About Us

Jan Burkins and Kari Yates are experienced authors, speakers, and consultants. They have deep roots in early childhood education and share a passion for supporting students (and their teachers) in the earliest stages of reading and writing development by providing professional learning experiences and teacher tools.  They are the co-authors of Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom, (Stenhouse, 2021) as well as Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom, their most current text, writting in collaboration with Katie Egan Cunningham. Both of these books encourage to educators to reconsider some current literacy practices in order to make space for more science-aligned. 

Jan has worked as a classroom teacher, an interventionist, a district literacy coordinator, a regional language arts consultant, a part-time assistant professor, and an independent literacy consultant. Jan is the author or co-author of five books on literacy, including Preventing Misguided Reading (Stenhouse, 2017) and Who’s Doing the Work? How to Say Less so Readers Can Do More (Stenhouse, 2016). Jan’s dissertation, A Meta-analysis of Phonemic Awareness Research (1999, University of Kansas) was a finalist for the International Reading Association’s Dissertation of the Year Award. Jan is passionate about helping educators navigate and understand the complex demands of teaching today while also honoring their inner teacher.

Kari has experience as a classroom teacher, special education teacher, Reading Recovery teacher, elementary principal and district literacy coordinator. Kari is the co-author of To Know and Nurture a Reader; Conferring with Confidence and Joy (Stenhouse, 2018) and the author of Simple Starts: Making the Move to a Reader-Centered Classroom (Heinemann, 2015) and Eat Your Broccoli (Richard C. Owens Publishing, 2005).  Her passion is helping busy literacy educators thrive, by building more effective and joyful practices one next step at a time.