The number of Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas I earned for reading as a child is directly correlated to the effort that my family put into teaching me how to read. Pizza Hut was probably half my diet at one point.
My mother, my first teacher, didn’t have faith that school would teach us how to read so she spent her money on phonics materials and patiently helped transform her four children into fluent readers. My aunts and uncle joined the team and ensured we always had access to books to practice our skills and build our joy of reading.
Unfortunately, all children don’t have a large, collaborative team of adults at home to support them. But, all children should have access to a qualified, collaborative literacy team at school to help them learn how to read. For this reason, the Pennsylvania legislature should appropriate at least $100 million in the state budget to support mandated structured literacy training for teachers in all PA school districts so that every student achieves grade-level reading proficiency by the end of third grade. The good news is that the Pennsylvania House and Senate are set to introduce bipartisan legislation to that effect, which both Teach Plus and the PA Literacy Coalition endorse.
Passing legislation is a meaningful step that should coincide with a bold investment. The $100 million should be allocated specifically to structured literacy to ensure that the money is used to purchase evidenced-based literacy curricula in every school district. The money should also be used for structured literacy training to grow educator and parent knowledge and to monitor effectiveness of those trainings. Providing educators with training on structured literacy instructional practices, not just on the curriculum, is crucial so that teachers are able to fill in the gaps of the students who struggle the most. These purchases will provide educators and families with the tools they need to teach children how to read and to be able to collaborate with one another on literacy instruction in their schools. Having a shared understanding of structured literacy will make it easier for all the adults in the school community to come together as a team to teach children how to read.
A collaborative school literacy team would share the load of the reading education of all children. Research has shown that collaborative school teams support student achievement and help shrink the literacy proficiency gap. Everyone on the team needs a defined role so that the team can effectively work towards student reading achievement. For example, one person may be responsible for conducting screeners to identify gaps in reading ability, while another may be responsible for providing staff with relevant professional development. The responsibility for effective reading instruction falls on all of our shoulders.
In my current school, our literacy team formally includes me, the literacy coach, reading specialists, administrators and English language arts teachers. We have been trained and continue to receive ongoing professional learning to broaden our understanding of explicit research-based instruction. Our team analyzes student reading data to make informed decisions about appropriate interventions. We also plan and host literacy events for our students and their families to bring joy to learning how to read. Ideally, our literacy team would also include librarians, special education teachers, and parents/guardians. Like me, I know that many students’ first teachers are in their families and they should be provided with this knowledge so that they are able to collaborate with the school in the education of their child.
No parent should have to embark on a teaching journey like my mother to ensure their children learn how to read. If Pennsylvania truly values high quality reading instruction, then we should fund structured literacy training for all reading educators so that every child in the commonwealth knows how to read.
