Editor's Note: This article is adapted from our live webinar, "Using Title I Funds to Accelerate Reading Achievement and Engage Families" featuring Terri King Hunt, Director of Impact and Learning at Just Right Reader.
💡 Want to watch the full discussion? Access the on-demand webinar recording here.
Title I is one of the largest federally funded programs in America. Many districts put a significant share of that money into early literacy. The question is not whether to spend it there. The question is what to buy so the investment actually moves the needle on reading achievement.
In this session, Terri King Hunt, Director of Impact and Learning at Just Right Reader, walked through the Title I requirements that shape purchasing decisions: evidence-based instruction, targeted academic support for the students who need it most, and family engagement.
Her point was clear: those three requirements aren't three separate purchases. When practice follows a student at home and families are given the tools to support their children, achievement accelerates faster than classroom instruction alone can.
- Title I funds evidence-based instruction, targeted support, and family engagement, which makes Science of Reading–aligned decodables that travel between school and home an allowable and strategic use of the money.
- A decodable book is only decodable if the skill it targets has already been taught, so books that combine multiple untaught skills no longer serve as decodable practice.
- Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs™ use each student's own screener data to build a personalized set of six books, delivered in rounds that move students through a phonics progression.
- Every book carries a QR code linking to a video phonics lesson in 14+ languages, so caregivers can learn the skill in their home language before practicing it with their child.
What does Title I actually require of a literacy purchase?
Title I is a federal funding program established under the Every Student Succeeds Act, and its goal is to ensure all children can meet state academic standards, with particular attention to students facing barriers tied to economic disadvantage.
In practice, a purchase has to do three things: provide evidence-based instruction, deliver targeted support to students furthest behind, and strengthen family engagement.
Districts that treat those as a checklist tend to buy three unconnected things. Districts that treat them as one system move faster.
How Just Right Reader Meets All Three
Just Right Reader's Science of Reading resources provide evidence-based instruction, deliver targeted support to students across Tiers 1, 2, & 3, and strengthen family engagement.
Evidence-based Personalized Learning
Science of Reading Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs™ turn existing assessment data into a fun pack of books with each child's name on it.
Here's how it works:
Send your existing reading data
Districts share their universal screener results or whatever reading data they already collect. No new assessment is introduced.
What districts provide: screener or reading data they already have.Each student gets six books matched to their data
That data runs through Just Right Reader's algorithm, which returns a set of six decodables personalized to the specific phonics skills the student needs at that moment.
What students receive: six decodables, wrapped, labeled with their own name.Teach the skills in small groups first
Teachers receive a packing slip and Personal Lesson Planner showing exactly which students received which skills, and then teach those skills in small-group instruction using the students' own books and lesson plans.
What teachers receive: access to a Personal Lesson Planner plus a lesson plan for every title.The books go home in the backpack
Once students practice the phonics skill in class, the six books are placed in a backpack and sent home. Families practice skills that have already been taught, so home reading reinforces school instruction instead of running ahead of it.
What families receive: books, QR video lessons in 14+ languages, and a high-five tracker on each back cover.A new round arrives and moves the student forward
Once a pack goes home, the next pack ships, pushing the student further along the phonics progression. The teacher teaches the new skill in small groups, those books go home, and the cycle repeats.
Why it accelerates: each round is taught at school and practiced at home, in sequence."There is a cohesiveness between home and school that's allowing that acceleration to really take place."
Terri King Hunt, Director of Impact and Learning, Just Right ReaderHow can families support reading when they do not speak English at home?
Every Just Right Reader decodable carries a QR code linked to a teacher-led video phonics lesson that teaches the skill highlighted in that text, and those videos are available in 14+ languages.
That solves a problem most family engagement plans leave untouched. A caregiver who cannot read the book in English can still watch the lesson in their home language, understand the exact skill being taught at school, and then practice it with their child that evening.
Family engagement stops depending on whether a caregiver already knows how to teach phonics. The videos carry the instruction, and the high-five hand printed on the back of every book gives families a simple way to track practice and keep going.
The support does not stop at the decodables. Just Right Reader offers family engagement nights that show caregivers what to do when books come home, along with professional development that helps teachers use the texts confidently in small-group instruction.
There is one more touch worth noting. Each backpack carries a QR code linking to a literacy message from a district partner, so families hear directly from their own district that school and home are working together on this.
Classroom Libraries or Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs?
Both are allowable Title I purchases, and they answer different needs. The session laid out the distinction clearly.
Classroom libraries: durable, shared, staying put
Built for repeated small-group use in the classroom, with a durable layout. The range runs from pre-emergent letter books, which cover letter sounds, letter formation, letter identification, and how to shape the mouth for accurate articulation, through kindergarten to second-grade phonics progressions, high-interest chapter books covering morphemes, prefixes, suffixes, and multisyllabic words, and the Success Series™ chapter libraries. Every library is available in English and Spanish.
Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs™: personalized, owned, going home
Built from each student's own reading data and delivered in rounds. Every child receives six decodables matched to their current skill needs, wrapped and labeled with their name, which King Hunt described as a big Oprah moment when the teacher hands them out. The books belong to the student and travel home in a backpack for family practice.
Does the school-to-home model actually move achievement?
Yes, and the comparison that makes the case is a head-to-head study against competitor decodables. Two groups were tracked from the middle of the year. One had competitor decodables in their classrooms, the other had Just Right Reader decodables. The Just Right Reader students started lower and finished higher.
Average DIBELS Composite Score gain for students using Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs™, compared with peers using competitor decodables.
In an LXD Research study conducted over five months, students using Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs™ outperformed peers using competitor decodables, with statistically significant growth.
The evidence base extends past that one study. Just Right Reader holds an ESSA Level 2 – Moderate Evidence rating for both reading and family engagement. Districts implementing a read-at-home plan have seen 8X DIBELS growth in six weeks. Among teachers, 75% reported increased student confidence. Among caregivers, 71% used the video phonics lessons and 90% found them easy to use.
The program's design has been shaped by researchers including Dr. Lucy Hart-Paulson, Dr. John Hutton, Dr. D. Ray Reutzel, and Dr. Doris Baker. To date, Just Right Reader has sent more than 30 million books to over 3,500 school districts across the country.
Will this add one more thing to a teacher's plate?
No, and the session addressed the concern directly, because it is the first objection most instructional leaders raise about a personalized program.
Students are grouped for the teacher, not by the teacher. Every pack arrives with a packing slip and planner listing which students received which skills, so small group instruction is already organized before the books are unwrapped.
Every single title comes with a scripted lesson plan that teachers can pull up and use to guide instruction with that decodable. Professional development covers implementation, and the video phonics lessons give newer teachers a reliable model of each sound.
The materials are also supplemental by design. Just Right Reader publishes completed alignments to core phonics programs, so a teacher on day four of a UFLI or Letterland lesson covering short U can see exactly which decodable provides the matching practice. Nothing needs to be swapped out of the core curriculum. As King Hunt put it in the session, the goal is to be a support and a supplement, not to give teachers another thing to do.
Frequently asked questions
Can Title I funds be used to buy decodable books?
Yes. Title I funding is designed to support evidence-based instruction, targeted academic support for the students who need it most, and family engagement. Science of Reading–aligned decodables that are matched to student data and travel home to families address all three purposes.
What makes a book genuinely decodable?
A book is only decodable if the skill it targets has already been taught to the student reading it. Books that combine several skills, including skills not yet taught, stop functioning as decodable practice. Just Right Reader decodables target one skill at a time, name that skill on the front cover, and are 90% decodable.
How are Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs™ personalized to each student?
Districts share their universal screener or existing reading data. That data runs through Just Right Reader's algorithm, which produces a set of six decodables matched to what that specific child needs to practice at that moment. Each pack is labeled with the student's name, and new rounds arrive to move the student through the phonics progression.
How do the QR codes support families who speak another language at home?
Every decodable carries a QR code linked to a video phonics lesson teaching that book's target skill, available in 14+ languages. Caregivers can watch the lesson in their home language, understand the skill being taught at school, and then practice it with their child using the same book.
Do these materials replace a district's core phonics curriculum?
No. Just Right Reader is supplemental and aligns to any phonics scope and sequence, including an existing core curriculum. Completed alignments are provided, so teachers can match a specific lesson day in their core program to the decodable that reinforces it.
What evidence supports the program's effect on reading achievement?
Just Right Reader holds an ESSA Level 2 – Moderate Evidence rating for reading and family engagement. In an LXD Research study over five months, students using Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs™ gained an average of 71 points on DIBELS Composite Scores, compared with 61 points for peers using competitor decodables. Districts using a read-at-home plan have seen 8X DIBELS growth in six weeks.
Which students can these resources support?
The libraries support Tiers 1, 2, and 3, including English learners, striving readers, and students with dyslexia characteristics. Success Series™ chapter libraries are designed specifically for upper elementary, middle, and high school students who still need foundational skills, with a taller, more mature format. All libraries are printed in English and Spanish.
Terri King Hunt
Director of Impact and Learning, Just Right ReaderTerri King Hunt leads impact and learning at Just Right Reader, where she works with districts to accelerate reading achievement and build strong school-to-home partnerships. Her focus is on helping educators connect evidence-based classroom instruction with family practice at school, home, and everywhere.
Watch the full webinar
See the complete session on using Title I funds to accelerate reading achievement and engage families, including the book design walkthrough, the round-by-round pack model, and the audience Q&A.
