What We Do

FULCRUM is uniting people across communities to drive change.

This requires a collective effort—every educator, policymaker, system leader, parent, and community member must be aligned to turn the tide.

Driven by our belief that all children must learn to read, we are changing hearts and minds and catalyzing action.

This philosophy remains at the heart of everything we do:

Changing Hearts & Minds

Shifting mindsets and helping people leave behind ineffective beliefs about instruction and what children are capable of.

Changing Hearts & Minds

Catalyzing Action

Catalyzing Action

Providing the support, guidance, and resources system and site leaders need to implement and sustain shifts to structured literacy practices.

Building Buy-In

The fight for universal literacy is ongoing. FULCRUM educates and advises to build understanding of what is possible and encourage shifts toward more effective beliefs, policies, and standards. Strengthening widespread investment helps sustain momentum and expands the literacy movement.

HOW WE WORK:

  • Offer advisory services to school systems and state departments of education

  • Host Literacy Learning Walks, providing opportunities to see Science of Reading-aligned programs in action

  • Participate in panel discussions and serve as keynote speakers at educational conferences

Changing Systems

Achieving universal literacy requires a collective effort—every educator, policymaker, system leader, parents, and community leader must be aligned. FULCRUM provides guidance, training, and resources grounded in evidence-based literacy practices to advance sustainable change in school systems.

HOW WE WORK:

  • Provide direct coaching to school site and system leaders to improve literacy education

  • Influence K–12 HR departments to prioritize the hiring of teachers trained in the science of reading

  • Cultivate relationships with school system decision-makers and offer guidance on change management

  • Connect historically separated factions and facilitate collaborative discussions to improve student reading outcomes

Increasing the Pipeline

Inadequate teacher preparation is a key contributing factor to the literacy crisis. Thousands of educators enter the workforce each year without the knowledge and skills to teach children to read. FULCRUM drives strategic reforms in teacher training programs to graduate more educators knowledgeable in the science of reading.

HOW WE WORK:

  • Support teacher training programs align their coursework with research-based methodologies

  • Host the annual Bay Area Educator Preparation Program (EPP) Convening

  • Direct EPPs to coaching resources and supporting organizations to revise syllabi and methods classes to include evidence-based literacy instruction

Join the movement

Access to Literacy—Access to Life

FULCRUM is committed to ending our nation's most solvable problem: illiteracy. We are leading a movement to create lasting change.