McCarthy Consulting & Professional Services

Listening for What Matters in Literacy Systems

School districts rarely struggle because educators are uninformed or uncommitted. More often, they struggle because well-intentioned practices—curriculum, interventions, assessments, staffing—have accumulated over time without a shared throughline.

My work begins by listening.

I partner with school and district leaders to understand how literacy instruction is actually experienced across classrooms, roles, and grade levels. Through careful inquiry with teachers, interventionists, specialists, administrators, and central office staff, I help districts identify the patterns, tensions, and assumptions that shape their literacy systems—often in ways that are hard to see from the inside.

This is not program evaluation in search of compliance, nor is it consulting that arrives with predetermined solutions. It is qualitative, systems-oriented work designed to surface insight, restore coherence, and support thoughtful decision-making.

How I Work

My approach draws on qualitative research methods adapted for district contexts:

• Structured listening with stakeholders across roles and buildings

• Analysis of how instructional, curricular, and assessment practices intersect

• Attention to transitions—between grades, buildings, and tiers of support

• A focus on sensemaking rather than quick fixes

The aim is to help leaders see where pressure is building in the system, where efforts are misaligned, and where small, strategic changes can have outsized impact.

Districts often describe this work as creating relief: fewer competing explanations, clearer priorities, and a shared language for addressing persistent challenges.

Primary Offering: Literacy Systems Snapshot

The core service I offer is a Literacy Systems Snapshot—a short-term, bounded inquiry that provides district leaders with an external, grounded view of how their literacy services are functioning as a system.

Rather than recommending new initiatives, the snapshot clarifies:

• what is working as intended,

• what is compensating for deeper issues,

• and what decisions are most likely to improve sustainability and outcomes.

This work is especially useful for districts experiencing:

• high or growing MTSS intervention caseloads,

• uneven curriculum implementation,

• assessment overload without instructional clarity,

• or persistent concerns at key transition points (e.g., Grade 3, Grade 5, middle school entry).

Why This Approach

I come to this work as a literacy scholar, teacher educator, and academic administrator. I am accustomed to working in complex institutions where improvement depends not on urgency or certainty, but on trust, coherence, and disciplined attention to practice.

Listening is not a preliminary step. It is the method.

Selected public artifacts and short field essays are available on this site and reflect the kind of inquiry-based work described above.

Literacy Systems Snapshot

Listening across roles. Clarity for leadership.

Mark D. McCarthy

Mark D. McCarthy, Ph.D., is a literacy educator and researcher. An Associate Professor and Department Chair at Springfield College, he brings over fifteen years of experience supporting districts in strengthening literacy systems, improving data-driven practice, and fostering meaningful, sustainable instructional change.

2018 - Ph.D. Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education (Michigan State University) -- specialization in Language & Literacy Education

2022 - Graduate Certificate in Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies (University of Georgia)

12+

15

Years of experience

Research Publications