Bill requiring NC schools to use phonics to teach reading backed by Senate committee
Updated March 30 with passage in NC Senate Education Committee.
North Carolina Senate Republican leaders want schools to emphasize the use of phonics to help deal with how many young children are having challenges learning to read.
The Excellent Public Schools Act of 2021, which was filed on Monday, requires Pre-K and elementary school teachers to be trained in the “science of reading,” a method of reading instruction that stresses phonics. The legislation comes as reading scores have dropped in the state despite the efforts of the Read To Achieve program to improve early childhood literacy.
“Training teachers in the science of reading is a crucial strategy for literacy improvement,” Senate leader Phil Berger, one of the bill’s primary sponsors, said at a news conference Monday.
Senate Bill 387 was approved Tuesday by the Senate Education Committee. It’s been referred to the Senate Rules Committee and could be approved by the full Senate this week.
The bill could win speedy passage as it drew praise Tuesday from Senate Democrats as well as House Speaker Tim Moore.
“It’s also about trying to make sure that these children get caught up when it comes to reading,” Moore said at Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee meeting. “ The studies show repeatedly that children who can’t read by the third-grade really have a difficult time in their lives later on.”
Scores not improving in Read To Achieve
The Read To Achieve program was launched in 2012 by Berger as his signature education program to get more children proficient in reading by the end of third grade.
Due to COVID-19, no state end-of-grade reading tests were given last school year. But state reading scores in the 2018-19 school year were lower than they were in the 2013-14 school year.
In 2019, Berger introduced legislation passed by the General Assembly that he said would improve Read To Achieve. But Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill and called Read To Achieve “ineffective” and “costly.”
Berger said he’s hopeful that the new legislation will be approved this time. The new bill incorporates elements of the 2019 bill, plus some new features.
“Read to Achieve is working well in some places and needs adjustment in others,” Berger said. “We want the best policies that put North Carolina students in a position to succeed. That’s our first and our only goal.
“If some things need fixing, let’s fix them, and if some things are working well, let’s replicate them.”
Science of reading
Legislators and State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, a Republican, stressed how the law promotes the science of reading. This puts North Carolina squarely in the midst of a national debate over how to teach reading.
Many schools across the country use an approach called “balanced literacy,” which includes some phonics.
Phonics help teach students to read by associating sounds with letters. But balanced literacy also includes strategies such as having young students guess words they don’t know based on the context, such as by looking at pictures or the first letter in the word.
Truitt said “balanced literacy” is used by 75% of the nation’s teachers and has caused a crisis of illiteracy, disproportionately impacting low-income students. She said schools need to go back to teaching using phonics, which she said has been proven by research to work and is based on how the brain works.
“We have to get back to a phonics-based approach of early literacy instruction,” Truitt said. “This transition is going to take time.
“That is why this legislation is so critical because it is committed to giving teachers what they need in order to make this transition.”
Under the legislation:
▪ Schools would use federal coronavirus relief dollars to train PreK-5 teachers on the science of reading.
▪ The State Board of Education will develop literacy instruction standards based on the science of reading.
▪ School districts and charter schools will review how they teach literacy and modify instruction to meet the new standards.
▪ North Carolina colleges and universities that teach aspiring PreK-5 teachers will be required to teach them about the science of reading.
“We’ve been stuck for a number of years with fully 40-plus % of our third grades not reading at grade level,” Berger told the Education Committee on Tuesday. “We’ve got to do something different in order to move the needle and I’m convinced that this is something different.
“But quite frankly, if after three or four years we’re not getting better results, we need to go back and look again and see what needs to be done to improve the program.”
Bonuses for teachers
Other parts of the bill include:
▪ Creation of a signing bonus to encourage teachers who have proven to be effective, based on test scores, to work at summer reading camps.
▪ Creation of a performance bonus for third-grader teachers for each student they work with at the reading camps who goes on to pass the reading exam.
▪ K-3 teachers will develop individual reading plans for students who are not reading at grade level.
▪ The state Department of Public Instruction will develop a Digital Children’s Reading Initiative so parents can find resources online to help their children read.
Concerns about student learning
The new legislation comes amid concerns about how the switch to mostly remote instruction over the past year during the coronavirus pandemic has affected the state’s students.
Test results released this month show that the majority of high school students did not pass state end-of-course exams given in the fall. In addition, school districts reported that 23% of their students are at risk of academic failure and not being promoted at the end of the school year.
The test data also showed that the majority of third-grade students who took the beginning-of-grade reading exam scored at the lowest level and three quarters aren’t proficient in reading.
The Senate Education Committee will vote Wednesday on legislation passed by the House requiring school districts to create a summer school program to help students who’ve fallen behind during COVID-19.
“So many of our students have been struggling with virtual school,” Berger said. “They are falling behind and we need to do something to help them.”
