All In for His Students: How a Brooklyn Principal Led a Reading Revolution

Executive Summary

The leader of a richly diverse Brooklyn elementary school invested deeply in mastering a rigorous new reading program—leveraging tools and training from Relay GSE—to guide and empower his staff by:

• Taking ownership to ensure students in his vibrant, multicultural community have full access to, and success with, the challenging Wit & Wisdom curriculum;
• Immersing himself in the curriculum to help teachers fully leverage its design and components to build student mastery;
• Aligning the school schedule and his own time to support effective classroom implementation and continuous improvement; and
• Prioritizing curriculum-specific practices over general teacher moves in professional development, teacher coaching, and feedback.

This work helped the school rise from one of District 18’s lowest-performing to one of its highest. More importantly, it sparked a school-wide shift in how students engage with complex texts, express their thinking, and take on academic challenges with confidence.

Embracing the Role of Curriculum Leader

When PS 268 adopted a rigorous new reading program, Principal Rick Romain knew he had to do his homework. Literally.

That summer, he pored over hundreds of pages of the Wit & Wisdom curriculum, read the student texts, completed the tasks, and practiced planning lessons to help students succeed. By the time staff returned in August, Romain was ready to dive back in—this time alongside his teachers, guiding each grade-level team through the same internalization process.

His commitment to mastering the curriculum—and helping teachers do the same—quickly paid off. His deep understanding of the program earned the respect of a veteran team eager to try something different after years of hard work that hadn’t yielded better outcomes. With clarity and encouragement, he helped teachers take on the demands of a rigorous new curriculum.

Romain didn’t just support curriculum implementation — he led it, becoming the instructional coach his school didn’t have. Together with a committed team, he helped the school rise from one of District 18’s lowest-performing to one of its highest. They’ve seen a shift in how students engage with complex texts, express their thinking, and confidently take on academic challenges.

As more schools invest in high-quality curricula and instructional materials (HQIM), PS 268 shows how school leadership can unlock the full potential of these powerful resources.

Principal Romain leading a planning meeting.

Teaching with New Purpose

The transformation at PS 268 is easy to see in a second-grade classroom. Anchor charts cover sky-blue walls as veteran teachers Ms. Isaac and Ms. Somma tag-team a 90-minute Wit & Wisdom lesson.

It begins with group read-alouds to practice fluency—“not like a robot,” as Somma reminds them. Students launch into turn-and-talks and full-class discussions about which strategy—“buttons and boxes” or “story stones”—works best for finding the main idea in nonfiction texts.

Then the class shifts to new material. The teachers introduce a timeline graphic organizer and model how to use it—first by identifying visual details in a series of pictures, then by finding those same details in the text.

Pages flip and pencils turn as students fill out the organizer on their own. The teachers circulate, scanning work and prompting students to think more deeply.

Principal Romain is right there with them—moving desk to desk, asking about their thinking, and referencing his tablet to track how the lesson aligns with the plan they finalized that morning.

‍

Monitoring student work during independent practice.

A Personal Commitment to Excellence

For Romain, going all-in on a rigorous curriculum is simply the right thing to do. He grew up just blocks from PS 268 and understands firsthand the importance of a strong educational foundation. With most students coming from low-income, immigrant families, he feels a deep responsibility to ensure they have access to high-quality instruction. 

He says: “It's extremely important that young men and young women of color leave my community able to not just be able to read and do math in a basic sense, but at a high level and to be college and career ready” he says. The school’s namesake, Emma Lazarus, penned the lines at the Statue of LIberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

He knew Wit & Wisdom would be a challenge, especially for students below grade level or still learning English. But he saw the potential: a curriculum that thoughtfully builds knowledge and comprehension through reading strategies, content, student tasks, and role of teacher as facilitator.

“In first grade, they're already creating topic sentences and supporting them with evidence,” he explains. “By third, fourth, and fifth grade, teachers are telling me the work is easy—because the foundation is there.”

Restructuring Time, Rethinking Roles

A curriculum, no matter how well designed, doesn’t teach itself. Teachers had to see how the parts of each lesson built toward mastery—and plan purposefully to bring those lessons to life.

They needed time to collaborate, internalize lessons, practice delivery, and reflect on student learning. Romain knew it was up to him to ensure they got that support consistently.

“I have a very small school. I don't have any [instructional] coaches,” he says. “And so I remember the summer before we started, I was like, ‘wait a second, who's going to teach these teachers how to do this?’ And so I was like, ‘I guess it’s me.’”

One of his simplest, most powerful practices: reading the same books his students are reading. “It’s impossible to really support the teachers, and to have conversations with the kids, if you haven’t read the books,” he says. “I honestly enjoy the Wit & Wisdom books, and I want to make sure the kids are enjoying them too.”

Romain restructured the school day to give teachers uninterrupted time for Wit & Wisdom’s 90-minute lessons. 

Just as critically, he restructured his own time—blocking off most of his day for planning meetings, data reviews, and classroom observations (For a closer look at how planning meetings support curriculum implementation at PS 268, see  “Bringing Curriculum to Life to Maximize Impact..”) His secretary helped protect that time, ensuring he was only interrupted when absolutely necessary.

He celebrates his team as the heart of PS 268’s success. “They were willing to put in the work, and because of that we could see the difference,” he says. “They’ve given me a chance, they’ve worked with me—and more importantly, they’ve given themselves a chance. They’ve gone all in.”

Observing a lesson with the lesson plan and teacher annotations.

Leveraging Tools & Training

A graduate of Relay GSE’s National Principals’ Academy Fellowship, Romain says the leadership practices he learned there played a key role in bringing Wit & Wisdom to life.

In the first year, he leaned heavily on Relay protocols for PD and feedback. “One of the things I learned from Relay was how to do practice clinics,” he says. “Every Monday, we would have a PD dedicated to a certain instructional focus I was noticing around Wit & Wisdom.”

Frequent coaching from District 18 Superintendent Celeste Terry—whom Romain affectionately calls “Supt,” and a graduate of multiple Relay leadership programs—helped reinforce and sharpen his techniques.

PS 268’s early success laid the groundwork for a districtwide shift. When NYC required districts to adopt one of three new reading programs, Terry chose to scale Wit & Wisdom across all District 18 elementary and middle schools.

Through a new partnership, Relay now provides training and coaching to all District 18 principals and ELA teachers. This includes guidance and tools to internalize how the curriculum’s strategies and student tasks build toward mastery—and how to scaffold so all students can access the content.

The goal: build curriculum-aligned expertise from the principal’s office to every classroom.

Focused on Sustained Growth

Even with early success, Romain sees room to grow. With expanded support from Relay, PS 268 is doubling down on strong implementation.

Alongside their Relay coach, Lisa Robotham, Romain and his teachers are using new internalization and planning tools to sharpen delivery and deepen impact. A new Relay observation protocol tailored to Wit & Wisdom helps Romain target key elements of implementation in classrooms.

It’s demanding work—but the student growth makes it worthwhile.

“I think the staff and faculty are very special,” Romain says. “When I think about how far they’ve come and how much they’ve grown over the past few years, I get very—not emotional—but I smile.”