Countdown to LETRS Cohort 4 Registration Deadline: Join the more than 6,000 Kentucky educators who have or are participating in LETRS!
Read what some are saying about their experience:
"This is my 25th year of teaching, and I can honestly say LETRS is one of the best professional development opportunities I have had in my teaching career. I would recommend this training to every teacher who impacts a child's ability to learn to read."
Susan Bratcher, Intervention Teacher
 “This program has changed the way I work with EL students. I have been teaching my newcomers how to form letter sounds with their mouth movements and incorporated a sound wall! The gains in reading in both their native language and English have been huge!”
Stephanie Bellot-Donaldson, 3rd Grade Spanish Immersion Teacher
 “Working through the LETRS program, I have learned so much. It has definitely had a very positive and beneficial impact on my teaching. My literacy instruction, especially foundational literacy and small group literacy instruction, has changed dramatically. I now know the importance of explicit and sequential phonics instruction which has definitely had an impact on my students.”
Michelle Adkins, Kindergarten Teacher
More About LETRS Cohort 4
Registration for the fourth Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) cohort of the Kentucky Reading Academies opened May 1, 2025, and will remain open through Aug. 22, 2025.
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will continue the exciting partnership that brings the LETRS professional learning to educators across the Commonwealth, called the Kentucky Reading Academies. This course of study was chosen because of its demonstrated success on a national scale in bringing significant increases in literacy achievement.
The Kentucky Reading Academies is a comprehensive no-cost professional learning opportunity open to all K-5 public school educators. More than 6,000 Kentucky educators and administrators have participated or are currently participating in the LETRS professional learning opportunity.
Two different courses are being offered through the Kentucky Reading Academies: LETRS for Educators and LETRS for Administrators. Descriptions of each are following:
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LETRS for Educators Cohort 4: This course is recommended for K-5 teachers, interventionists, reading specialists, instructional coaches and anyone providing reading instruction or intervention supports to early readers.
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LETRS for Administrators Cohort 4: This course is recommended for instructional coaches who have completed LETRS for Educators, district leaders and building administrators.
Interested educators and administrators can register on the Kentucky Reading Academies webpage beginning May 1. Registrants will indicate which course they are enrolling in when completing the registration form.
PLEASE NOTE: Limited licenses are available for Cohort 4. Registration will be first come, first served. Once we reach capacity, registrants will be placed on a waitlist and invited as licenses become available. Registration does not guarantee enrollment into the professional learning. Registrants will receive an email from Christie Biggerstaff indicating their enrollment status mid to late August.
Also of note: Cohort 3 participants will not need to register for Cohort 4 as they are already enrolled in the professional learning.
Find out more about the Kentucky Reading Academies on the Kentucky Reading Academies webpage.
For questions about the Kentucky Reading Academies, please email KDE Director of Early Literacy Christie Biggerstaff.
Resource Highlight:
As you prepare for the 2025-2026 school year, we are highlighting key resources for supporting high-quality instruction in your district and school. Take time to explore the following resource and share them with others that could benefit, as well.
Support HQIR Implementation with Unit Internalization
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Office of Teaching and Learning developed the Curriculum-Based Professional Learning Guidance Document to support districts in effective implementation of a strong local curriculum anchored in high-quality instructional resources (HQIRs). The guidance document includes multiple tools to help ensure maximum impact of the district-adopted HQIRs on the student experience and outcomes.
One foundational tool is the unit internalization protocol. The steps and questions included in the protocol support “intellectual preparation” for teaching a unit/module from a high-quality instructional resource (HQIR) and provide a structure for developing understanding of how the standards, tasks and assessments operate within the arc of learning. By starting with unit internalization, teachers understand how each lesson coherently fits into the unit’s overall design. Some HQIR offer protocols to support internalization. If a vendor provided internalization protocol is not available for the HQIR being implemented, the KDE has content-specific versions for Reading and Writing, Mathematics and Science.
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