ROSEVILLE, Minn. — Reading proficiency scores across the state of Minnesota dipped below 50% last year, marking a nearly 10% drop since before the pandemic. But the new data — provided by the Minnesota Department of Education — comes as the state begins a major investment in re-training teachers on the "science of reading."
The bipartisan READ Act, passed earlier this year, will dedicate $70 million in state funds to help fund literacy assessments for K-3 students, re-train teachers and reimburse schools for new reading curriculum that helps student de-code words through phonics and improve comprehension.
"The lack of consistent exposure to phonics is what we're seeing in kids who struggle mastering reading," said Katie Pekel, Executive Director of Educational Leadership at the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development. "We actually know that kids need about 20 minutes of phonics instruction each day, until they have mastered that."
Roseville Area Schools has already invested in new curriculum for all elementary schools, emphasizing the "Science of Reading" approach.
"This is an example from our kindergarten curriculum," said Dr. Mary Bussman, Equity Advancement Principal for Roseville Area Schools. "These are books that (students) can read 95% of the words all by themselves."
The principals in the new materials aren't new themselves, but Bussman says the emphasis on phonics and comprehension gave way to other teaching strategies over the years, which have been shown to be ineffective.
Dr. Mary Bussman: "We thought if we just flooded them with enough beautiful books, they will want to read and so the more practice they have, they'll just get better at reading. But that's kind of like sending a kid out on the baseball field with a baseball, thinking that they're going to get better at hitting.
We used some principals of phonics but also told young readers to look for context clues, like pictures. We've taught our kids how to kind of systematically guess, without actually being able to sound out all of those letters."
Kent Erdahl: "Now you're essentially re-teaching teachers how to teach reading. How much of an undertaking is that going to be for schools across this state?"
Bussman: "It's a big undertaking, but there's a lot of emotion to it as well, because we have to recognize if we do things differently in the future, we have to recognize that maybe we weren't doing the best on behalf of the kids we've been teaching in the last five, 10, 25 years."
Roseville was among the first districts to begin re-training teachers on the "Science of Reading" principals a year-and-a-half ago, and Bussman says they now have 230 K-4 teachers ready to begin implementing the new approach.
"Some of our teachers who piloted, using this new curriculum are already seeing huge gains in their kindergarten and first grade classrooms," Bussman said.
Pekel says Roseville is among the bright spots state leaders are watching, while they work to get many more districts on board in the year to come.
Erdahl: "How long do you think it will be before we start seeing this reflected in reading scores."
Pekel: "I think we're looking at at least 3, closer to five, years until we see some significant changes."
About half of the $70 million provided by the READ Act will fund all the extra teacher training, the other half will help reimburse schools that purchase new curriculum.
But Roseville remains an outlier so far, because MDE is still narrowing down the list of five approved curriculum providers, which will qualify for state reimbursement.
Pekel says a committee of stakeholders will finalize the list in January, and many districts are holding off on new curriculum until then.
"I know every school leader across the state of Minnesota wishes that list was out last week," she said.
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