🔗 linkedin.com/in/lori-mcnally-00a911252

Research Focus: Early Literacy • Educational Equity • Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

“Closing the Early Literacy Opportunity Gap in Massachusetts through Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Instructional Practices”

What challenge did your research address?

My research set out to address persistent, significant disparities in early literacy outcomes for historically marginalized students in Massachusetts. I frame this as an opportunity gap rather than an achievement gap, meaning the problem lies in unequal access to resources and instructional opportunities, not in students themselves.

What inspired you to pursue this research?

With a family history shaped by limited educational access and racial and economic discrimination, I’ve witnessed firsthand how educational inequity limits opportunity.

What did your research find, and what is its impact?

Interviews in the first cycle of my research identified three key barriers: a lack of tools to evaluate curriculum for cultural responsiveness, tension between teacher autonomy and publisher-created materials, and limited explicit discussion of race and systemic inequity. In response, I developed and field-tested two tools, a Teacher Self-Reflection Guide and a Critical Literacy Funds of Knowledge Guide, through a five-week professional learning experience. The tools helped educators notice and question deficit-based language and assumptions and build confidence around culturally and linguistically sustaining practice, though participants also felt isolated without a collaborative cohort, reinforcing the need to embed these tools in a cohort-based, school-embedded model to support lasting change in literacy instruction across Massachusetts.

“This is an opportunity gap rather than an achievement gap, meaning the problem lies in unequal access to resources and instructional opportunities, not in students themselves.”

Lori McNally