September 18, 2025 | By Kerry Friedman
At the LEARN Network, we know that scaling evidence-based educational products is never a straight line. Each team takes a unique path, testing new strategies, learning from challenges, and celebrating milestones along the way.
This year, four of our product teams — Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI ), Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies with Reading Differentiation (PALS-RD), Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI), and Classwide Super Solvers + Math PALS (CSS+PALS) — have made exciting progress toward their scaling goals.
TRI: Expanding Reach Through Digital Innovation and Flexibility
Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI), an evidence-based reading program for kindergarten through grade 3 students, includes both professional development for teachers and an embedded student intervention.
The TRI team began with a clear scaling goal: to create a digital platform for the program that would lighten lesson preparation and make the intervention more accessible. Initially, they envisioned tutors as primary users. But once the platform launched, they discovered something surprising: reading interventionists, paraprofessionals, and even library staff were embracing TRI to support students.
This unexpected demand prompted an important pivot: the development of fully pre-programmed lessons. These lessons have made TRI more accessible to new implementers while maintaining flexibility through built-in checkpoints for pacing. The balance between structure and adaptability has proven critical for TRI’s growth.
Looking ahead, the team is creating a comprehensive TRI manual and rethinking professional learning. Their new hybrid model will blend asynchronous video training with synchronous coaching opportunities, keeping training cost-effective while preserving the coaching support that makes TRI effective.
Their advice for others on the scaling journey is both practical and encouraging:
Partnerships, persistence, and flexibility are the keys to building lasting impact.
Interested in TRI? Access the website and listen to our conversation with the developers on how TRI is scaling the science of reading.
PALS-RD: Enhancing Literacy Recovery Through Evidence and Supports
Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies with Reading Differentiation (PALS-RD) is an evidence-based literacy program designed to accelerate recovery in reading in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was created as an adaptation of the long-standing PALS model, which pairs students in structured, peer-based activities to strengthen fluency and comprehension.
When the PALS team joined the LEARN Network, their focus was on strengthening PALS-RD with two major enhancements: a validated progress monitoring tool and a morphology-focused instructional component. Their scaling goals included preparing these enhancements for broad dissemination, expanding reach through scalable training and supports, and raising awareness of PALS-RD’s effectiveness in accelerating literacy recovery.
Since then, the team has broadened its vision. They’ve built a robust infrastructure for sustainability, including a comprehensive implementation manual, a pitch deck for district leaders, and a scaling plan. A recent study evaluating PALS-RD provided critical data to inform these efforts. Looking ahead, the team is preparing for a national rollout, aiming to expand into 15 more districts in 2026, followed by broader adoption. These scaling efforts are supported by new products that will help schools and districts use the program in different contexts, including self-paced learning modules, coaching sessions, and fidelity tools.
Their advice to others?
Success comes from designing with users in mind, integrating into existing workflows, and planning for sustainability from day one.
Want more information on PALS-RD? Access the links below:
- Scaling Literacy Recovery with PALS-RD
- The Fuchs Research Group at Vanderbilt University
- Fuchs Tutoring: Professional Learning at the American Institutes for Research
- Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development: Peer Assisted Learning Strategies
STARI: Building Awareness and Community to Support Adolescent Readers
The Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI) is a literature-focused intervention for students in grades 6 and up who read two or more years below grade level. Using research-based practices and highly engaging texts, STARI addresses gaps in fluency, decoding, reading stamina, and comprehension, aiming to move struggling students to higher levels of proficiency.
For the STARI team, scaling began with a big vision: that any school in the country searching for an adolescent reading intervention should consider STARI. Early on, they focused on identifying barriers to adoption by surveying both users and non-users. These insights led to adaptations in both the program content and the process for adopting and using STARI materials.
To raise awareness, the team has invested heavily in outreach, presenting at conferences, hosting webinars, and strengthening their social media presence. They also launched STARI Community Forums, monthly open sessions where educators can ask questions and share experiences. This year they introduced the SERP Stories podcast—dedicating the first season to STARI—and expanded live virtual professional learning offerings in response to strong demand.
Behind the scenes, the team is tracking sales data and website traffic while meeting biweekly to refine marketing and sales strategies across SERP products.
Their guiding philosophy?
For STARI, that means lesson plans that are straightforward and accessible for middle school teachers with varied backgrounds in reading instruction.
Learn more about STARI on the project website, and learn more about STARI’s journey to scale in our Story of Scaling article and podcast episode with the STARI team.
Want to keep up-to-date with STARI news and resources? Access SERP’s news, podcast, and video library, and follow SERP Institute on social media on Facebook, LinkedIn, BlueSky, and Instagram
CSS+PALS: Combining Strategies to Strengthen Math Learning
The Classwide Super Solvers + Math PALS (CSS+PALS) team set out to help students master challenging math content, especially fractions, by combining two proven strategies: Classwide Fraction Intervention (CFI) and Math PALS. Their initial goals were to provide guidance on combining these strategies and to begin drafting a plan for scaling.
Over the past year, they’ve taken an important step forward by analyzing Year 2 study data. This included both implementation insights and a quasi-experimental study examining the impact of CFI and Math PALS on student test scores. The findings are now helping to finalize their guidance and shape their initial scaling plan.
The team is creating additional resources to share their knowledge with the field and developing a website to make all of their resources more accessible.
Their advice for fellow researchers?
The CSS+PALS team has learned that scaling requires not just strong research, but also a strategy for reach and sustainability.
Check back for links to resources as they are finalized!
Looking Ahead
Across these four teams, we see a shared commitment to using research, innovation, and collaboration to make evidence-based products accessible to more students and educators. Whether it’s preparing for a national rollout, finalizing scaling guidance, building awareness through community, or reimagining professional learning, each step forward strengthens the Network’s collective learning and impact.