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July 8, 2024
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July 10, 2024New Literacy Bills ‘Should Have Been Done Years Ago’
Two bills, S2644 and S2647, have passed both houses of the New Jersey State Legislature and will likely be signed by Gov. Phil Murphy. The new soon-to-be-laws are aimed at the literacy crisis that started before Covid-19 school closures and have worsened to the point where six out of ten NJ public schoolchildren are not reading at grade-level.
S2644 establishes the Office of Learning and Academic Recovery within the NJ Department of Education, with the purpose of promoting literacy and “learning equity through academic recovery practices.” S2547 establishes “a working group on student literacy; mandates universal literacy screenings for kindergarten through grade three students; requires professional development for certain school district employees.” The primary sponsor for both bills is Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz.
Senator Ruiz said, “It’s great that we have a plan now in place, but I’ll continue to repeat that we are at least two to three years behind on this. This should have been done years ago.”
The Office of Legislative Services was unable to give an estimate of costs to local districts for the mandate of literacy screenings because the DOE does not track which districts already do so. “What we don’t want to do,” noted Ruiz, “is create a financial burden to the districts.” This year Gov. Murphy’s budget includes $5 million for literacy initiatives but this investment will need to be sustained in future budgets.
Will these new laws help students regain lost learning? Certainly it will help. Yet much more needs to be done. As reported here six months ago, the National Council on Teacher Quality rated each state in the nation on how it ensures prospective teachers have the knowledge to properly teach reading. In “State of the States: Five Policy Actions to Strengthen Implementation of the Science of Reading,” New Jersey is ranked as “weak” and “significantly below” the national average in implementing policies that ensure effective reading instruction.
From NCTQ’s NJ profile:
- Unacceptable: Setting reading standards for teacher preparation programs, one of the most important components for reforming how we teach reading
- Unacceptable: Adopting strong reading licensure tests that ensure teachers know how to teach reading
- Unacceptable: Requiring districts to select high-quality reading curriculum.
1 Comment
To Senator Ruiz:
Why are we 2 to 3 years behind? Why wasn’t it done years ago??
Why does Sean Spiller, the NJEA President get to take 8 million dollars of teacher union member dues for his political ambition and the entirety of public students of New Jersey get only 5 million from Governor Murphy ? That seems a bit lopsided. Why is NJ teacher ranking weak or substantial below the national average in reading training and preparation? I thought New Jersey schools were Best in the Nation. Protect Our Democracy by teaching our students to read, is a real good first step! Otherwise, equity and civil justice lectures mount to nothing more than hot air.