The DOE and Lakewood: Perfect Together
February 8, 2024
80% of NJ Students With Disabilities Denied Services
February 9, 2024Ruiz Introduces Bills to Bolster Student Literacy and Address Learning Loss
In an effort to help pandemic learning loss, close the achievement gap, and improve literacy rates among all students in New Jersey, Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) introduced a package of four bills to enhance student performance across all grade levels. The bills introduced today are a framework, and expected to be strengthened by collaborating with stakeholders through a working group process. The bill package includes legislation that would require school districts to screen students at all grade levels using a reading assessment tool as well as create a reading intervention program to ensure students do not fall further behind.
“Third grade in particular is a crucial milestone for literacy, and is still an area where we see students severely lagging behind,” said Majority Leader Ruiz. “The numbers across the State are alarming and if we don’t intervene now, another generation of our children will fail to achieve their academic and economic potential. From birth to third grade you learn to read. And from third grade and beyond you read to learn. While the achievement gap may have grown during the pandemic, learning loss has plagued New Jersey schools for decades, especially impacting communities of color.”
In 2023, statewide third grade reading proficiency stagnated with 57.6% of students not meeting proficiency levels. The results were catastrophic for Black students as 73.6% were found not proficient. Latino students fared only slightly better as 72.5% did not meet proficiency levels.
S-2644 would require school districts to implement a reading intervention program for students in K-3, where building foundational literacy skills is critical. The intervention program would provide instruction in phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and monitor the reading progress of a student throughout the school year. The Department of Education would provide school districts with age-appropriate materials to implement the program, and school districts would be required to adopt high-quality instructional materials grounded in scientifically-based reading research to implement the program.
S-2645 would require that school districts screen certain students for reading deficiencies using an assessment approved by the Department of Education. Students enrolled in kindergarten through third grade (K-3) would be assessed three times per school year; and certain students in grades 4 through 12 (4-12) would be screened. The screening would be required to (1) measure phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension; and (2) identify students who have a reading deficiency. School districts would be required to notify a parent or guardian of a student who exhibits a reading deficiency no later than 15 days after identification.
S-2646 works to ensure that teachers are prepared to implement reading intervention programs by providing training annually to teachers in K-3, as well as certain other teachers. Districts would additionally be required to provide K-3 teachers with ongoing coaching support; including example lessons, classroom observance, and feedback to aid in delivery of this supplemental education. Train the trainer programs for the creation of literacy coaches in public schools to provide instruction to interested teachers on the science of reading and reading interventions would also be included.
S-2647 recognizes the consequential nature of student learning-loss by establishing the independent Office of the Learning Loss Czar in the Department of Education. This new Office would collaborate with the Commissioner of the DOE to study and address learning loss.
2 Comments
FINALLY! Time flies so don’t let grass grow under your senate seat!
I hope, the bill includes remedy for the present generation. They should not be collateral damage to a slow moving process.
I am sure no one wants that burden to be placed on their child.
“Powerful state senator introduces package of bills to address reading gaps. The influential legislator’s four bills come amid worries of extensive loss brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and remote learning.”
The powerful NJEA said the state needs to focus on the teacher shortage before mandating more programs and training. If that is the case , aggressive and out of the box solutions are needed. Retired teachers are not coming back at the rate required to make any significant headway to combat the shortage. The pipeline of qualified candidates has decrease, not increased. And New Jersey teaching colleges rank poor, nationally for preparing future teachers.
Hoboken Schools district is an example of how to effectively teach all students to read. They knew they had a problem and were not ok with losing a whole generation of students.
There is the “Mississippi Miracle,” that can be used as an example for turning around a states educational system, even for those students living in high poverty.
There are numerous online programs that could be used effectively. There are many out of state qualified certified teachers and professionals that possibly could be recruited with incentives. And allow our great teachers the space and freedom to make a difference, much like the the autonomy granted to charter schools. A concept that was introduced almost 30 years ago. Autonomy breeds innovation and sparks excitement, creating movers and shakers in the classroom. Many of New Jersey’s really good educators are just burnt out and feel like they are not getting the appropriate support from administration and are just hanging in there until they can retire.
And just maybe the NJEA would invest a larger portion of its union dues it banks from its union members to go back into the classroom and to supporting its members, rather than the majority going to special interest groups in politics. That in itself is criminal.
Yes, the once in 100 year pandemic created a bomb fire, but if we are truthful the fire was burning well before COVID-19 burst into flames. It just exposed really that the Emperor has no clothes.