Literacy in Education: How Storyshares is Transforming Reading

Reading is a gateway to opportunity, yet millions of students struggle with literacy due to a lack of engaging, accessible materials. In a recent episode of the Learning Can’t Wait podcast, Louise Baigelman, CEO of Storyshares, joined host Hayley Spira-Bauer to discuss how her organization is revolutionizing literacy education by working directly with teachers to create high-interest books that help struggling readers succeed.

In education, there exists a significant gap that has persisted for decades: older students who didn't master reading in early elementary grades often continue to struggle throughout their academic careers, with few resources designed specifically for their needs. This challenge has remained largely unaddressed until Story Shares entered the market with an innovative solution.

"Traditionally we teach students how to read in kindergarten through third grade, and we expect that by third grade they've learned how to read and they then can use reading to learn new things," explains Louise Baigelman, founder and CEO of Story Shares, on the Learning Can't Wait podcast. "But the reality is today for many reasons, a huge number of students get past that third grade point without yet being strong readers. But literacy instruction has stopped."

Baigelman's insight into this problem came firsthand during her time as a fifth-grade teacher working with multilingual learners and students reading 3-5 grade levels below expectations. The challenge was clear: how do you help older students practice reading when the only accessible materials are written for much younger children?

The Innovation: Age-Appropriate Decodable Texts

Story Shares' approach represents a significant departure from traditional literacy resources. The company has developed decodable chapter books specifically designed for adolescent readers who are still building foundational skills. These materials maintain the dignity of older students while incorporating the structured literacy approaches proven effective for building reading proficiency.

"I had a couple of conversations in a row where people said it would be impossible to make a decodable book that was engaging for a teenager," Baigelman recalls. "I couldn't get that out of my head. I was like, it doesn't feel impossible."

The solution was surprisingly straightforward but required rethinking traditional formats:

1. Creating anthologized decodable texts that function as chapters in a book that resembles a young adult novel
2. Using photographs of middle schoolers rather than cartoon illustrations
3. Designing books in formats that mirror what peers are reading

This approach tackles both the technical aspects of reading instruction and the critical social-emotional components that affect adolescent learners. As Baigelman explains, "So many of, if not most of the core practices and strategies that go into teaching reading in the early grades in first grade, second grade are applicable to teaching reading in middle school or high school, but you have to marry them with the social emotional components that are present when it's a teenager learning to read."

Market Validation and Growth Strategy

Since its founding in 2013, Story Shares has received significant recognition, including awards from the Library of Congress, Teach for America, and Forbes 30 Under 30. More importantly, the company has demonstrated real-world impact in classrooms.

"Students who had never finished a whole book and who just avoided reading... when they had Story Shares book choices as part of that independent reading time, they not only finished their first ever whole book, but they actually would nudge their peers and say, 'you need to read this,'" Baigelman shares.

The company's growth strategy follows three key pillars:

1. Continuous Product Development

Story Shares has developed six decodable chapter book series and plans to expand with knowledge-building decodable texts that incorporate subject-area content like climate change and American history.

2. Research-Based Validation

In the post-ESSER funding era, schools are increasingly selective about educational technology investments. Recognizing this shift, Story Shares has prioritized efficacy studies to validate their approach.

"There's a valuable emphasis on using research-based approaches and products and strategies and not wanting to take on new things if we're not sure they actually work towards the impact that we're going for," Baigelman notes.

3. User-Centered Design Process

Critical to Story Shares' success is its collaborative approach with educators. As Baigelman explains, "Our teacher community is really a big part of forming the ways that we develop content." The company regularly conducts classroom pilots and integrates teacher feedback into product iterations, allowing for responsive development that meets real classroom needs.

The Leadership Lesson: Finding Opportunity in Overlooked Problems

Story Shares' success demonstrates how innovation often emerges from identifying overlooked gaps in established systems. By questioning the assumption that literacy instruction should end after third grade, Baigelman created an entirely new product category that serves a significant unmet need.

This approach aligns with classic disruptive innovation theory, where new entrants address underserved segments of the market with solutions that established players have overlooked. By focusing specifically on older struggling readers with age-appropriate materials, Story Shares has carved out a unique position in the educational materials market.

Looking Forward: The Power of Interest-Driven Learning

As literacy education continues to evolve, Story Shares' emphasis on student engagement and interest may prove especially prescient. Baigelman's advice to new reading teachers speaks to this approach: "Find that spark for the student, whatever it may be. What are they interested in? What do they love? What brings them alive? And use that as your hook and your entry point to getting that student to love reading."

This insight—that literacy is built through engagement with personally meaningful content—could reshape how we approach reading instruction for students of all ages. As schools increasingly prioritize personalized learning, Story Shares' model of providing diverse, accessible, and engaging content may well represent the future of literacy education.