I just delivered a comprehensive, high-level writing lesson that only took five minutes to prepare. I’m teaching Writing Our World™, Redwood’s free writing and comprehension curriculum, to a 20-year-old who’s preparing for cosmetology school. As Redwood’s CEO, I’ve spent the past few years focused on nurturing a healthy, sustainable organization, and I’ve deeply missed direct instruction. So it was a joy to begin working with this young woman. But what delighted me most was how simple it was to prepare a lesson I felt really confident about. 

While developing Writing Our World™, our goal was to create an approach to writing instruction that was effective and engaging for students while also manageable for teachers. We’ve done it. Next, our goal is to get this free resource into the hands of as many instructors as possible to help address the need for systematic, evidence-based writing instruction across the nation. To do that, we’re partnering with kindred organizations that share our mission. 

One of Redwood’s instructors, Kendra Padilla, provides professional development for the Stern Center for Language and Learning, an education nonprofit in Vermont. Kendra rightly intuited that the Stern Center and Redwood Literacy would make a very promising team, and she introduced me to the work they’re doing. The Stern Center provides evaluations that identify strengths, challenges, and learning differences, giving caregivers and students the information they need to pursue the most beneficial type of instruction, and they have a team of instructors supporting students in reading, writing, math, organizational skills, social skills, and time management. They’re also a resource for teachers, providing a host of enriching professional development opportunities. 

Redwood Literacy and the Stern Center are cut from the same cloth: we’re both equipping teachers, parents, and professionals with evidence-based, easy-to-implement tools that build foundational skills. Since its birth in 2018, Redwood Literacy has given students the tools they need to be confident readers and writers, using evidence-based instruction to equip them with essential skills: reading, writing, comprehension, math, and socio-emotional awareness. My partner, Andre, and I began as educators in traditional school settings, and we witness firsthand that students with learning differences like dyslexia weren’t getting the instruction they needed within the structure of an ordinary school day. So we founded Redwood, and since those first days we’ve been devoted to providing instruction for students who wouldn’t otherwise receive it while partnering with sibling organizations who are similarly motivated to approach instruction in a new, better way. The Stern Center is that kind of sibling. 

Partnerships like this are one of my absolute favorite parts of the Redwood journey; collaboration is in our blood. Within this collaboration, the Stern Center will provide its community of teachers with the Writing Our World™ curriculum, and Redwood will guide instructors toward the Stern Center for professional development. We’re helping each other pursue a shared vision, equipping teachers with the tools they need to teach writing effectively as well as the professional growth that will guide their choices and enhance their instruction.

This collaboration means more students around the country will be getting the instruction they need to become strong writers and critical thinkers. (Let’s pause for a moment and consider a future in which people no longer have the capacity to assess information and think critically. That’s a grotesquely plausible future. Let’s do everything we can to prevent it.) The National Report Card data from 2024 shows that students at nearly every level are declining in math and reading – in fact, there have never been so many students performing at the lowest level as there are now. Graduating seniors are entering adulthood with less knowledge and fewer skills than their predecessors. Teaching these students to write and think critically will be a vital way to reverse this devastating trend. Education is getting defunded at the national level, which impacts state agencies and schools. This underinvestment strains educators, widens inequities, and makes it harder to provide the quality education we know every student deserves. Students and communities depend on schools and educators, perhaps now more than ever.

For teachers, the collaboration between Redwood and the Stern Center means they’ll get usable, structured curriculum and professional development, both of which address another crisis in education: burnout. Teachers are losing their steam. Their morale is sinking and they’re leaving education. Burnout doesn’t happen because there’s too much work; it happens because there’s too much of the wrong kind of work. The tasks at hand are draining rather than energizing. Writing Our World™ frees up teachers to spend energy on connecting with students and building relationships – the things that made them want to teach in the first place. 

We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership. The trends in education aren’t encouraging, but collaborations like these have the potential to change the narrative and positively impact both educators and students around the country. 

If there are students in your life who would benefit from explicit writing instruction, please check out Writing Our World™. And if you’re a teacher or school leader looking for professional development resources, be sure to reach out to the good folks at the Stern Center.