Quote of the Day – Plus – Relates to why so many Kentucky kids can’t read

“…a recent survey suggests that about 75% of teachers use curricula that teach early reading using a cueing approach. And, 65% of college professors teach this approach to new teachers. This method does not align with the scientific evidence of how children learn how to read.”

Emily Solari, Professor of Reading Education, University of Virginia, Online here

The Plus

At present, Kentucky’s legislators are considering an early literacy bill to address obviously problematic reading instruction in the commonwealth. As the state’s trends on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Grade 4 Reading assessments show, even after nearly three decades of KERA education reforms, not much more than one in three of Kentucky’s white students scores proficient or more on NAEP Grade 4 reading.

It’s much worse for Kentucky’s Black students. Not much more than one in 10 meets NAEP’s Grade 4 reading proficiency standard. In fact, after the statistical sampling errors in the proficiency rates are considered, the most recent proficiency rate for NAEP Grade 4 Reading for Kentucky’s black students isn’t statistically significantly different from the deplorable proficiency rate way back in 1992.

Even worse, these pre-pandemic NAEP results show an obvious performance decay in Grade 4 reading in Kentucky after 2015.

The reading problem isn’t exactly a secret. So, the Kentucky Legislature is currently considering Senate Bill 115 to improve the quality of reading instruction. The bill aims to address some other things Solari mentioned in addition to the comment above:

“To improve students’ reading ability, I believe schools, districts and states must push multiple levers simultaneously. This includes making sure instruction, curriculum and testing all align with the science of reading, and that teachers and administrators are provided adequate professional development about reading instruction.”

“Further, teacher education programs must commit to preparing teachers who understand how reading develops in children’s brains and how to implement teaching practices that are based on current evidence.”

SB-115 sets its sights on those goals.

During testimony to the Senate Education Committee about the bill on February 11, 2021, SB-115’s sponsor, Sen. Stephen West, said the bill is intended to create a program in Kentucky similar to what Mississippi established years ago. Those reforms led to the Magnolia State being the only state to post an improvement in the NAEP 2019 Grade 4 Reading assessment, a situation I blogged about previously such as here and here.

Basically, while public education in Kentucky was lollygagging, Mississippi was undertaking some real education reforms. As of the 2019 NAEP, Mississippi, traditionally considered to be a very bottom performing state for education, equaled and even surpassed the Bluegrass State for performance in Grade 4 reading.

So, Sen. West’s targeting the Mississippi reforms is worthy.

And, as the NAEP graph above shows, Kentucky needs to do something dramatic to improve reading performance in the commonwealth.

But, there is a hitch.

Mississippi doesn’t have to contend with the arcane and awkward School Based Decision Making (SBDM) system we have in Kentucky. Thanks to SBDM, teachers in each school – and no one else – have total final say about curriculum and related matters. No school board member, no parent, no one from the Kentucky Department of Education can override whatever the teachers on the SBDM decide will happen in their school.

This is where Professor Solari’s first quote really hits home. Across the nation, many teachers – 75% of them – use and fervently believe in approaches to teach reading that do not agree with the scientific evidence shows about how kids learn to read best.

Based on the NAEP results discussed above, it looks like plenty of elementary school teachers in Kentucky are among that 75% group.

Folks leading Mississippi’s reforms understood the problem of MANY teachers in the field doing and believing in the wrong things about reading instruction. Mississippi’s education leaders realized that real, statewide reading reform was simply not going to come from either district or school-level efforts. There just were too many educators in the field who either were totally unaware of the research or had been convinced by similarly misled professors during their college preparation that something else was better to teach reading.

So, Mississippi set up a strong system of reading trainers managed at the state level. Those trainers (SB-115 would call them coaches) were first checked out on the latest scientifically substantiated methods to teach reading and then were sent out to schools across that state to ensure that every teacher got on the right track. Schools would participate – period.

Mississippi didn’t have to ask permission from nearly 700 different elementary school SBDM councils to come in and do this incredibly important training.

Here in Kentucky, unless SB-115 is modified, local SBDMs can simply refuse to go along. The students in those schools will suffer accordingly.

I think without realizing it, Senator West actually alluded to an example of this potential problem during his testimony on SB-115 on February 11th (Occurs at around 40 minutes into the hearing video).

He noted that a current Kentucky reading improvement program, Read to Achieve, has placed very few Read to Achieve teachers in an area where they are most needed – Jefferson County. It seems that assignment of Read to Achieve teachers required local school cooperation.

Is it possible the new SB-115 reading coaches will be similarly avoided if their use is only at local option?

If Kentucky really wants to improve reading performance, it is going to have to come to grips with the fact that a system must be established where every SBDM participates. Absent such a system, Kentucky will very likely fade even further back in Mississippi’s education rearview mirror as ideologically driven teachers refuse to listen to, and learn about, what really works best to teach reading.

And, that would be very sad for our students and our state.