What if schools stopped paying for books, licenses, and PD days, and started paying for kids learning to read?
Back on the show for round two, Really Great Reading CEO Karl Rectanus joins Mike Palmer live from EdTech Week 2026 at Teachers College's Digital Futures Institute. Karl started out as a teacher and charter school CFO, taught overseas, and then founded LearnPlatform, whose rapid-cycle evaluation work helped shape the four levels of evidence in the Every Student Succeeds Act. After Instructure acquired LearnPlatform, Karl led K-12 and platform strategy there before taking the helm at Really Great Reading, a 20-year-old OG of the science of reading.
Karl describes what he calls the education outcomes movement. For decades, education policy has swung between accountability, standards, local control, and evidence. Now that the technology has caught up, he argues, we can go straight to the question underneath all of them: are students learning? Outcomes-based contracts started in tutoring, and Karl explains why Really Great Reading is bringing them to curriculum, tying payment to results across print, digital, professional learning, and coaching.
That thinking drives RGR Nova, the literacy outcomes system Really Great Reading launched this fall with its district and state partners. Mike and Karl also get into what the Mississippi Marathon really shows (math and science scores rose too, because kids could read), why the science of reading is about much more than phonics, and Karl's three ingredients for teaching every child to read: learning science-aligned curriculum, a caring human, and a feedback loop.
On AI, Karl argues that focusing on outcomes settles most of the arguments. He covers the partners behind the work, including MetaMetrics and Learnosity, why learning is still relationship-driven, and why literacy is the best defense against cognitive surrender. In his words: when literacy improves, everything else gets better.
This is one of four conversations recorded at EdTech Week 2026. Thanks to StartEd and Alyssa Miller for making it happen.
Guest: Karl Rectanus, CEO, Really Great Reading
Catch Karl's first appearance: Talking Outcomes-Based Literacy with Really Great Reading CEO Karl Rectanus
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