1. Introduction – 2. Not achieved. Introduction -- New evidence of the bimodal pattern of achievement -- Reading progress and the PIRLS 2006, 2011 and 2016 -- Reports of the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit -- Annual National Assessments -- Reading Catch-Up Programme – Conclusion. 3: Why policy fails, and the pivot to instruction. Introduction -- Policy interventions -- Beyond input-output and school effectiveness models – Instruction -- Systems of instruction -- Instruction in systems – Conclusion. 4. Practices of literacy teaching. Introduction -- Two instructional practices in literacy teaching -- Choral reading aloud as the instructional core -- Systematic reading instruction – Conclusion. 5. Learning from research. Introduction – READ – Molteno -- CLE literacy intervention -- Reading is FUNdamental -- Family Literacy Project -- Additive Bilingual Education Project -- Systematic Method for Reading Success (SMRS) -- Conclusion. 6, Change at the instructional core. Introduction -- What the research literature tells us about system-wide reform -- The instructional turn -- The education triple cocktail – Conclusion. 7. The Reading Catch-Up Programme: a case study of change at the instructional core. Introduction -- The Intersen Catch-Up Programme -- Teachers’ talk – Evaluation – Conclusion. 8. Compelling evidence. Introduction -- What the international literature tells us – GPLMS -- The Pinetown Study -- The Early Grade Reading Study -- Conclusion: What we know. 9. Conclusion. Change is not an event, it is a journey -- R&D and the triple cocktail components – Policy -- Leadership