Moving from Training to Implementation
Teachers, not programs, teach students how to read. Most educators know this, and it is something that is repeatedly said in my LETRS training. The NH Department of Education providing LETRS training this year has been a tremendous opportunity. However, with the last cohort scheduled to start fall of 2023, two questions will need to be addressed moving forward. First, how will the state and/or districts support teachers with applying the knowledge gained from LETRS? When reviewing research on the impact of LETRS, it is clear that the impact on students is when literacy coaches support teachers in applying the knowledge to their teaching. Second, the state and districts must determine how to build sustainability and keep the momentum going. After the last cohort of LETRS training, will the state have an option available to teachers new to the state or who didn’t take the training already? The LETRS training was optional. How do the state and districts move ALL teachers forward using evidence-based structured literacy approaches while maintaining a local control model?
Literacy Legislation
2023 will likely continue to see states nationwide use their legislature to create change. In New Hampshire, there are currently two House Bills in committee looking to do the same thing. These bills are HB-377: relative to screening and intervention in public schools for dyslexia and related disorders: http://gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=295&inflect=2 and HB 437: relative to a reading assessment and intervention program: http://gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=720&inflect=2. Staying informed and engaged on this legislation will be important in the year ahead.
A Necessity for Education and Leadership around Change
Change can be difficult. But if there’s one thing in life that is a given, it is change. Supporting change within organizations takes careful leadership. Moving beyond literacy to understanding the basic tenets needed to make a positive organizational change will be an important topic for educators in leadership roles. Adam Grant’s book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know could be a good place to start. In the book, Grant says, "Strong leaders engage their critics and make themselves stronger. Weak leaders silence their critics and make themselves weaker." Leaders need to be open to having the hard conversation that change requires. They also need to create a culture that embraces another quote of Grant’s: "Changing your mind doesn’t make you a flip-flopper or a hypocrite. It means you were open to learning."
Addressing the Literacy Needs of Middle and High School Students
Although we know that early intervention is where we can make our biggest impact, kids inevitably slip through the cracks for various reasons (i.e., moving, etc.). In our current educational system, these kids often get support to make it through middle and high school content. Still, they do not necessarily receive the direct instruction they need to become proficient readers. Moving forward, middle and high schools will need to figure out structures to provide this instruction and ensure that all students graduating with the NH diploma are proficient readers. Julie Brown, the District Literacy Facilitator of the Windsor Central Supervisory Union in Woodstock, Vermont, has developed a model for adolescent structured literacy that both respects students and provides them with what they need. You can read more about their program here.
Reading as a Human Right: Addressing Inequities in the System
Organizations, from the United Nations to the International Literacy Association to the National Association of Elementary School Principals, have recognized literacy as a basic human right. Kareem Weaver, from Fulcrum Oakland, is quoted as saying, “Literacy, in the Information Age, is the essential gateway to society. Students must have consistent access to direct, explicit reading instruction that systematically develops foundational reading skills for the greatest number of learners. The Science of Reading must not be considered an ideological preference, pedagogical inclination, or inevitable swing of an instructional pendulum. Rather, the research consensus and supporting science must be applied as a matter of equity and civil rights.” Weaver is a leader in the movement for equity in literacy instruction and also said this at the 2021 Reading League Conference, “If your literacy program is not structured to get the most number of kids to the top, or to that level of society, or to proficiency, there is no equity. There can be no equity, no social justice, without literacy.” The pandemic exposed the inequities already present in our education system. When one looks at the statistic surrounding students who do not achieve proficiency in literacy in school, the numbers are daunting. All students must have access to high-quality instruction that works for the majority of students. Continuing to rely on systems that require tutoring at the family’s expense to find success for their children will continue to feed this inequity. We have seen parents begin to organize around this issue, and in Oakland, CA, they sued the state and won. You can read more about that case here. The Oakland case could easily set precedence for future legal cases surrounding the equity of literacy instruction.
The Pitfalls of Labels
Many of us experienced the arrival of CCSS and saw many programs that stamped their program with “CCSS aligned” and remarketed their product. There’s evidence of this starting to happen with the term “Science of Reading.” In a recent episode of Amplify’s Science of Reading: The Podcast, Donna Jetjmanek noted that she wouldn’t mind seeing the term “evidence” added to Science of Reading. She also noted the danger of people dismissing it by thinking of it as yet another educational pendulum swing. Moving forward, those in the field will need to work to ensure that the research and practices behind the Science of Reading are moved forward and not reduced to just a label. They will need to work to ensure proper use of the term and ensure that people do not oversimplify it by equating the Science of Reading with just phonics, for example. Educating others about the many facets of the Science of Reading will be critical.
An Emphasis on Higher Education Programs
I mentioned Donna Jetjmanek above, the creator of the Facebook page Science of Reading: What I Should Have Learned in College. This page started in the summer of 2019 and currently has over 200,000 followers. This speaks to the need that exists among educators to find the information they feel they did not receive in their university classes. Mount St Joseph University in Ohio may serve as a prototype of what future programs could look like. Their graduate and doctoral programs in Reading Science are in such high demand that there is a long waiting list. Additionally, only 19 University programs are accredited by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). They can be found here. Students looking for college-level courses in the Science of Reading do not currently have many options. Not only is there a need for this type of education, but there is also an increasingly large market for it.
2023 appears to be a year that will include more change, advocacy, and attention around the belief that all children have the right to become proficient readers. While the work will not happen overnight, educators continue to know better and do better. I look forward to continuing to develop my learning and staying open to change in my current understanding. There is no double that 2023 will be full of momentum to create the changes that give all students the right to become literate, participating members of society.