NC Gov. Cooper signs into law special summer school program and teaching of phonics

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Friday he’s signing into law bills that will require school districts to use a phonics-based approach for teaching reading and to create a summer program to address COVID-19 learning loss.

The “Summer Learning Choice for NC Families” law requires school districts to offer students in all grade levels at least 150 hours or 30 days of summer in-person instruction, along with enrichment activities such as sports, music and arts. The legislation was unanimously approved by the General Assembly as a way to try to help at-risk students affected by the pandemic.

“This pandemic has challenged students and teachers like never before,” Cooper said in a statement Friday. “Providing a summer opportunity for academic growth plus mental and physical health will help schools begin to address those challenges.”

The “Excellent Public Schools Act of 2021” makes changes to the troubled Read to Achieve program, including requiring teachers to be trained on using the “science of reading.” The law, which was largely supported by state lawmakers from both parties, also creates two new bonuses to get teachers to work in summer reading camps.

Cooper also announced he had signed House Bill 53, which makes changes to help students whose parents are in the military.

Summer program to address pandemic loss

School districts will need to ramp up planning for the new summer camps, which are a one-year expansion of the existing camps that target only elementary school students. The new program is geared toward at-risk students, but attendance is voluntary and is open to any student, space permitting.

Supporters of the new program say it’s needed because the state’s public school students have had only limited in-person instruction over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 summer program doesn’t come with any new state funding. Instead, districts can use federal coronavirus relief funds to run the program.

Charter schools aren’t required to set up a summer program. Instead, charter students, private school students and home-school students can request a spot in a program run by the school district.

Due to their unique schedules, year-round schools have until Oct. 1 to offer the program.

“With this new summer school program, North Carolina families will now have an option to recover from pandemic learning loss,” House Speaker Tim Moore, a primary sponsor of the bill, tweeted Friday. “I’m grateful for the wide bipartisan support and input from parents and educators we received for House Bill 82.”

NC to use science of reading

The Excellent Public Schools Act comes in response to how the state’s third-grade reading scores have gotten worse instead of improving since the start of the Read To Achieve program.

The law makes multiple changes to try to improve the state’s literacy efforts, including:

▪ Requires the state’s PreK-5 teachers to receive training on the “science of reading,” a method of literacy instruction that stresses phonics.

▪ Creation of a minimum $1,200 signing bonus to encourage teachers who have proven to be effective, based on test scores, to work at summer reading camps.

▪ Creation of a minimum $150 per student performance bonus for third-grade 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.

▪ DPI will develop a Digital Children’s Reading Initiative so parents can find resources online to help their children read.

Supporters say that using the science of reading will better prepare young readers. But critics question having the state pick a side in the “reading wars” and how the law steers the training contract to a particular company.

“Learning to read early in life is critical for our children and this legislation will help educators improve the way they teach reading,” Cooper said. “But ultimate success will hinge on attracting and keeping the best teachers with significantly better pay and more help in the classroom with tutoring and instructional coaching. “