Literacy

News about literacy in U.S. schools.

Officials said about 40% of kindergarten through second grade students were at or above grade level by May, up from 9% in September. They declined to share school-level data or any information about how students fared on early math assessments
Schools must replace methods of literacy instruction that use three-cueing within the next year.
Just 1,500 students were screened for risk of dyslexia last school year.
Students returned to the city’s nearly 1,600 schools on a sweltering Thursday as a possible bus strike loomed.
Education department officials say they have a rigorous training plan and that all teachers using new reading curriculums will receive introductory training by the first day of school.
Making the program available to more children was a priority for Gov. Eric Holcomb this year.
The Indianapolis tutoring program in reading will operate at nine schools and a Boys & Girls Club.
Some parents who attended the meeting shared stories of their children’s struggles with literacy.
Good reading requires more than phonics. It also requires comprehension skills, including background knowledge — an issue that has gotten relatively little attention.
High school superintendents are urging schools in their districts to adopt a standardized English language arts curriculum.
Ball State’s Teachers College had previously received a failing grade in a national report on the science of reading.
New Jersey students took the state’s standardized test last spring. The scores pointed to the severity of the pandemic on student learning and the efforts Newark leaders must take to recover from it.
The district’s preliminary scores on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness show improvement after COVID-era dips.
The tutoring program will exclusively work with K-8 students at eight schools next year.
The first Indiana school districts head back to school this week amid a spate of new laws and policies that will affect what happens in the classroom.
Mayor Ras Baraka announced his 10-point Youth Literacy Action Plan, which calls on the city’s schools, parents, community partners, and programs to get young children reading and writing amid low state test scores last spring.
Mississippi’s improvements seem to be legitimate, but some of them can’t be explained as easily as some are suggesting.
District officials are eager to spend the money to hire more academic interventionists, but a task force will also seek community input
The 54-page document provides guidance for schools on how to teach reading and how educators and school officials can support efforts to transition schools to evidence-based instruction.
A new report shows wide disparities in how well Indiana’s teacher prep programs have adopted the science of reading.
It’s just more evidence that the pandemic and school closures exacted a steep toll on student learning.
The University of Colorado Denver’s teacher prep program is one of seven ordered to make changes to reading coursework in recent years.
The National Council on Teacher Quality report analyzed 10 college and university programs in New Jersey, although another 13 programs in the state did not participate. Some experts have previously questioned the organization’s methodology.
The National Council on Teacher Quality’s review of nearly 700 teacher prep programs did find good news in several states that have revamped their approach to literacy instruction.
The University of Northern Colorado was one of several teacher prep programs in the state to earn top grades from the National Council on Teacher Quality.
Nearly half of NYC’s school districts are mandating their elementary schools use a single reading program come September.
Indiana has joined several other states in passing laws that require schools to use curriculum materials that stress phonics when teaching students to read. The state is putting over $100 million behind the effort.
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