Lehighton Area School District officials are turning concern into action with a new initiative aimed at improving student literacy and strengthening classroom instruction across all subjects.

Middle School Assistant Principal Tiffany Strausberger unveiled her proposal, “Investing in Our Future: ELA Excellence,” during Monday night’s school board workshop. The plan calls for after-school professional development sessions to equip teachers with new tools to help students read, write and think more effectively in every class.

“Effective ELA instruction is the single greatest driver of academic equity,” Strausberger wrote in her proposal. “It’s the foundation for success in math, science and social studies.”

Participating teachers would receive compensation at a rate of $37 per hour.

Strausberger said she surveyed the staff and found strong interest in the voluntary program.

“A large percentage of teachers said they would take part,” she told the board. “I’ll also keep working during the school day with teachers who can’t attend after school.”

The initiative comes as district data shows that more than half of middle school students are not reading at grade level. Strausberger told the board that 59% of sixth graders, 54% of seventh graders and 51% of eighth graders were not proficient in English language arts.

“This is a schoolwide challenge that’s impacting not just literacy, but all of our subjects,” she said. “We definitely are in need of a targeted intervention.”

Her proposal focuses on four key areas: academic vocabulary integration; text-dependent analysis; disciplinary literacy strategies; and using reading and writing as learning tools.

She said the sessions would directly impact student achievement and growth, and align with her administrative goal of improving text-dependent analysis performance.

“Middle school relies heavily on academic vocabulary,” she said. “This would give not just our ELA teachers, but our non-ELA teachers consistent methods for teaching those skills.”

According to Strausberger’s written plan, the professional development series would have far-reaching effects — improving student comprehension and confidence, providing teachers with a shared set of evidence-based strategies, and building “a unified culture of literacy” within the school.

Superintendent Jason Moser praised the effort as part of a larger two-pronged approach to improve reading skills.

“We have to strengthen literacy instruction in the early grades while also figuring out how to support students who are already significantly behind,” he said. “Growth doesn’t necessarily mean proficiency, but strong, consistent growth over three years is what we need to climb out.”

He said the district’s current teacher contract limits their time to 187 professional days, making voluntary after-school programs an important way to expand training. Of those days, 180 are also student days, meaning there are only seven professional days where students are not in the building.

“Would I love to have 15 professional development days? Yes, I would,” Moser said.

Discussion Monday included whether the training should be mandatory, given the low reading scores.

District resident Ryan Bowman questioned the voluntary format, while board President Joy Beers said the program represents “a place to start.”

“If it doesn’t work out, then it will definitely have to be studied and an alternate plan put into place,” Beers said. “But this is an opportunity for teachers who want to grow professionally and make a difference in student learning.”

Strausberger said the ultimate goal is not only to close literacy gaps but to empower teachers to help students succeed in every subject.

“Literacy is everyone’s job,” she said. “Without strong reading and writing skills, kids struggle in math, science and social studies. We want to give teachers the tools to change that.”

If approved, the program could begin later this school year.