricula, assessment policies, and education structures. Resource decisions should reflect the requirements of the relevant jurisdiction and school community.
Before committing funding, document:
- The instructional priority the investment will address.
- Its fit with provincial or territorial curriculum expectations.
- The professional learning and planning time required.
- How it will work with existing classroom resources.
- Who will review implementation and student progress.
Include the full cost: subscriptions, materials, training, preparation, and ongoing administration.
Give technology a defined role
Digital tools need a clear place in the instructional plan.
Reading Eggs offers literacy activities and reporting, while Mathseeds provides early math learning activities and progress information. Review the relevant Canadian offerings against your intended use and curriculum requirements.
Before adoption, agree on when students will use the program, how teachers will use the information, and what evidence will help you judge its contribution.
Define return on investment before implementation
Set out what success would look like before introducing a change.
Possible measures include:
- Progress in the specific skills being taught.
- The usefulness of information for instructional planning.
- Consistency of implementation across participating classrooms.
- Teacher preparation and administration time.
- Total implementation costs.
Review these measures together. If intervention participation changes, examine students’ progress and continuing needs before interpreting that change as a positive result.
Take the next step towards stronger foundational learning
Choose one clearly defined priority in early literacy or numeracy. Establish a baseline, identify the support teachers need, and schedule a review.
That process gives school leaders a practical way to connect instructional improvement with resource decisions—and to determine what deserves continued investment.
Explore strategies for strengthening early literacy and numeracy
Download Get It Right from the Start: Laying the Foundation for K–2 Success to explore evidence-based strategies for building a stronger, more sustainable Tier 1.
Or explore how Reading Eggs and Mathseeds can help strengthen your Tier 1 foundation today.
