Hello, I’m Munro Richardson.
I’ve worked in the social sector for over 25 years. Much of my work has focused on education. I served as vice president of education at a large private foundation. I helped start up a college access program and an urban college prep charter school.
My day job is leading an early literacy initiative in Charlotte, North Carolina. A good part of this work involves making high-quality academic research accessible and actionable by people who run programs and teach kids to read. I am a data geek and a research nerd. I read academic papers like other people read fiction.
You can read more about me on LinkedIn.
What is Unconstrained Kids?
“The big prize is to discover a new fractal bud. You notice a crack in the surface of knowledge, pry it open, and there's a whole world inside.”
– Paul Graham, “How to Do Great Work”
In August 2023, I had an email exchange with a professor about some literacy research I was investigating. He used an unfamiliar term to describe a literacy skill: unconstrained. By this point, I had read countless academic papers on early literacy over the previous eight years. But this term was completely new to me. Unconstrained. I quickly learned that unconstrained is used by academics to describe literacy skills that are slow-growing. This is in contrast with literacy skills that develop relatively quickly and completely, which are referred to as constrained skills.
At first, I thought that was all there was. As I dug into the academic literature, however, I discovered a bigger world. The original academic paper on constrained and unconstrained reading skills was published by Scott Paris in 2005. Over the next 20 years, researchers built upon this framework, adding mathematics and executive function skills. With over 1,300 citations on Google Scholar, the 2005 paper is one of the most influential in education research published in the past two decades.
Academic researchers advocate for more focus on building kids’ unconstrained skills:
A secret hiding in plain sight?
Note: Unconstrained Kids unpacks, translates, and integrates academic research and data about skill type and the science of skill building to support the improvement of PK-12 reading, writing, and mathematics. Despite important differences, all reading, writing, and math skills can be boiled down to two types–
They’ve used the constrained skill framework to evaluate the impact of Pre-K programs, activities at home that impact classroom achievement, and the effectiveness of educational apps. They’ve called for assessments, curricula, and interventions that more explicitly incorporate unconstrained skills. These insights have not yet made their way into mainstream approaches or discussion about education. As I write on the Ides of March 2025, I cannot find mentions of constrained and unconstrained skills in major reports, presentations, or webinars about improving reading and math achievement.
The Learning Sciences Exchange at the New America Foundation aptly describes this challenge:
Breakthroughs and insights now emerge regularly from the learning sciences. Yet they are slow to make their way into schools, family support systems, and the social consciousness in positive ways. Too often, new findings on how children learn are left to wilt in inaccessible academic journals, contorted by splashy headlines, or too complicated to lead to real policy changes.
This Substack is part of my effort to bring a powerful 20-year-old insight from academia into the mainstream. Outside of my day job, I research and write about the “science of skill building.” I am particularly focused on the powerful role of slow-growing unconstrained skills. All too often, potent insights from academia that could help improve learning outcomes make their way too slowly into the hands of educators and practitioners — if at all. I don’t want this to happen here.
I am working to integrate and make accessible insights from academic research from multiple academic fields:
Constrained and unconstrained skills (Constrained Skill Theory)
Skill development (Dynamic Skill Theory)
Reading comprehension
Writing
Mathematical cognition
Science of learning and development
Out of school programs
I believe there is something marvelous waiting for us at the intersection of these academic fields of inquiry. I’m in the initial stages of writing a book on how to build and repair kids’ unconstrained skills. My focus (the “dependent variable”) is improvement of PreK-12 reading, writing, and math achievement. I intentionally use the term “kids” so that people and organizations outside of the schoolhouse (where “students” learn) know that I am talking to you, too.
Since fall 2025, I’ve delivered presentations and workshops on constrained and unconstrained skills. I will periodically share what I’m learning on this Substack. Everything here is a work-in-progress. The information is based upon a selection of the research I’ve curated so far. Despite my best efforts, some of this information may be incomplete or inaccurate. I will provide updates and corrections when needed. I provide citations where appropriate. I actively work to avoid plagiarism from source material. I conducted this research and wrote the information here on my own. I did not use AI to compose any drafts of this material. But it did help me create the selfie on this page. 😀
What can you do with this?
If you run, fund, or assist organizations that teach or serve kids, this Substack is for you. I hope Unconstrained Kids helps you to see your work to help children build reading, writing, and math skills differently. I hope it pushes all of us to take skills seriously. I hope it pushes the boundaries of what we consider to be reading or math skills (executive skills, anyone?), how they can be built, where they can be built, and who can help build them.
This Substack mainly focuses on introducing the ideas of skill type (constrained and unconstrained skills) and how skills are developed (the science of skill building). I am developing a separate resource to help people and organizations outside and inside schools to develop, improve, or repair unconstrained skills in particular. I believe what I have found so far – supported by rigorous research and high-quality data – to be important enough to share with you while I continue this larger project.
Let me know if there are studies, programs, or interventions you think I should know about. I’m open to comments, suggestions, or alternative viewpoints.
Thanks for your interest and your efforts to improve PK-12 reading, writing, and math achievement for all kids.
First published: March 15, 2025
Last updated: April 21, 2026
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