Tracey Biscontini, founder and CEO of Northeast Editing, Inc., has launched a personal pledge focused on improving clarity, responsibility, and care in educational content. The pledge reflects her more than 30 years of experience in educational publishing and her belief that small, consistent choices can have a real impact on how students learn. This initiative comes at a time when educational clarity faces significant challenges, with only about 33 percent of eighth-grade students in the United States reading at or above a proficient level according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The importance of this personal pledge extends beyond individual practice to address systemic issues in educational publishing. Studies from literacy organizations show that students are significantly more likely to disengage when instructional text is dense or poorly structured. Teachers report spending increasing classroom time re-explaining written instructions rather than teaching new material. Simultaneously, digital-first publishing has shortened production timelines, increasing the risk of unclear or rushed content reaching students. These factors combine to create an environment where clarity in educational materials has become both more difficult to achieve and more critical for student success.
Biscontini's pledge is built around seven specific commitments expressed as daily behaviors. She commits to writing and editing every piece of educational content with the student as the primary audience. She commits to reading all instructional content aloud before it is finalized. She commits to removing language that sounds impressive but does not improve understanding. She commits to questioning unclear instructions rather than passing them through. She commits to prioritizing accuracy over speed when trade-offs arise. She commits to mentoring writers on clarity, not just style. She commits to treating educational content as a responsibility, not just a deliverable.
"As writers and editors, sometimes we're the last eyes on a piece before a child sees it," Biscontini has said. "That's not just editing. That's responsibility." This perspective shifts the focus from mere content production to educational stewardship, recognizing that unclear materials can create unnecessary barriers to learning. The pledge emphasizes that good educational writing should be invisible, serving as a clear conduit for ideas rather than drawing attention to itself.
To support implementation, Biscontini provides a practical toolkit with ten actions anyone can take to improve educational writing. These include reading writing aloud and revising anything that feels awkward or confusing, asking someone unfamiliar with the topic to read instructions and explain them back, shortening sentences that run longer than two lines on a page, replacing abstract terms with concrete examples, and cutting unnecessary adjectives. Additional recommendations include checking that each question asks only one thing, matching vocabulary level to the intended learner rather than the subject expert, using headings that explain rather than tease, pausing before submitting to consider the audience, and maintaining a personal list of common mistakes for review before final drafts.
The initiative also includes a 30-day personal progress tracker that guides users through gradual implementation. Days 1-7 focus on reading all written instructions aloud and noting recurring issues. Days 8-14 involve revising one existing piece of content using clarity-first edits. Days 15-21 require applying the toolkit steps to all new writing. Days 22-30 center on reflection about what improved comprehension and what still caused confusion. This structured approach acknowledges that improving writing clarity requires consistent practice rather than one-time changes.
Biscontini's approach recognizes that educational content creators operate within complex systems but emphasizes that individual responsibility remains crucial. "Big ideas don't always start loud," she has noted. "Sometimes they look like doing the same thing carefully every day." This perspective suggests that systemic improvement in educational materials may begin with individual practitioners making deliberate choices about how they approach their work. The pledge represents a call for renewed attention to the fundamental relationship between clear writing and effective learning, particularly as educational publishing continues to evolve in digital environments. More information about educational assessment data can be found at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard.
