What does it take to ensure that strong reading instruction reaches every child, in every classroom, every day?
In Steubenville, Ohio, the answer has been taking shape for more than 25 years.
Steubenville City Schools has used Success for All (SFA), a research-proven, schoolwide literacy system developed by Johns Hopkins University researchers Robert Slavin and Nancy Madden, for more than two decades. The approach brings together explicit instruction, structured cooperative learning, assessment, tutoring, and ongoing support for teachers within one coordinated system. Read the full case study here.
Every morning, students across the district’s elementary schools begin reading instruction at the same time. Teachers provide explicit, systematic instruction. Students work with partners to practice new skills, read aloud, write, and explain their thinking. Regular assessments help teachers identify students who need additional support, and tutoring is built into the school day.
This is the approach journalist Emily Hanford encountered when she visited Steubenville for Sold a Story, the investigative podcast from American Public Media.
Hanford came to understand how a district serving a high proportion of economically disadvantaged students had achieved reading results that often surpassed those of far wealthier communities.
What she found was more than an effective reading curriculum. She found a coordinated, schoolwide approach built around how children learn.
Three Episodes Examine Steubenville and Success for All
In its first season, Sold a Story devoted three episodes to Steubenville, the research behind Success for All, and the challenges of bringing evidence-based practices into schools.
Episode 11: The Outlier
Hanford takes listeners inside Steubenville’s classrooms to see Success for All in action. She explores how the district has implemented and sustained SFA for decades, including the combination of explicit instruction and structured cooperative learning that gives students meaningful opportunities to practice and apply what they’ve learned.
Listen to Episode 11: The Outlier
Episode 12: The Evidence
What is the research behind Steubenville’s approach? Hanford traces the origins of Success for All, developed by Robert Slavin and Nancy Madden, and examines decades of research—including independent studies—documenting its effectiveness. The episode also explores why an approach supported by substantial evidence has not been adopted more widely.
Listen to Episode 12: The Evidence
Episode 13: The List
As states adopt new reading requirements, how do they determine which instructional approaches meet their standards of evidence? Hanford and reporter Christopher Peak investigate the curriculum review and approval processes, raising important questions about how research is evaluated and how instructional decisions are made.
Listen to Episode 13: The List
How Success for All Helps Steubenville Make Effective Instruction Consistent
Steubenville’s results are not the product of a reading curriculum alone. They reflect the district’s sustained implementation of Success for All as a coordinated schoolwide system—one that integrates instruction, assessment, tutoring, cooperative learning, coaching, and school leadership.
One of the most important insights from the reporting is that effective teaching doesn’t happen in isolation.
Teachers need strong instructional materials, but they also need the time, training, and ongoing support to use them effectively. Students need explicit instruction, along with frequent opportunities to practice and apply what they’ve learned. School leaders need structures that make these practices consistent across classrooms and sustainable over time.
These principles have guided Success for All since its development in 1987.
For decades, SFA has partnered with schools to translate research about teaching and learning into consistent daily practice—not by asking teachers to manage disconnected initiatives, but by coordinating the instruction, resources, and support systems around them.
The Sold a Story investigation offers a close look at what that coordination can mean for teachers and students, while also examining the challenges schools encounter in adopting and sustaining comprehensive approaches.
Explore the evidence behind Success for All and learn how our schoolwide literacy system works.
Additional Reporting
In July 2025, American Public Media continued its examination of SFA with an article exploring why the program has not achieved wider adoption despite decades of research demonstrating its effectiveness.
Read: Success for All Gets Kids Reading. Why Don’t More Schools Use It?