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Lead for Literacy, Educator & Parent Resources

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Lead for Literacy, Educator & Parent Resources

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A guide for improving teacher implementation of evidence-based literacy practices within an effective, schoolwide multi-tiered system of support.

Research briefs, infographics, and guides with essential information that can be applied to your school or district.

Webinars and videos about evidence-based literacy practices that support school & district leaders.

Recommended websites, downloads, and videos from reliable sources.

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The Free State PTA prides itself on being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education. Membership in PTA is open to anyone who believes in and supports the PTA mission, purposes, and principles and wants to be involved and make a difference for the education, health, and welfare of children and youth.

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PTA has a 100+ year old history in Maryland. This new National PTA chartered state PTA, the Free State PTA, will build on that history and move us into the stronger future. The Free State PTA along with its constituents are the largest group of volunteers in the state working exclusively on behalf of children and youth and comprises thousands of families, students, teachers, administrators, and business and community leaders devoted to the educational success of children and the promotion of family engagement in schools will continue to thrive for all children in Maryland.

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The Free State PTA prides itself on being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education. Membership in PTA is open to anyone who believes in and supports the PTA mission, purposes, and principles and wants to be involv…

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Diversity Committee Team:
​ Clarice L. Jackson, Winifred A. Winston, Sheila Carr, Brandi Graham, DeJunne' Clark Jackson, Sandra Chittenden, Jamie Crenshaw, Karla Witt-Reid and Katie Ballard.

Maryland to Screen & Intervene for Kindergarten Students

Listen to educators, legislators, parents & students as they explain how reading screening and early interventions can help students who are at risk of reading difficulties and disabilities like dyslexia.

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Listen to educators, legislators, parents & students as they explain how reading screening and early interventions can help students who are at risk of reading difficulties and disabilities like dyslexia.

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Our Goal to ensure that every Oakland child is an 'on-time' reader provided with full LITERACY: a fundamental civil right, a powerful protection from the school to prison pipeline, and the cornerstone for a life of choice and fulfillment

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The Good: Toddlers and preschoolers adore picture books with predictable language because they can emulate reading without needing to decode. Young children love Brown, Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? and I Went Walking and Silly Sally because the repeating sentence patterns and big, bold, colorful illustrations allow them to confidently "read" the books by memorizing the patterns and looking at the pictures.

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Welcome to FCRR! We are dedicated to ensuring that all children are reading and succeeding in school. Children begin to learn to read at home through consistent interactions with parents and caregivers. This learning continues as children grow and learn in school. Here, parents, caregivers, and families can find resources to support their children's reading. FCRR invites you to use the resources below to make evidence-based and evidence-informed decisions to improve reading for all learners.

In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, a team of researchers, teachers, and families at FCRR collaborated to produce demonstration videos of FCRR's Student Center Activities that would be most applicable to use at home and in summer programs. The videos feature a diverse array of families and caregivers supporting children's learning of various reading and literacy skills. The videos and activities are available on FCRR's YouTube Channel, with more being produced every year.

Developed by the team at the Regional Educational Laboratory-Southeast, these Family Activities have easy-to-follow instructions to help your child practice foundational reading skills. We invite you to view the short Family Videos for tips on how to use the activities to help your child grow as a reader. Using the Family Activities at home can help your child develop language, link sounds to letters, blend letters and word parts to read and write words and read for understanding. The activities were created activities based on the What Works Clearinghouse practice guides, Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade.

Join Kayla, a young girl with a secret, as she confronts reading challenges in the adventurous series, The Uncanny Chronicles. Developed by the team at FCRR and the National Center on Improving Literacy, each issue and episode presents Kayla with new obstacles, from struggling with dyslexia to coping with social and emotional issues. While young viewers will delight in watching Kayla tackle her problems with fanciful ingenuity, parents and caregivers will expand their understanding of these topics through embedded evidence-based resources. Click here to learn more about Uncanny Chronicles.

Developed by Dr. Lakeisha Johnson, faculty at the Florida Center for Reading Research and in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Maya's Book Nook promotes language and literacy skills through diverse children's literature. Here, parents, caregivers, educators, and speech-language pathologists can find books where young children of color can see themselves, and the stories they relate to, represented within the pages. There are also book reviews and resources that incorporate language-focused strategies to support reading, writing, and other literacy skills.

Developed by the team at FCRR and the Center on Teaching and Learning at the University of Oregon, CBM at home is designed to help educators, parents, and caregivers understand their children's risk for developing reading difficulties in the future. CBM stands for Curriculum-Based Measure. The CBMs are short timed tests that measure important early reading skills, and are available in English and Spanish.

Free tools for educators and leaders to download and use to support reading and literacy instruction.

Use the FCRR Resource Database to look for additional resources.

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Welcome to FCRR! We are dedicated to ensuring that all children are reading and succeeding in school. Children begin to learn to read at home through consistent interactions with parents and caregivers. This learning continues as children grow and learn in school. Here, parents, caregivers, and families can find resources to support their children's reading.

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Welcome to FCRR! We are dedicated to ensuring that all children are reading and succeeding in school. Teachers, instructional coaches, clinicians, principals, and other school staff are critical to achieving that vision. Here, educators can find resources to support their knowledge and practice. FCRR invites you to use the resources below to make evidence-based and evidence-informed decisions to improve reading outcomes for all learners.

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Welcome to FCRR! We are dedicated to ensuring that all children are reading and succeeding in school. Teachers, instructional coaches, clinicians, principals, and other school staff are critical to achieving that vision. Here, educators can find resources to support their knowledge and practice.

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University of Florida Literacy Institute

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University of Florida Literacy Institute

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There's an old joke about a chemist, a physicist, and an economist stranded on a desert island with only a sealed can of food. The chemist and physicist each propose their own ideas about how to open the can. The punch line comes from the economist, who proffers: "First, assume a can opener."

I've been brooding over this joke while watching "antiracism" teaching-some might call it Critical Race Theory (CRT) or social justice-take over the American education world with Omicron-like speed. Lesson plans, books, tips for in-class activities, discussion points, and curricula swamp the teachers' corner of the Internet. The proposals come from a metastasizing number of pedagogic entrepreneurs and activist groups, some savvy newcomers, some influential veterans like Black Lives Matter at School, Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance), Teaching People's History (the Zinn Education Project), the Racial Justice in Education Resource Guide (from the National Education Association), and, of course, the current star: the 1619 Project (the Pulitzer Center). To me, all these ideas seem like the ruminations of desert-island economists. They start with an impossible premise: that the students of these recommended texts actually know how to read.

I am overstating, but not by much. A significant number of American students are reading fluently and with understanding and are well on their way to becoming literate adults. But they are a minority. As of 2019, according to the National Association of Education Progress ( NAEP), sometimes called the Nation's Report Card, 35 percent of fourth-graders were reading at or above proficiency levels; that means, to spell it out, that a strong majority-65 percent, to be exact-were less than proficient. In fact, 34 percent were reading, if you can call it that, below a basic level, barely able to decipher material suitable for kids their age. Eighth-graders don't do much better. Only 34 percent of them are proficient; 27 percent were below-basic readers. Worse, those eighth-grade numbers represent a decline from 2017 for 31 states.

As is always the case in our crazy-quilt, multiracial, multicultural country, the picture varies, depending on which kids you're looking at. If you categorize by states, the lowest scores can be found in Alabama and New Mexico, with just 21 percent of eighth-graders reading proficiently. The best thing to say about these results is that they make the highest-scoring state-Massachusetts, with 47 percent of students proficient-look like a success story rather than the mediocrity it is.

The findings that should really push antiracist educators to rethink their pedagogical assumptions are those for the nation's black schoolchildren. Nationwide, 52 percent of black children read below basic in fourth grade. (Hispanics, at 45 percent, and Native Americans, at 50 percent, do almost as badly, but I'll concentrate here on black students, since antiracism clearly centers on the plight of African-Americans.) The numbers in the nation's majority-black cities are so low that they flirt with zero. In Baltimore, where 80 percent of the student body is black, 61 percent of these students are below basic; only 9 percent of fourth-graders and 10 percent of eighth-graders are reading proficiently. (The few white fourth-graders attending Charm City's public schools score 36 points higher than their black classmates.) Detroit, the American city with the highest percentage of black residents, has the nation's lowest fourth-grade reading scores; only 5 percent of Detroit fourth-graders scored at or above proficient. (Cleveland's schools, also majority black, are only a few points ahead.)

In April 2020, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of former students suing Detroit schools for not providing an adequate education. The suit cited poor facilities and inadequate textbooks, but below-basic literacy skills were the primary academic complaint. One of the plaintiffs was a former Detroit public school student who went on to community college and ended up on academic probation, in need of a reading tutor. His story is typical enough as to be barely worth mentioning-except for the fact that he graduated at the top of his public high school class. And as if this isn't bad enough, the numbers appear likely to get worse, with the impact of Covid-19 disruptions.

The tragedy for black children and their families, as well as a nation trying to reckon with racial disparities rooted in its own history, can't be overstated. If you want to make sense of racial gaps in high school achievement, college attendance, graduation, adult income, and even incarceration, you could do worse than look at third-grade reading scores. Three-quarters of below-proficient readers in third grade remain below proficient in high school. Before third grade, children are learning to read; after that, they are reading to learn, in one well-known formulation. All future academic learning in humanities, social sciences, business, and, yes, STEM fields depends on confident, skilled reading. "The kids in the top reading group at age 8 are probably going to college. The kids in the bottom reading group probably aren't," as Fredrik deBoer, the iconoclastic author of The Cult of Smart, has put it. And the absence of a sheepskin is hardly the worst of it. Upward of 80 percent of adolescents in the juvenile justice system are poor readers, according to the Literacy Project Foundation. Over 70 percent of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth-grade level. It's been said that authorities use third-grade reading scores to predict how many prison beds will be needed. That meme is probably apocryphal, but the sad fact is that it makes sense.

The irony would bring tears to the eyes of Martin Luther King, Jr. Before the Civil War, most Southern states had laws forbidding slaves from reading or writing. Enslaved men and women were known to risk whippings and death in order to learn their letters, sometimes with the aid of a sympathetic white but frequently on the strength of their own determination. "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free," the most famous of those readers, Frederick Douglass, promised. What would he, or King, make of an education system that leaves more than half of twenty-first-century black kids barely literate?

Scour antiracist education sites on the Internet, and you'll get the distinct impression that no one in the field has grasped the implications of this reality or that educating children in any familiar sense of the term was never the goal, anyway. In fact, a number of antiracist activists and educators have been blunt about their indifference to teaching reading. What else could it mean when the chancellor of the nation's largest school system scorns "worship of the written word" as an imposition of white supremacy? In fairness, most educators are probably simply assuming the proverbial can opener-namely, competent readers who also have considerable background knowledge, including basic facts about the world and history. Learning for Justice, for instance, recommends a fourth-grade text about a woman named Helen Tsuchiya. Though Tsuchiya was born in the U.S., the site tells us, she was moved "to an internment camp surrounded by barbed wire after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." What are the chances that the fourth-grader reading at a basic level-never mind the majority of black children who are reading below basic-will be able to decipher words like internment, barbed wire, and Pearl Harbor, much less grasp their significance enough to facilitate comprehension? Progressive educators are not only failing to factor in the sad truth about students' reading ability but also overlooking the fact that American students do even worse in geography and history than in reading.

Another lesson plan for elementary and middle school students, this one recommended in the Pulitzer Center's 1619 portal, reveals a similar chasm between politicized pedagogical fantasy and student reality. "In this unit, students learn to identify underreported stories of migration, and what is missing from mainstream media representations of migrants' experiences," the plan reads. "They analyze nonfiction texts and images, practice identifying perspectives in media, and synthesize their learning to form a new understanding of migration. In their final project, students communicate how their perspective on migration has grown or changed through a creative project, original news story, or existing news story edited to provide a more holistic picture of migration." The lesson's unspoken purpose is to impress students with the putatively anti-immigrant slant of American news. But an elementary schooler probably doesn't know what the "mainstream media" is and is even less likely to have read any of it. Basic readers will have difficulty deciphering words like migrant or immigration. (Unless they have family there, they also won't know the location of Syria or Sweden, two of the immigrant countries mentioned in the lesson plan-there's that geography problem again.) The same obstacles are bound to trip up the typical middle schooler; remember, 68 percent of eighth-graders can't read proficiently. This is not education but indoctrination: teachers are being told to foist an opinion worthy of debate on ill-informed children, while denying them the capacity to evaluate it critically.

Social-justice educators would doubtless object that the catastrophic literacy rates of black students are solid proof of the structural racism and teacher bias that they're intent on fighting. They would rightly observe that reading scores correlate with parental income and education; black children tend to come from less affluent and less educated homes, a fact at least partially tied to historical racism. But evidence that racial disadvantage should not be an obstacle to literacy is there for anyone who bothers to look. Nearly 60 percent of black children in New York City charter schools read proficiently; that's true for only 35 percent of those in district schools. (And 80 percent of the kids in New York City charters are economically disadvantaged.) Unless someone can prove that district teachers are more racist than those at charters-an unlikely theory-it would seem that charters simply do a better job of teaching kids to read. The differences between states also point to a pedagogical, rather than white-supremacist, explanation for racial discrepancies. People might reasonably predict that poor Southern states would have lower overall reading scores than more affluent states in the Northeast, and they'd be right. But the Urban Institute has developed a nifty interactive chart that lets us compare states adjusting for race and poverty (or other variables). The counterintuitive results show that Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation and one with a dreadful racial history and an equally dreadful education record, is turning things around. The state is now more successful at teaching disadvantaged black children to read than top-ranked and affluent Massachusetts and New Jersey.

These successes are no mystery, but they do require a quick history of the nation's long-simmering "reading wars." For at least a generation now, American educators' preferred approach to reading has been known as "whole language." Whole language encourages teachers to do "shared" and "interactive" reading with children, to sight-read words that they've seen before, and to guess, with the help of illustrations and intuition, when they encounter an unfamiliar word. The guiding assumption is that reading is a natural process and teachers should just guide kids toward literacy. Children don't need direct instruction to read any more than they need instruction to learn to talk.

But over recent decades, linguists, cognitive psychologists, and data-driven educators have reached a consensus that this is not what makes Johnny read. The beginning reader needs, first of all, to "de-code." To accomplish that, teachers must systematically impart "phonemic awareness." The shorthand for this approach is "phonics"-that is, the relation between the letters on the page and the sounds of speech. Children learn to blend those sounds, or phonemes, together into syllables, which they then combine into words. With practice, the process becomes fluent, even automatic, freeing up the bandwidth for a fuller comprehension of the meaning of the words. One example from journalist Emily Hanford, who has done some of the best work on reading science, succinctly captures the problem when children are not taught to decode. Hanford interviewed a group of adolescents reading at a third-grade level in a phonics-oriented class in a Houston juvenile detention center. She asked 17-year-old DeShawn what he is learning in his class. "Like 'ph.' It's a 'f,' like physics," DeShawn explained. "I never knew that."

Though whole language has been failing many millions of schoolchildren like DeShawn (and some unknown number of middle-class kids whose parents can afford to spend money on private tutors to teach the decoding skills that their children should have learned in school), educators have been loath to give up their dreams. So they introduced a (supposedly) new approach with the benign-sounding name "balanced literacy." In theory, balanced literacy blends the two methods of whole language and phonics; in practice, phonics gets short shrift. Few ed schools or teaching programs show student teachers how to teach phonics in the defined, logical progression necessary for students to catch on to the complexities of the English language. Basement-level reading scores haven't budged.

Still, signs of change are evident. In 2013, legislators in Mississippi provided funding to start training the state's teachers in the science of reading; I've already noted their encouraging results. Other states, including Florida, Colorado, and Tennessee, are gesturing toward taking reading science more seriously. And David Banks, New York City's new schools chancellor, canceled his predecessor's dismissal of the "white worship of the written word." Teachers have been " teaching wrong " for 25 years, Banks said. "'Balanced literacy' has not worked for Black and Brown children. We're going to go back to a phonetic approach to teaching."

The good news comes with some cautions: first, for reasons no one understands, a significant minority of children will learn to read competently without getting any direct instruction in how to sound out words; their success continues to have the unintended consequence of providing balanced literacy supporters cover for their otherwise disastrous results. Second, phonics needs to be taught systematically from kindergarten through third grade; no one should expect solid results with a random sprinkling of "phonemic awareness" here and there, the practice in most balanced literacy classes. Third, learning how to decode is not everything; to become proficient readers, children also must know what words mean. They will, in other words, need to develop a rich vocabulary and varied background knowledge. Finally, intelligent teaching methods are not a panacea for racial and income disparities; no matter how well black children are taught to read, white children are still more likely to grow up with educated parents, which means that they will be hearing more vocabulary words, more complex language, and more useful information about the wider world. This problem can be solved over time but only if more disadvantaged kids are given the chance to pass on the benefits of their own literacy to their children.

The reading emergency should be the primary focus for educators, especially those in a position to help black children. Yet a growing number of school districts are interviewing prospective teachers, even those for elementary school, fixated on one question: "What have you done personally or professionally to be more antiracist?" The best answer to that question would be: "Teach black children how to read." Better yet, change the question to "What's the best way to teach reading?" and we might see some real racial progress.
Top Photo: Racial gaps in third-grade reading scores offer a window onto everything from college graduation rates to adult income levels. (imageBROKER/Jim West/Newscom)

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How Really to Be an Antiracist | City Journal

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There's an old joke about a chemist, a physicist, and an economist stranded on a desert island with only a sealed can of food. The chemist and physicist each propose their own ideas about how to open the can. The punch line comes from the economist, who proffers: "First, assume a can opener."

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For decades, Lucy Calkins has determined how millions of children learn to read. An education professor, she has been a preeminent leader of “balanced literacy,” a loosely defined teaching philosophy.

In a classic Calkins classroom, teachers read aloud from children’s literature; students then chose “just right” books, which fit their interests and ability. The focus was more on stories — theme, character, plot — and less on sounding out words.

Her curriculum, Units of Study, is built on a vision of children as natural readers, and it has been wildly popular and profitable. She estimates that one-quarter of the country’s 67,000 elementary schools use it. At Columbia University’s Teachers College, she and her team have trained hundreds of thousands of educators.

But in recent years, parents and educators who champion the “science of reading” have criticized Calkins and other supporters of balanced literacy. They cite a half-century of research that shows phonics — sound-it-out exercises that are purposefully sequenced — is the most effective way to teach reading, along with books that build vocabulary and depth.

With brain science adding to that evidence, there is a sense — at least for many in the education establishment — that the debate over early reading instruction may be ebbing. Phonics is ascendant.

More than a dozen states have passed laws pushing phonics, and the cities of Denver and Oakland, California, have moved to drop Calkins’ program. In one of her largest markets, New York City, a dyslexic mayor and his schools chancellor are urging principals to select other curricula.

So after decades of resistance, Calkins has made a major retreat. A rewrite of her reading curriculum, from kindergarten to second grade, includes, for the first time, daily structured phonics lessons to be used with the whole class. There are special books and assessments to track students’ progress with decoding letters.

And it swaps light reading assignments for more rigorous texts: arctic exploration, female deep-sea divers in South Korea, and the architecture and culture of Islam.

The curriculum, which goes on sale this summer, also includes a 20-page guide for teachers summarizing 50 years of cognitive research on reading.

Margaret Goldberg, a San Francisco Bay Area literacy coach and leader in the science of reading movement, said Calkins’ changes cannot repair the harm done to generations of students. Even before the pandemic widened educational inequality, only one-third of American fourth and eighth graders were reading on grade level. Black, Hispanic and low-income children have struggled most.

“So many teachers like me have believed that a professor at Teachers College, an Ivy League institution, should be up-to-date on the reading research,” she said. “The fact that she was disconnected from that research is evidence of the problem.”

Some children seem to turn magically into readers, without deliberate phonics coaching. That has helped fuel a mistaken belief that reading is as natural as speaking. In fact, functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain demonstrates that humans process written language letter by letter, sound by sound. Far from being automatic, reading requires a rewiring of the brain, which is primed by evolution to recognize faces, not words.

But that finding — by cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists — is often disconnected from the work of training teachers and producing materials.

Mark Seidenberg, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that although he found some of Calkins’ revisions “encouraging,” he was concerned that “objectionable” concepts remain.

There is little controlled research of her methods, and two recent studies come to conflicting conclusions: One, funded by Teachers College and Calkins’ publisher but conducted independently, found students in her network outperform others on reading tests. Another saw no statistically significant improvements.

When Calkins was asked what changed her mind about the science of reading, she cited, without defensiveness, several experts who have criticized her work: Seidenberg, author of the influential book “Language at the Speed of Sight,” and Emily Hanford, a journalist who has investigated the shortcomings of reading instruction.

Calkins said studying learning disabilities such as dyslexia also led her to accept that all children would benefit from more structured phonics.

Calkins has described the organization she founded in 1981, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, as a “not-for-profit think tank.” But the project is also a business, encompassing domestic and international companies. It provides training to about 700 schools across the United States and in countries including Japan.

According to a 2016 contract between New York City and Teachers College, schools paid up to $2,650 for a seven-hour visit from a consultant with Calkins’ group and were encouraged to purchase 20 visits a year.

In reality, Calkins said, most schools paid less. In total, the district paid $31 million between 2016 and 2022 for services from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.

The project has about 165 partner schools across the city, which may now be under pressure to reconsider the program.

“Lucy Calkins’ work, if you will, has not been as impactful as we had expected,” the schools chancellor, David Banks, said in March.

Teachers College would not detail its revenue from Calkins’ activities but said her contribution to its bottom line was “modest.”

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How Grade-Level Literacy Doubled in 2 Months in Rural Tennessee District

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How Grade-Level Literacy Doubled in 2 Months in Rural Tennessee District

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This is the first in a series of three articles from a Knowledge Matters Campaign tour of school districts in Tennessee spotlighting the impact of the state's investment in training all teachers in the science of reading. The rural district of Elizabethton City Schools was designated a "Reading 360 Model District" after implementing the Tennessee Foundational Skills Curriculum Supplement just halfway through the 2021-22 school year. In this piece, instructional coaches Rachel Darnell, Shannon Barnett and Jennifer Rickert share how they were able to successfully go from balanced literacy to high-quality foundational skills instruction in less than one year. Follow the rest of our series and previous curriculum case studies here.
"I can actually read this!" kindergartner Easton Malone exclaimed while reading a book during Dr. Seuss Week this spring.

Every teacher in primary grades longs to hear those words from their students. If you step foot in any of the classrooms from pre-K through second grade in Elizabethton City Schools, you are met with a palpable buzz of excitement and purpose as our youngest readers embrace a new reading approach. This enthusiasm has not always been present: getting to this point has been a journey.

Elizabethton City Schools is a small, rural district nestled in the hills of East Tennessee where we spent years building a literacy model rooted in balanced literacy. Unfortunately, while we were meeting the needs of some of our students, we were not doing what was best for allstudents. Learning to read is one of the most empowering gifts we can foster for students in the early years, but how do we empower educators to teach reading confidently and effectively?

In the summer of 2021, every pre-K through fifth-grade teacher and administrator participated in a two-week Early Reading Training provided by the Tennessee Department of Education. Over two weeks of professional learning, both virtually and in-person, our teachers were being challenged to consider new practices based on the science of reading. The content was rigorous, deep in knowledge and led to excellent discussions. Our teachers and leaders intentionally placed students at the heart of every conversation. The training was met with curiosity, some skepticism and a lot of questions. Armed with new knowledge, yet no concrete plan for change, our school year began.

First grade students in Ms. Hannah Bowers' class at East Side Elementary independently read decodable texts that correspond with their /or/ foundational skills lesson. District Implementation Coach Rachel Darnell and East Side Elementary Instructional Coach Shannon Barnett assist.(Courtesy of Knowledge Matters Campaign)

Behind the scenes, administrators and coaches were working on a concrete plan: one that included both long-term and short-term goals. We knew effectively combining new, high-quality foundational skills instructional materials with the district's current curriculum would not be easy. To succeed would require a team effort. Our teachers needed to feel safe and supported as they took risks with their literacy instructional practice. As a team of administrators, instructional coaches and teachers, we would work together to move in a direction toward reading proficiency for all students.

Due to the major shift this represented for teachers, we agreed to a "year of grace." Teachers would not be required to fully implement the new foundational skills materials with fidelity until the 2022-23 school year. Teachers were presented with a clear message from coaches: "Not only are the resources available for you to use in your own time, but we will meet you where you are and we will give you what you need. You are not alone."

The district started with small changes, beginning with the adoptive practice of teaching " sounds first " using the Tennessee Foundational Skills Curriculum Supplement. By implementing this daily, systematic phonemic awareness curriculum, teachers began the shift from traditional balanced literacy to instruction rooted in the science of reading.

It didn't take long before teachers started to feel the impact "sounds first" had on their students. This 10-minute, advanced phonological awareness block was the spark that ignited change. Students were engaged and teachers were seeing immediate results from all students. This one step opened the door for further collaboration. Teachers began to ask, "With such a huge impact on our students in only 10 minutes, how might students begin to grow when we use all pieces of the TNFSCS?"

We knew we had lit a fire when a teacher grabbed their principal from the hallway and exclaimed, "You have got to come see what my kids can do!"

Curiosity was piqued. As coaches worked closely with teachers, an atmosphere of trust, respect and grace was established like never before. Teachers felt comfortable being open, honest and vulnerable. As teachers asked questions and communicated their needs, coaches and administrators were responsive. After a few weeks of implementing sounds first, we were shocked and delighted to learn that more than half of the Pre-K-2 teachers wanted to fully implement the systematic foundational skills instruction mid-year. As a second-grade teacher said, "If it's best for our kids, what do we have to lose?"
Rachel Darnell, Shannon Barnett and Jennifer Rickert are instructional coaches for Elizabethton City Schools in Tennessee.

First grade students in Ms. Hannah Bowers' class at East Side Elementary learn about the /OR/ digraph during their daily foundational skills lesson. (Courtesy of Knowledge Matters Campaign)

Implementing a new curriculum mid-year is no easy task. Even with the support of coaches, our teachers had to put in a lot of effort. They had to study the content, collaborate with one another and intentionally reflect on their practice. Just like during the summer training, our teachers kept what was best for students at the center of every decision.

"We were blown away with how well the children did with it," reflected Whitney Birchfield, a kindergarten teacher who implemented the full program mid-year. "To us, it was so different from the way we were teaching children to read. We expected them to struggle the same way we did but they picked up things so quickly and so easily. It came so naturally for them."

For our teachers who were hesitant, providing an avenue to meet with colleagues was so valuable. The proof of success was very powerful coming from educators who were doing the work and reporting it to others. The process was slow but meaningful as teachers took ownership and were supported by one another. The buy-in continued to strengthen as teachers began selling to other, more apprehensive teachers. They couldn't contain their excitement as they continued to see unprecedented rates of reading growth with their students.

In the fall, just seven of Hannah Bowers' first-graders were on grade level, based on an analysis by the district's universal screener. Just two months into the new curriculum, that figure more than doubled to 15, and Bowers believes the number will continue to go up as students continue to receive high-quality instruction with high-quality materials.

Parents have seen the impact of this curriculum shift, too. One first-grade parent, who asked to remain unnamed for her child's privacy, said that her daughter went from "really behind" in intervention at the beginning of the year to now writing her own stories and books. They're even reading chapter books together.

"In these last few months, I have seen a complete about-face," the parent said."I have seen her completely change - she loves to read now. I'm amazed because I've sat at my kitchen table and seen her change."

Using these high-quality instructional materials and the approaches supported by the evidence-based science of reading has been a great equalizer for teachers and students alike. Intervention group sizes have dwindled as explicit and systematic reading instruction has been made accessible to all students. By the end of the 2021-22 school year, all Pre-K through second-grade teachers will be fully implementing the materials, well before the anticipated start date of August 2022.

"Empowered." That's how one first-grade teacher described how she feels after implementing instruction backed by the science of reading. Empowered teachers empower readers. We can't wait to hear more of the sweet chorus of, "I can actually read this!" in the years to come.

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Curriculum Case Study: How Grade-Level Literacy Doubled in Just 2 Months in a Rural Tennessee District

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This is the first in a series of three articles from a Knowledge Matters Campaign tour of school districts in Tennessee spotlighting the impact of the state's investment in training all teachers in the science of reading. The rural district of Elizabethton City Schools was designated a "Reading 360 Model District" after implementing the Tennessee [...]

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A practice guide is a publication that presents recommendations for educators to address challenges in their classrooms and schools. They are based on reviews of research, the experiences of practitioners, and the expert opinions of a panel of nationally recognized experts.

To search by Topic or Keyword, use the Practice Guide Search.

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A practice guide is a publication that presents recommendations for educators to address challenges in their classrooms and schools. They are based on reviews of research, the experiences of practitioners, and the expert opinions of a panel of nationally recognized experts. To search by Topic or Keyword, use the Practice Guide Search.

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National Center on Improving Literacy, School district resources

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National Center on Improving Literacy, School district resources

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Topic: Screening | National Center on Improving Literacy

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Your source for improving outcomes for students with literacy-related disabilities, including dyslexia.

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Listen to this story on the Educate podcast. Subscribe now:

At his Detroit high school, Jamarria Hall loved the classes where students could share textbooks, passing six torn and outdated hardcovers among 35 students to take turns reading.

Hall loved those, he said, because in most classes at Osborn High School he had no books. Instead, students copied down whatever the teacher wrote on the board. Or maybe they had a printout from the school's copy machine.

"How can you learn in that type of environment?" asked Hall, who's trying to finish his freshman credits at Tallahassee (Fla.) Community College, three years after graduating from Osborn. "It's setting you up to fail."

A federal appellate court last week agreed and in a historic ruling determined that the students' constitutional rights were violated by that level of deprivation.

In a 2-1 decision, judges from the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that students have a right to "a basic minimum education," which the court defined as giving students the opportunity to learn to read.

The ruling doesn't address the vast inequities between rich schools and poor schools, but it does set a minimum standard that states must meet in public education: providing kids with "a chance at foundational literacy."

It's the first time that a federal court has asserted that right. Advocates say the ruling could match Brown v. Board of Education in importance and hope it triggers a broader crusade against unequal education.

The ruling applies to the four states in the Sixth Circuit - Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee - and it could guide similar federal lawsuits in other states.

It doesn't mean anything will change immediately in Detroit's classrooms. It simply gives students a chance to argue their case in federal district court, to try to prove they've been deprived of those newly established rights and to ask the judge to order a fix.

Students from five Detroit public schools, including Osborn High, brought the case, Gary B. v. Snyder, against Michigan's governor and other state officials in 2016. They argued that "decades of state disinvestment and deliberate indifference" had left students struggling to read and attending "schools in name only."

At one elementary school, third-graders had only picture books to look at until their teacher bought books to read. And at Osborn High, one student had to ask her classmate how to spell the word "the," according to the lawsuit.

A district court judge threw the case out in 2018 without hearing evidence, saying the students' rights weren't being violated, even if the conditions in the five Detroit schools were "nothing short of devastating."

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the idea that there is a general right to an education. But it has left open the possibility that students have the right to an education that is at least minimally adequate. In a 1973 case challenging Texas's starkly unequal school financing, the justices said an education could theoretically be so bad, such an "absolute denial" of opportunity, that it might be unconstitutional.

The Sixth Circuit, for the first time, said that's just what seemed to be happening in Detroit's lowest-performing schools. Judge Eric Clay, a Clinton appointee who wrote the majority opinion, said teacher vacancies, building hazards and empty bookshelves likely deprived students of the opportunity to learn to read.

He wrote that was a right they were entitled to, pointing to the long history of reading "as a key to political power," dating to the antebellum codes prohibiting slaves from learning to read and the Klan's attacks on teachers who taught black children.

It's unclear, however, whether the decision will stand. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer could decide to appeal, either to the entire Sixth Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court. Or the state could decide to argue its case in district court, contending that the schools had met the Sixth Circuit's standard. The state could also settle, as Detroit's school superintendent and many local activists are urging Whitmer to do. A spokesperson said the state is reviewing the decision.

Helen Moore, an 83-year-old activist in Detroit, is calling for Whitmer to make a deal. She said the ruling was "some of the best news I have heard" in a half-century of organizing. She called it "better" than Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 ruling that desegregated schools.

"Listen, here's the secret: If you can't read, you can't do anything else. It's the doorway to education," she said. "Reading is the basis of freedom."

While the Detroit case continues, the lawyers who brought the litigation say they hope the Sixth Circuit ruling inspires "a social movement" nationwide to demand better reading instruction in schools.

Evan Caminker, a law professor and former dean at the University of Michigan law school who worked on the case, said that the suit was "surgically precise" in seeking remedies for kids in "the worst of the worst schools."

"This lawsuit is not designed to cure all evil, so to speak. This lawsuit is designed to show that there are particular pockets, where we would say it's not just that the kids are not becoming literate; it's that they don't have the opportunity to become literate," he said.

"The right we are seeking and was vindicated by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is not a right to a particular outcome. It is not a right to be literate. That's not something our Constitution can plausibly support. It is the right to have the opportunity to become literate."
Educate is a collaboration with The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization that focuses on inequality and innovation in education.

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Is learning to read a constitutional right?

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A federal court recently ruled that underfunded schools in Detroit violated students' right to a basic education. Advocates hope the case is the beginning of a trend.

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We're witnessing a growing outcry about teacher preparation in the US.

Increasingly, teachers lament that their college courses didn't prepare them to teach reading. (Really.)

It's a major issue for children's literacy - and some are just catching wind of it. Here's some background.

Understanding the Concerns

In 2018, the audio-documentary opened many eyes to the problem. Journalist Emily Hanford showed that key research on how kids learn to read, specifically around phonics, was missing from many teacher prep programs. The main culprit: some teaching college professors had their own (not-so-evidence-based) philosophies on how kids learn to read.

Teachers began to speak out about the issue, as EdWeek reported in Teachers Criticize Their Colleges of Ed. for Not Preparing Them to Teach Reading.

Additional EdWeek reporting showed the magnitude of the problem. Many higher education professors have failed to embrace decades of research that say that phonics is essential for many children.

This question, from EdWeek's survey of education school professors, says it all: the majority of professors think kids can get by without it:

In addition, 65% of professors teach the 'MSV'/3-cueing approach, which is found to impede phonics learning.

Teachers see the shortcomings: in EdWeek and Chalkbeat surveys, most teachers agreed that their preservice training didn't give them the skills to teach reading.

Flawed teacher preparation is now treated as an established fact by EdWeek: "Many teachers likely did not learn the cognitive science behind reading in their teacher preparation programs."

One point I'd highlight: these articles have been been dominated by discussion of phonics and phonemic awareness in teacher prep. We can infer that the issue extends to other aspects of reading research. I've never met anyone who learned about the Baseball Study and related research on comprehension in teacher preparation, for example.

Educators Speak Out

Teachers explain it best. Kindergarten teacher Lindsay Kemeney learned key research while supporting her dyslexic son, and wrote a powerful blog about her frustrations:

"I became angry. Why was I never taught about dyslexia? Why was I never taught about the National Reading Panel (2000)? Why was I never taught about structured literacy? Why was I never taught about explicit, systematic phonics and phonemic awareness? Why wasn't I told that there was a method that would reach ALL learners and not just the top 40%? Why aren't teachers given this vital information?"

Jon Gustafson penned Where I Learned How to Actually Teach Reading (Hint: Not in Teacher Training). He teamed up with Jasmine Lane to detail their experiences in Training teachers to fail, which explains what does happen in teacher preparation programs, in lieu of literacy preparation. The funniest take on teacher prep came from Margaret Goldberg, who writes:

"I completed a full course on Vygotskian theory, debated the narrative of colonialism in Where the Wild Things Are and learned to finger-knit a scarf. I did not learn anything about the structure of the English language or how our brains learn to read."

And then, there have been the countless tweets of frustration, such as this viral tweet (definitely check out the comments from educators):

I'm genuinely annoyed that when I trained as an English teacher nobody ever bothered to explain the simple view of reading, what synthetic phonics is, or how to teach it. I have a huge gap as an educator. 😡

- James Tucker (@JtuckerJames) November 29, 2019

Lest you think that these are minority perspectives, skim this Twitter chat on teacher preparation for a loud chorus of similar concerns.

How Can You Tell Good From Bad Programs?

Some teacher prep programs are getting it right. In fact, I feel badly for professors who do teach the "science of reading," because their work may be tarnished by this national outcry.

The trouble is, it's pretty tough to know the good programs from the bad.

Jon Gustafson wisely observed that we need a list of the good guys. The replies in this thread are worth a read, just for sense of the variance.

LITERACY TWITTER CROWDSOURCING:

What are the teacher prep programs that DO teach teachers how kids learn to read?

Errybody wants to know this! @literacypodcast just asked me. Jon was Spot On, below.

Can we crowdsource this thing? 🙏🏽#elachat #ilachat https://t.co/Io6iL5nhB5

- Karen Vaites (@karenvaites) October 25, 2019

Folks seeking a sound program can consult two sources:

The National Center for Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has issued ratings since 2006. In January, 2020, they released their latest report, which found that 51% of teacher preparation programs adequately cover reading science, based on a review of the syllabus. This was hailed as an improvement versus previous reports, and a sign that teaching colleges are working on the issue. Yet it was still... only 51%.

The International Dyslexia Association has an accreditation program; they offer a short list of universities that have applied and been accredited.

Word to the wise: look closely before selecting a program, and before hiring teachers from a program. Literacy-savvy districts are starting to use their hiring leverage to nudge local colleges on their reading coursework. I know six districts advocating for better programs at the local university, and hope to hear of more.

States Taking Action

Colorado has been leading on this issue. Chalkbeat reported that state officials were using their certification power, cracking down on colleges for "emphasiz[ing] prospective teachers' beliefs about reading rather than forcing them to draw science-based conclusions," and threatening to withdraw certifications of non-compliant universities. I haven't seen evidence that other states are doing the same; then again, Chalkbeat needed to make a pubic records request to access the Colorado report, so perhaps there is activity behind the scenes.

Other states are tackling the issue via legislation. Arkansas laws require teacher preparation programs to incorporate the 'science of reading' by 2021. A Tennessee bill proposes similar requirements, along with grants to universities to support program upgrades.

According to a recent analysis by NCTQ, nineteen states require teachers to demonstrate an awareness of reading science in order to gain a license. Other states have a ways to go in even screening for literacy know-how.

How Are Districts Closing the Gap?

This preparation issue would be a small matter if school districts offered strong professional development on how kids learn to read. Unfortunately, there isn't evidence that teachers get good training on the job.

In last year's Chalkbeat survey, teachers consistently agreed that "American schools pay little attention to the science behind reading instruction." The chorus of teachers sharing "Aha!" moments about literacy research in social media tracks this finding.

In fact, we've even heard district leaders saying, "We learned critical reading research only after entering district leadership." These leaders remind us that "there's no finishing school for chief academic officers, nor is there certification on literacy know-how for district and school leaders." You can lead literacy for a large district without learning key research.

So, we have a truly systemic problem. Generations of teachers haven't been taught the basics on how kids learn to read in their training. This info gap isn't filled on the job... partly because school and district leaders often don't know the research, either. It's hard to say that it's any of their fault, because nothing in the system is designed to force or even inspire this to change.

It's fertile ground for non-research based reading approaches to flourish.

Is it any wonder that our national reading outcomes remain stagnant?

A National Moment of Professional Learning

In We Have a National Reading Crisis, last year's viral editorial, three district leaders issued a call to action:

'Educators urgently need a national movement for professional learning about reading. We should declare a No Shame Zone for this work-to make it safe for all educators to say, "I have unfinished learning around literacy."'

This sentiment has gained momentum, and we've seen a tsunami of interest in literacy, from media focus to increased parent advocacy.

Membership in "Science of Reading" Facebook groups - created by literacy advocates, educators, and Amplify - has exploded. Pioneering districts have announced strong outcomes on the back of reading instruction shifts. The Reading League's research-centered conference will soon rival the attendance at the less-research-centered ILA convening. We cite a 'growing national conversation about literacy' for good reason.

This momentum comes not a moment too soon. I began this piece before the 'distance learning' era, but as I publish it, schools are closed for the rest of this school year, and disruptions may persist. The #1 concern among literacy advocates is our K-1 students, because critical reading skill development happens during those years. Our emerging readers are most vulnerable to long-term impact from missed learning. Mind you, to understand the gravity of those concerns, you need to understand the importance of foundational skills like phonics and phonemic awareness, and why it matters so much to establish those foundations by second grade.

Also, to develop effective acceleration or remediation strategies, you need to truly understand the pillars of skilled reading.

We have a twofold crisis for our littlest learners: they are missing months of instruction at a formative time, and most of their teachers haven't been empowered with training on how kids learn to read. The urgency to address any "unfinished learning" for teachers has never been higher.

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Understanding the Fuss About Teacher Prep

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We're witnessing a growing outcry about teacher preparation in the US. Increasingly, teachers lament that their college courses didn't prepare them to teach reading. (Really.) It's a major issue for children's literacy - and some are just catching wind of it. Here's some background. Understanding the ConcernsIn 2018, the Hard Words audio-documentary opened many eyes...

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Despite billions of dollars and massive efforts on the part of thousands of highly dedicated and intelligent people over the past 25 years, the size of the test-score gap between the wealthiest and the poorest students hasn't changed. ¹ Our mediocre standing on international literacy rankings is largely a reflection of how low our lowest scores are. ² Teachers in high-poverty schools in Washington, D.C., have told me they've had students at all levels of ability, including the highest, but some of their stories were deeply disturbing.

Their high school students often lack a sense of chronology, they said. Students may confuse the Civil War and the civil rights movement. They may think Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. were contemporaries. In a world history class studying the segregation faced by black soldiers returning to the United States after World War I, some students were under the impression that slavery still existed in 1918. In a course on the United States after the Civil War, the teacher couldn't assume that students knew what happened before that war, even though they had already taken a class that covered it. "You have to start with: there was a War of Independence," she said, "and this is who we won our independence from." ³

Others told me their students don't understand the difference between a country and a continent, or between a city and a state. One kid in an SAT prep class-one of the better students, according to his teacher, who cited the fact that "he could place the United States on a world map"-was surprised by the term South America when he saw it on a map, apparently for the first time: How could it be called America if it wasn't in America? ⁴

Another high school teacher said she's even had a few students who don't know the name of the country they live in. "They think Washington, D.C., is their country," she said. ⁵

Urban school systems have been faced with the impossible task of turning ninth-graders who arrive with gaps like these into "college- and career-ready" graduates in four years-and threatened with consequences under federal law if graduation rates dip below 67 percent. For a while, the threats appeared to be working: in 2016, the national graduation rate reached an all-time high of more than 84 percent. ⁶ But within months, it became clear that some urban school systems had turned to subterfuges. ⁷ These included having students pass courses by taking far less rigorous online versions and changing attendance records. In Washington, D.C.-a city that many reformers have pointed to as a model, and where the graduation rate rose 20 points in six years-an investigation revealed that a full third of the 2017 graduates hadn't met requirements. ⁸

These problems don't end at high school. Studies suggest that students with low test scores are less likely to pursue higher education, obtain and keep jobs, provide for their families, exercise their civic rights and responsibilities, and lead fulfilling lives. ⁹ Education is supposed to enable everyone to do those things. It represents our best hope for breaking the cycle of multigenerational poverty. Really, it's our only hope.

And it's not working. Socioeconomic inequality in the United States is on the rise. ¹⁰ Many students proudly enroll in college-the surest route to success-only to discover they're so ill-prepared they need to take remedial reading and math. The vast majority of lower-income students never manage to get that coveted degree. ¹¹

Knowledge Makes a Difference

In 1987, two researchers in Wisconsin, Donna Recht and Lauren Leslie, conducted an experiment that shed some light on the roots of many of the problems that afflict our education system-and especially the gap in test scores between students at the top and bottom of the socioeconomic scale. They constructed a miniature baseball field, ¹² installed it in an empty classroom in a junior high school, and peopled it with four-inch wooden baseball players arranged to simulate the beginning of a game. Then they brought in 64 seventh- and eighth-grade students who had been tested both for their general reading ability and for their knowledge of baseball.

The goal was to determine to what extent a child's ability to understand a text depended on her prior knowledge of the topic. Recht and Leslie chose baseball because they figured lots of kids in junior high school who weren't great readers nevertheless knew a fair amount about the subject. Each student was asked to read a text describing half an inning of a fictional baseball game and move the wooden figures around the board to reenact the action described.

Churniak swings and hits a slow bouncing ball toward the shortstop, the passage began. Haley comes in, fields it, and throws to first, but too late. Churniak is on first with a single, Johnson stayed on third. The next batter is Whitcomb, the Cougars' left-fielder.

It turned out that prior knowledge of baseball made a huge difference in students' ability to understand the text-more of a difference than their supposed reading level. ¹³ The kids who knew little about baseball, including the "good" readers, all did poorly. And among those who knew a lot about baseball, the "good" readers and the "bad" readers all did well. In fact, the bad readers who knew a lot about baseball outperformed the good readers who didn't.

In another study, researchers read preschoolers from mixed socioeconomic backgrounds a book about birds, a subject they had determined the higher-income kids already knew more about. When they tested comprehension, the wealthier children did significantly better. But then they read a story about a subject neither group knew anything about: made-up animals called wugs. When prior knowledge was equalized, comprehension was essentially the same. ¹⁴ In other words, the gap in comprehension wasn't a gap in skills. It was a gap in knowledge.

The implication is clear: abstract "reading ability" is largely a mirage constructed by reading tests. A student's ability to comprehend a text will vary depending on many factors, prime among them being his familiarity with the topic. While instruction in the early grades has focused on "learning to read" rather than "reading to learn," many educators have overlooked the fact that part of learning to read is acquiring knowledge.

Research has established that one aspect of reading does need to be taught and practiced as a set of skills, much like math: decoding, the part that involves matching sounds to letters. (For more on decoding, see the article on page 4.) The problem is that the other aspect of reading-comprehension-is also being taught that way. The prevailing approach is to focus on skills and strategies such as "finding the main idea" and "making inferences," with students practicing the skills on books on random topics that have been determined to match their individual reading levels. While there's plenty of evidence that some instruction in some comprehension strategies can be helpful for some children, there's no reason to believe it can turn struggling readers into accomplished ones.

That's particularly true when it comes to nonfiction, which generally assumes more specialized background knowledge. To acquire the knowledge and vocabulary that will help them understand nonfiction, children need to do more than read a single book on a topic before skipping to another one while practicing how to identify text features or determine text structure. They need to stick with a topic for days or weeks, encountering the same vocabulary and concepts repeatedly so they will stick. ¹⁵

It's not so much that particular bits of information are vital in and of themselves-although some certainly are. It's more that people need to have enough facts in their heads to have what one commentator has called "a knowledge party" ¹⁶ -a bunch of accumulated associations that will enable them to absorb, retain, and analyze new information. Education certainly shouldn't end with facts. But if it doesn't begin there, many students will never acquire the knowledge and analytical abilities they need to thrive both in school and in life.

Vocabulary Is Essential, but Not Enough

It's not that educators are unaware of the importance of knowledge and vocabulary. One frequently taught reading comprehension strategy is "activating prior knowledge." If the story is about a trip on an airplane, for example, the teacher might ask kids if they've ever taken one. And if a text assumes knowledge many students don't have, he might quickly supply it. But that kind of on-the-spot injection of information is unlikely to stick without reinforcement. ¹⁷

Teachers are more likely to be aware of the need to build students' vocabulary rather than their knowledge; those gaps are more obvious, and more research has been done on the importance of vocabulary to comprehension. To be sure, it's important to focus on words that are used frequently in academic writing but are unlikely to be acquired through spoken language-words like merchant, fortunate, and benevolent. ¹⁸ But it's impossible to equip children with all the vocabulary they need by teaching it to them directly. During the first several years of schooling, children add eight words a day to their vocabularies, on average; ¹⁹ the only way to expand vocabulary that quickly is to expand knowledge. A single word is often just the tip of an iceberg of concepts and meanings, inseparable from the knowledge in which it is embedded. If you understand the word oar, for example, you're probably also familiar with the concepts of rowboats and paddling.

But building knowledge is trickier than teaching vocabulary. Teachers sometimes overestimate what children already know: I watched a class of second-graders struggle for half an hour through a text about slavery before their teacher realized they didn't understand the word slavery. Kindergartners in one low-income community had an average score in the fifth percentile on a vocabulary test, ²⁰ which reflected their inability to identify pictures showing the meanings of words like penguin, sewing, or parachute, and educators have told me of students who don't know simple words like behind and bead.

At the same time, teachers can underestimate students' capabilities. In addition to limiting children to books at their supposed levels, they may explain an entire text in simple language before reading it aloud, thus depriving students of the chance to wrest meaning from complex language themselves. (For more on misconceptions about reading levels, see the article here.)

"I believe what everybody believes," said one fifth-grade teacher at a high-poverty school in Nevada. "I don't mean to believe it, but it gets into you-this idea that certain learners are less capable of engaging with certain content. And I think that we've been making a lot of mistakes based in compassion for our students.... We make this great effort to smooth the road for them."

After experimenting with a text she was sure would be too challenging for her students-and being surprised by how well they did-she came to realize that she'd been doing them a disservice. "Unless they learn to navigate the bumps," she said, "we're not teaching them to be thinkers or readers." ²¹

Knowledge Is Like Velcro

There are multiple reasons that children from less-educated families arrive at school with less knowledge and vocabulary than their peers from highly educated ones-many having to do with wealth and income, which are highly correlated with levels of education. Children who live in poverty are far more likely to suffer the consequences of traumatic events that can interfere with their ability to learn. ²² Wealthier parents are better able to invest in their children; ²³ that can mean anything from buying more books to paying for tutoring or extracurricular activities.

In recent years, the difference between what lower- and higher-income parents spend on their children has increased dramatically. In 1972, the wealthiest Americans were spending five times as much per child as the lowest-income families. By 2007, parents at all economic levels were spending more on their children, but the highest-income families were spending nine times as much. ²⁴ As "human capital"-skills and education-has become increasingly vital to success, families in the top 20 percent have invested more heavily in ensuring their children can compete. It's become increasingly difficult for the bottom 80 percent to keep up.

Poor and working-class families are also more likely to practice "natural growth" parenting, according to sociologist Annette Lareau, allowing their children lots of unstructured time and tending to give directions rather than soliciting opinions. Middle-class and affluent families, on the other hand, generally practice "concerted cultivation": driving their kids to soccer practice and band recitals, engaging in family debates at dinnertime, and encouraging independent thinking. Each parenting style has its advantages, but the concerted cultivation kids are better equipped to do well in school. ²⁵

And then there's language. Children whose parents read to them frequently become familiar with the sophisticated vocabulary and syntax that appears in written rather than spoken language. ²⁶ Talking is important too. One much-publicized study published in the 1990s estimated that high-income children hear 30 million more words than low-income children by age 4. ²⁷ Recent research has called that estimate into question and focused instead on the number of "conversational turns," or back-and-forth verbal interactions, between parents and children; the more conversational turns, the better a child's language skills. ²⁸ And-although the ubiquity of cell phones and other screens has interfered with conversational turns across the spectrum-on average, higher-income families engage in more of them. ²⁹

Less-educated parents are also less likely to use complex vocabulary in conversation, and teachers may not be exposing students to it either. One study found that children living in high-poverty neighborhoods get "a double dose of disadvantage" as compared to their higher-income peers: the language they hear is less sophisticated both at home and at school. While these children "may have unique linguistic strengths that serve them well in their immediate settings," they were less likely to have the language skills that would enable them to do well academically. ³⁰

Whatever the causes, it's clear that children with certain risk factors begin school with skills that may be almost a year behind those of their peers. ³¹ And the gap only widens over time. ³² The more knowledge a child starts with, the more likely she is to acquire yet more knowledge. She'll read more and understand and retain information better, because knowledge, like Velcro, sticks best to other related knowledge.

This phenomenon of snowballing knowledge accumulation by kids who start out with more-while those who start out with less acquire less-has been dubbed "the Matthew effect." ³³ That's a reference to a line in the Gospel according to Matthew-"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath": or, "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." And the longer the Matthew effect is allowed to continue, the harder it is to reverse. That's why it's crucial to envelop students from less-educated families in a knowledge-building environment as early as possible.

Rather than being restricted to the simple material they can read on their own, young children need to listen to their teachers read more complex books aloud and engage in discussions about what they've heard-and, depending on their age, write about it. ³⁴ Even many middle schoolers can take in far more sophisticated content, and the vocabulary that goes with it, through listening and speaking than through their own reading. ³⁵ If teachers organize their read-alouds by topic instead of the skill-of-the-week, children have the chance to hear the same concepts and vocabulary repeatedly. Once they have a general familiarity with a topic, they can read more difficult text about it independently.

The Role of Working Memory

When we try to make sense of what we read, we rely on what cognitive scientists refer to as working memory, something psychology professor Daniel T. Willingham has called the staging ground for thought. Another definition might be consciousness. It's the process whereby we take in new information and combine it with the facts and procedures stored in our long-term memory. The key thing about working memory is that it has a limited capacity. And information in working memory is lost if it isn't quickly "rehearsed"-perhaps articulated or written about. By one estimate, the limit is just 15 to 30 seconds. ³⁶

So time is of the essence when trying to assimilate new information. If we can relate it to something we already know, it speeds up the process considerably. If we need to stop and look up every other word, or puzzle them out from context, we're far less likely to be able to understand and retain what we're reading.

Background knowledge, Willingham explains, also enables a reader to engage in something called chunking. Let's say the text in the 1987 baseball experiment said that the shortstop threw the ball to the second baseman, who threw the ball to the first baseman, resulting in two runners being out. The students who knew a lot about baseball could "chunk" those actions by recognizing them as a double play. But those who knew little about baseball would have to try to remember each step in the series of actions described, which occupies more space in working memory.

Scientists also use the word schema to describe this process. A schema is a mental framework constructed from accumulated information and experience and stored in long-term memory. When people already have a schema for a topic, new information on that topic has something it can stick to. If knowledge about baseball helps readers understand a text about baseball, it follows that knowledge about the world in general equips readers to do well on a test that covers a variety of subjects. And that's exactly what experiments have shown. ³⁷

There's no one right way to provide a high-quality education, and this country is too big and varied for one-size-fits-all prescriptions. But if we're equipped with a basic scientific understanding about which methods are most effective-and most likely to provide an engaging experience for kids-we should all be able to distinguish between approaches that are likely to produce the outcomes we want and those that will only lead to a heartbreaking waste of precious time. The best first step is for a school or district to adopt one of the new content-focused elementary literacy curricula that have appeared on the market-and in some cases online, for free-over the past several years.

We'll need to simultaneously pursue many other reform efforts, of course, including improving teacher training, ensuring that students living in poverty get the mental health and support services they need, and engaging families in their children's learning. But if we don't also give students access to knowledge of the world during elementary school, we'll never achieve the result we want: a system that equips all students to lead productive and fulfilling lives and carry out their responsibilities as members of a democratic society.

Natalie Wexler is an education journalist and coauthor with Judith C. Hochman of The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking through Writing in All Subjects and Grades. This article is an excerpt from her book The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-and How to Fix It (Avery). Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Copyright 2019 by Wexler.

Endnotes

1. E. Hanushek et al., "The Achievement Gap Fails to Close," Education Next 19, no. 3 (Summer 2019).
2. S. D. Sparks, "Global Reading Scores Are Rising, but Not for U.S. Students," Education Week, December 5, 2017.
3. Kerry Sylvia, former teacher at Cardozo Education Campus, Washington, D.C., conversation with author, July 12, 2016.
4. David Tansey, former teacher at Dunbar High School, Washington, D.C., conversation with author, April 30, 2016.
5. Kim Stalnaker, teacher at Eastern Senior High School, Washington, D.C., conversation with author, June 16, 2016.
6. M. Balingit, "U.S. High School Graduation Rates Rise to New High," Washington Post, December 4, 2017.
7. M. Dynarski, "Is the High School Graduation Rate Really Going Up?," Brookings (blog), May 3, 2018.
8. K. McGee, "In D.C., 34 Percent of Graduates Received a Diploma against District Policy," NPR, January 29, 2018.
9. R. Chetty, J. N. Friedman, and J. Rockoff, "Great Teaching," Education Next 12, no. 3 (Summer 2012); and E. A. Hanushek et al., "Education and Economic Growth," Education Next 8, no. 2 (Spring 2008).
10. K. G. Bates, "Report Updates Landmark 1968 Racism Study, Finds More Poverty and Segregation," NPR, February 27, 2018; D. DeSilver, "U.S. Income Inequality, on Rise for Decades, Is Now Highest since 1928," Fact Tank (blog), Pew Research Center, December 5, 2013; and R. V. Reeves, Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2017).
11. D. L. Kirp, "Ending the Curse of Remedial Math," New York Times, June 10, 2017. More than two-thirds of community college students need to take remedial math or English classes, which cost them money but don't earn them any credit. Only 15 percent of these students get their degrees on time.
12. L. Holt, "The Baseball Experiment: How Two Wisconsin Researchers Discovered That the Comprehension Gap Is a Knowledge Gap," Amplify Blog, accessed July 28, 2018.
13. D. R. Recht and L. Leslie, "Effect of Prior Knowledge on Good and Poor Readers' Memory of Text," Journal of Educational Psychology 80, no. 1 (March 1988): 16-20.
14. T. Kaefer, S. B. Neuman, and A. M. Pinkham, "Pre-Existing Background Knowledge Influences Socioeconomic Differences in Preschoolers' Word Learning and Comprehension," Reading Psychology 36, no. 3 (2015): 203-231.
15. G. N. Cervetti, T. S. Wright, and H. Hwang, "Conceptual Coherence, Comprehension, and Vocabulary Acquisition: A Knowledge Effect?," Reading and Writing 29, no. 4 (April 2016): 761-779.
16. M. Fordham, "The Knowledge Party in My Head," Clio et cetera (blog), November 21, 2016, www.clioetcetera.com/2016/11/21/the-knowledge-party-in-my-head.
17. D. T. Willingham, The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017), 89.
18. I. Beck, M. McKeown, and L. Kucan, "Choosing Words to Teach," in Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (New York: Guilford Press, 2002), 15-30.
19. M. Seidenberg, Language at the Speed of Sight and Sound: How We Read, Why So Many Can't, and What Can Be Done about It (New York: Basic Books, 2017), 111-113; and Cervetti, Wright, and Hwang, "Conceptual Coherence."
20. L. C. Moats, "Overcoming the Language Gap," American Educator 25, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 8-9.
21. Linnea Wolters, quoted in E. Hanford, "Common Core Reading: 'The New Colossus,' " NPR, November 11, 2014.
22. N. B. Harris, The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018); and M. Kirk, "What Kids' Trauma Looks Like across the U.S.," The Atlantic, February 27, 2018.
23. E. Caucutt, "Why Do Poor Children Perform More Poorly Than Rich Ones?," The Conversation, April 23, 2015, www.theconversation.com/why-do-poor-children-perform-more-poorly-than-r....
24. S. Tavernise, "Education Gap Grows between Rich and Poor, Studies Say," New York Times, February 10, 2012.
25. A. Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
26. M. Wolf, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 85-90.
27. B. Hart and T. R. Risley, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children (Baltimore: Brookes Publishing, 1995).
28. A. Trafton, "Back-and-Forth Exchanges Boost Children's Brain Response to Language," MIT News, February 13, 2018.
29. E. Christakis, "The Dangers of Distracted Parenting," The Atlantic, July/August 2018.
30. S. B. Neuman, T. Kaefer, and A. M. Pinkham, "A Double Dose of Disadvantage: Language Experiences for Low-Income Children in Home and School," Journal of Educational Psychology 110, no. 1 (January 2018): 102-118.
31. S. Bernstein et al., "Kindergartners' Skills at School Entry: An Analysis of the ECLS-K," Mathematica Policy Research, July 15, 2014, 3.
32. J. S. Chall and V. A. Jacobs, "The Classic Study on Poor Children's Fourth-Grade Slump," American Educator 27, no. 1 (Spring 2003). On nationwide reading tests, the gaps don't appear to increase much if you look only at standard deviations, which is the way the results are reported. But it takes far more work to make up one standard deviation at upper grade levels than at lower grade levels. In the early grades, a student might need to make up only one grade level to move up a standard deviation. By eighth grade, it would take three grade levels to move up one standard deviation-and far more at the high school level. David Grissmer, research professor, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, conversation with author, April 27, 2016.
33. K. Stanovich, "Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy," Reading Research Quarterly 21, no. 4 (Fall 1986): 360-407.
34. M. J. Adams, "Advancing Our Students' Language and Literacy: The Challenge of Complex Texts," American Educator 34, no. 4 (Winter 2010-2011): 5; and S. L. Hall and L. C. Moats, "Why Reading to Children Is Important," American Educator 24, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 26-33. While class discussion is also important, teachers need to read aloud to children because virtually all written language uses more complex vocabulary and syntax than spoken language, with the only exception being expert witness testimony.
35. D. Fisher and N. Frey, "Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning," The Reading Teacher 68, no. 1 (September 2014): 64-69.
36. R. C. Atkinson and R. M. Shiffrin, "Human Memory: A Proposed System and Its Control Processes," in The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Theory and Research, vol. 2, ed. K. W. Spence and J. T. Spence (New York: Academic Press, 1968), 89-195.
37. D. T. Willingham, "School Time, Knowledge, and Reading Comprehension," Science and Education (blog), March 7, 2012.

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Despite billions of dollars and massive efforts on the part of thousands of highly dedicated and intelligent people over the past 25 years, the size of the test-score gap between the wealthiest and the poorest students hasn't changed. 1 Our mediocre standing on international literacy rankings is largely a reflection of how low our lowest scores are.

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Advocating for the Literacy Needs of Children, National Center on Improving Literacy

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Advocating for the Literacy Needs of Children, National Center on Improving Literacy

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This toolkit helps families learn how to effectively advocate for children's literacy needs and the use of evidence-based literacy practices in school and early childhood settings.

You will learn:

This toolkit includes:

Supplemental Materials

Download and print these infographics with ideas or questions linked to the tutorial.

Why Advocacy is Important

Embrace your role as an advocate and learn how to work with your child's school toward common goals.

Big Ideas

Understanding what advocacy is prepares you for being a strong advocate for your child's literacy needs.

Establishing a strong family-school partnership opens doors for advocacy and encourages your child's success.

Advocacy can occur on an individual basis, such as advocating for the specific needs of your own child, or at the group level, such as advocating for a group of students with similar needs.

How to Advocate for Your Child's Literacy Needs

Learn multiple ways to advocate for your child's literacy needs and be better prepared to work with your child's school to ensure his or her needs are met.

Big Ideas

Advocacy comes in many forms and can be done in a variety ways.

To advocate well for your child's literacy needs, it helps to have a strong understanding of how children learn to read.

Knowing more about evidence-based practices and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) can equip you for more productive and targeted conversations with school staff about your child's literacy learning.

What to Do When Advocacy is Difficult

Learn strategies for when advocating becomes difficult.

Big Ideas

It is common to feel uneasy being an advocate for your child's literacy needs.

Disagreements are a natural part of working together.

You and the school rely on each other to meet the literacy needs of your child.

Facilitator's Guide

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Advocating for the Literacy Needs of Children

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This toolkit helps families learn how to effectively advocate for children's literacy needs and the use of evidence-based literacy practices in school and early childhood settings.

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Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don’t know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.

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Early this year, the Illinois Right to Read Act looked like a no-brainer. As originally written, the bill pushed teacher colleges, districts and schools to pay greater attention to phonics and phonemic awareness when teaching children to read. Right to Read proposed changing teacher training and creating a menu of “evidence-based” early reading curricula districts would be encouraged to adopt. And it got traction, fast.

Nationally, there’s growing momentum to make sure that longstanding, ineffective approaches to teaching reading are replaced with pedagogy that ensures students can crack the complicated code of written English. So far this year, seven states have passed laws intended to fix this problem, and more are being debated in statehouses right now.

Parents of children with dyslexia, whose reading challenges often go unrecognized and unaddressed for years, have often spearheaded the charge. The Illinois Early Literacy Coalition, which backed the bill, connects those parents with disability rights groups, educators, and policy advocates.

The bill’s lead sponsor, state Senator Kimberly Lightford, saw the Right to Read Act as a crucial move toward equity in education and life outcomes for Black and low-income students, whose fortunes she and other legislators were particularly concerned about in the wake of a year of remote learning and its associated challenges.

“It’s critical for educators to focus on developing a child’s literacy development within the early stages,” she said in a press release. “Poor literacy can hurt a student’s access to career opportunities.” Reportedly, concerns about widening racial gaps in early literacy also fueled supporters’ urgency to move the bill.

But politics and pedagogy slowed its momentum. The politics were obvious: a key constituency wasn’t consulted from the beginning. Advocates for bilingual and multilingual students, led by the Latino Policy Forum, who were not part of the initial coalition that got the bill off the ground, led the opposition that successfully paused its progress. The pedagogical arguments are more complex.  Both matter for ensuring all students get the high-quality reading teaching they so desperately need, especially since the pandemic-disrupted schooling.

Illinois’ Dustup Mirrors a Larger Dispute

The pedagogical argument over Illinois’ Right to Read Act parallels a national conversation now happening between science of literacy advocates and educators working with multilingual students. Following the lead of the recently convened National Committee for Effective Literacy (NCEL),  which focuses on children learning multiple languages, Latino Policy Forum and its allies argued that without other guardrails in place, the push for phonics could crowd out other necessary components of effective literacy teaching, especially for multilingual children.

“We don’t want to over-privilege one reading practice. We resonate with the aim for this to be a racial equity agenda,” says Erika Mendez, associate director of education and legislative lead at the Latino Policy Forum. “It wasn’t a fully baked idea. We think this pause allows us to [create] a comprehensive plan.”

Retired Stanford University professor Claude Goldenberg, one of a number of national experts being tapped to help advocates revise the bill, agrees. “Illinois is at the forefront of a type of conversation about literacy policy that we hardly ever see,”  he said.

“Rather than continuing the needless conflicts of the past—and still present in most of the country— parents, advocates, policy-makers, and educators are working to identify common ground as well as outstanding issues and questions needing further investigation.”

More Than the Reading Wars

So, what are those “needless conflicts of the past?” To anyone who has followed debates over how to teach reading, the current disagreement between science of literacy proponents and advocates for multilingual children echoes the reading wars of the 1990s and 2000s.

Historically, approaches to teaching reading in the United States have waffled between emphasis on phonics and decoding–understanding how letters and sounds work together in words–and focusing on other kinds of cues, from visual recognition of whole words to context to pictures in text. Proponents of phonics, or the “science of literacy,” have squared off against proponents of cue-oriented instruction, or  “whole language,” for decades.

However, when it comes to the mechanics of reading, the science of literacy approach is more effective than cueing. Cognitive scientists have found repeatedly that skilled readers know the code of written language well enough to read words in isolation. Context is a far less reliable guide to reading text.

In cognitive science and pedagogical theory for beginning readers of any language, emphasis on cracking the code takes priority.

Multilingual Learners in a Monolingual Nation

What’s different about the current friction between science of literacy proponents and multilingual educators? First of all, it’s not about whether phonics matters. “I want to make sure we state very clearly that we do not reject the teaching of phonics,” said Martha Hernandez, NCEL’s co-chair and executive director of Californians Together.

The current disagreements boil down to two key factors:

The politics of English dominance in holding back the potential of children for whom English is not their first language.

The importance of ensuring that children who have the gift of a home language other than English have skilled teachers who know how to put that gift to work as they add English to their linguistic repertoire.

Historically, English dominance has been tied to the segregation and exclusion of Brown children. Through the first half of the 20th century, language difference was among the excuses used by segregationists in California and the Southwest to exclude Mexican American children from attending school with their white, English-speaking peers.

Even when schools are not legally segregated, children whose first language is not English–regardless of ethnicity or home-language background–have been given short shrift in U.S. schools: overcrowded classrooms, untrained teachers, and insufficient socio-cultural support.

Most of the research on how students learn to read that is cited in the U.S. has been conducted on English monolingual speakers. This raises eyebrows among multilingual educators. Advances in cognitive science have shown that speakers of multiple languages use their brains differently when reading than do monolinguals.

"Literacy instruction for English learners should not be based upon research on English monolingual students. It should be based on research on English learners,” said NCEL’s Hernandez.

Neuroscientists are still learning how the human brain learns to read in languages that use alphabetic writing systems and how that differs from learning to read writing systems like Tamil or Chinese, where symbols represent larger units of sound, or both sound and meaning in one symbol.  International research suggests that the process of learning to read a second language–the mind-mapping of sound, symbol, and meaning–has similarities across alphabetic languages. We have much more to learn about how humans learning to read a second language put their brains to work.

Where’s the Common Ground?

In February, NCEL released a white paper outlining their concerns and citing research on best practices for teaching multilingual children. A month later, Goldenberg and colleagues Lillian Durán of the University of Oregon, curriculum expert Linda Diamond and bilingual speech-language pathologist Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan responded by pointing out the areas of overlap and agreement among those pushing for greater attention to pedagogy informed by science of reading and advocates for children learning more than one language.

Here are some of the key points on which a common-sense, common-ground approach to teaching literacy could be based.

Literacy instruction must include, but cannot be limited to,  connecting sounds and symbols. First and foremost, both science of literacy proponents and advocates for multilingual students recognize the five pillars of literacy that uphold all good reading instruction:  phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Excellent teaching incorporates all five of the pillars and mixes them in proportion to students’ developmental stage as readers and as language learners.

Multilingual students need teachers who devote extra time to growing their English speaking and listening skills. Goldenberg and colleagues–experts with deep experience in both science of literacy and supporting multilingual students–agree that students who speak more than one language also need deep, ongoing opportunities to develop their vocabulary and speaking skills in English. Read-alouds and rich conversation about science and social studies help all students grow their higher-level vocabulary and the background knowledge they need to comprehend more advanced texts.

To benefit multilingual students who are also beginning English readers, it’s important that teachers know how to help them put their understanding of sounds (and symbols, if relevant) in their home language to work learning English. Ideally, teachers understand enough about the phonology–sounds systems–of English and other languages to help their multilingual students make those connections. Bilingual and dual language teachers call this process “translanguaging.”  Translanguaging also takes place when students observe cognates–words that mean the same thing in English and their home languages. Translanguaging takes skilled teachers supporting students to put their knowledge of other languages to work learning English.

One of those teachers is Silvia Gonzalez-Powers, who teaches English as a second language in the Boston Public Schools. “I think it’s vital to make as many connections to their native language as possible when they’re learning a concept in English,” she said. And it’s on teachers to learn a little bit about their students’ languages to help them put to work what they already know.  “I have a growing population of Bengali-speaking students. I didn’t know much about their language.” But she made it a mission to learn about the sounds of the language. She constantly asks herself, “Do my students come from a language where they have an equivalent sound-symbol correspondence? Do they have any phonological skills that transfer to English or not?”

In their paper, Goldenberg and his co-authors argue that federal and state governments should do more to train teachers to the level of skill Gonzalez-Powers and others like her have achieved. They agree with NCEL:

Schools should develop more dual language programs and other avenues to help multilingual students reach full biliteracy and fluency in their home language as well as in English.

At the same time, they acknowledge that most U.S. classrooms today cannot achieve that goal. Though the number of dual language programs in schools has grown over time, a 2021 canvass shows only about 3,600 dual language programs now operate in U.S. public schools, and it is unclear how many students they reach. Currently, 33 states plus the District of Columbia face shortages of English as a second language teachers. Meeting schools and students where they are demands greater investment in teacher development for all kinds of teachers: dual language, English as a second language and general education teachers.

Illinois science of reading advocates support this common ground. “There’s a lot we agree with there,” said Jessica Handy, Stand for Children’s policy director and a central figure in the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition.  “Illinois may be the place that does this in a really inclusive way.”

To that end, state Sen. Lightford and Rep. Mayfield have announced this summer will be full of conversations among all stakeholders, guided by Goldenberg and other experts. “We have an opportunity to learn from other states, emulate their successes, avoid their pitfalls, and make Illinois’ literacy plan the most equitable and inclusive in the country,” said Lightford.

Ed Finkel is a freelance writer who covers education, urban affairs and other public policy issues. He can be reached at edfinkel@edfinkel.com. Maureen Kelleher is Editorial Partner at Ed Post. She is a veteran education reporter, a former high school English teacher, and also the proud mom of an elementary student in Chicago Public Schools. Her work has been published across the education world, ...

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Science of Literacy and Dual Language Advocates Can Work Together, But It’s Harder Than You Think

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Early this year, the Illinois Right to Read Act looked like a no-brainer. As originally written, the bill pushed teacher colleges, districts and schools to pay greater attention to phonics and phonemic awareness when teaching children to read.

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In pursuit of a just equitable and inclusive society, Identity's mission is to create opportunities for Latino and other historically underserved youth to realize their highest potential and thrive.

Identity is honored to have supported the successful growth and development of tens of thousands of young people living in high poverty areas of Montgomery County since 1998. Identity youth report real improvements in their ability to resolve conflict; speak up for themselves; connect to school, the workforce and the community; and avoid substance abuse and delinquent behavior. Identity youth show improved school attendance and achievement, and their families report improved communication and more involvement in their children's lives after participating in our programs. Lifesaving safety-net support and caring human connections stave off hunger, homelessness and despair in families during times of extreme crisis.

We envision a just and equitable society that nurtures all youth and is enriched by their contributions.

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For Latino youth and other historically underserved youth... Identity is a resource. Identity is a community. Identity is a safe place. In pursuit of a just equitable and inclusive society, Identity's mission is to create opportunities for Latino and other historically underserved youth to realize their highest potential and thrive.

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The Maryland Education Coalition (MEC) represents

parents, civil rights, & special student population groups. For over 40 years, MEC has advocated for adequate, equitable policies and funding and systematic accountability for the estimated 900,000 students in Maryland's public schools, regardless of their academic, cultural, economic, geographic, racial or other demographic status. This includes students of color, those identified as lower income, special needs, limited English, homeless,

foster care, Gifted & Talented or within the Juvenile Service systems.

We believe a public education is a constitutional right based on Article VIII of the Maryland Constitution, which requires all public school students have equitable access to quality education so each may graduate college- or career-ready. We also believe that education is a civil right supported by federal and state laws or regulations.

NEW - MEC 2022 General Assembly Session Brief

MEC, its twenty-five plus member organizations and individuals again had a successful 2022 session. Every bill or legislative initiative we advocated for did not pass, but several did. Others are in the FY 2023 budget. Thanks in part to a state budget surplus and federal stimulus funds not previously allocated, State Aid to Education had a net increase of $456 million to $7.209 billion. This would have been higher, but the state loss an estimated 25,000 students during the passed couple of years due to Covid-19 related issues.

Among our other accomplishments included protecting Blueprint funding including $125 million cut by the Governor for Baltimore City $99 million & Prince George's $27 million, add $58 million in Transition Grant to supplement enrollment losses statewide; $90 million increase for Pre-K and a $73 million increase in funds for Concentrated Poverty programs. Funds for school construction nearly tripled from an estimated $425 million in FY 2022 to about $1.2 billion for 2023 statewide.

Several major policy issues also passed including funding, staffing, and funding for Child Care Programs, staff and resources and Juvenile Services staff and resources. A new law passed banning a wide range of discrimination in Pre-K to 12th grade public and non-public schools, improved policies, and funding for Support Professionals; new license policies for Audiologist, Speech Pathologist and Music Therapist; Student Privacy Policy Updates; Child Abuse and Neglect investigation and the eventual elimination of Physical Restraint & Seclusion.

Practice Masking, Hand-washing

and Social Distancing.

MEC urges ALL members, partners, friends and

communities to remain Smart, Safe and Healthy.

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The Maryland Education Coalition (MEC) represents parents, civil rights, & special student population groups. For over 40 years, MEC has advocated for adequate, equitable policies and funding and systematic accountability for the estimated 900,000 students in Maryland's public schools, regardless of their academic, cultural, economic, geographic, racial or other demographic status.

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Transforming Public Ed for Maryland Immigrants & English Language Learners

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Transforming Public Ed for Maryland Immigrants & English Language Learners

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Call to engagement by MSDE
Wed, June 1, 2022
6:45 PM – 8:00 PM EDT

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This is a virtual event hosted online on Zoom. We will send you a follow-up email with the Zoom link closer to the date of the event. Keep an eye on your inbox!

Co-hosted by Community WELL & State Superintendent of Schools, Mohammed Choudhury, MSDE.

Dear Students and Parents/Guardians of English Language Learners and Teachers in Maryland Public Schools,

Community Workgroup on English Language Learners (WELL) and Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) invite you to join us and VOICE YOUR needs and ideas on how Maryland can improve education programming and services in schools for immigrant children and families. Members of Community WELL and our new State Superintendent of Schools, Mohammed Choudhury, and his staff will be there to speak directly with you in small breakout groups.

MSDE is currently developing its first Strategic Plan and is facilitating the Blueprint Workgroup on English Language Learners. MSDE is partnering with community and advocacy organizations to ensure that the most impacted individuals and communities are at the forefront of the effort to set a new course for our public schools in Maryland.

Plans like the Blueprint come around once in a generation. The time is NOW to ensure equity and excellence for all students in Maryland!

Please RSVP and share this with immigrant and English language learning families statewide!

- Members of Community WELL and MSDE

Background

Who is Community WELL?

We are a coalition of over 30 individuals and organizations, including service providers, advocacy organizations, policy experts, and community groups that provide services to immigrant students and families, and engage them on important education policy matters. Our primary goal is to ensure that the Blueprint Workgroup on ELLs’ recommendations include comprehensive, inclusive, and transformative education policies and practices for immigrant students and families, as MSDE and the Blueprint's Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) move forward with the implementation of new policies and reforms outlined in the $3.8 billion Blueprint plan for our public schools. Our approach to accomplish our goal is by ensuring that impacted community members are at the decision-making table and that the MSDE and the Blueprint Workgroup on ELLs are partnering with the community in a robust and authentic way.

Like us on Facebook to get updates about our work. And join our team! Email us at CommunityWELLMD@gmail.com.

What is the Blueprint for Maryland's Future?

In 2021, the Maryland legislature passed the "Blueprint for Maryland's Future", a $3.8 billion education reform plan that will provide PreK and other early learning resources, new college and career programs, more services for healthcare and mental health, more funding for academic support and wrap around services, and more funding and support for teachers. This law also established the Blueprint Workgroup on English Language Learners, which is charged with "collecting data on English Language Learners in the state, reviewing national research and current practices, and making recommendations to improve the education of English learners in the state." The Workgroup is chaired by Maryland's new superintendent, Mohammed Choudhury. MSDE is also developing a new Strategic Plan to chart a new path forward for public education in Maryland -- the first of its kind for the department. They are asking for your input as they proceed.

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Transforming Public Ed for Maryland Immigrants & English Language Learners

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Listening Session - Voice your ideas about transforming education for immigrant and English language learning students and families.

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The Black and Dyslexic Podcast is here to educate, empower, and equip adults and parents of children with dyslexia and other language based learning differences. We offer an authentic and raw perspective into the challenges faced when advocating for yourself or your child with a learning disability. Black and underrepresented minorities don't experience advocacy the same way as our White counterparts.

The Black and Dyslexic Podcast is here to educate, empower, and equip adults and parents of children with dyslexia and other language based learning differences. We offer an authentic and raw perspective into the challenges faced when advocating for yourself or your child with a learning disability. Black and underrepresented minorities don't experience advocacy the same way as our White counterparts.

Great resource!

It can be a steep learning curve as a parent to learn how to best advocate for child with dyslexia. Winifred Winston and LeDerick Horne do a great job bringing us understanding and tools in an accessible way.

Amazing Info!!

I'm not sure how I found this, but I enjoyed every single episode and look forward to another season. I'm a former teacher turned full time tutor and in the process now of having my child tested. I became so passionate about dyslexia since I began my own research that I'm now in training to become a dyslexia therapist. Our community definitely needs to become more education about the topic and that's exactly what this show did. Excellent work!!!

Round of Applause

I found this podcast by accident, but I was able to listen to one episode and I was hooked. This has given me hope when I was at the point of giving up, hats off to this amazing work of art.

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The Black and Dyslexic Podcast is here to educate, empower, and equip adults and parents of children with dyslexia and other language based learning differences. We offer an authentic and raw perspective into the challenges faced when advocating for yourself or your child with a learning disability....

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ExtraOrdinary Districts: Ordinary school districts that get extraordinary results - The Education Trust

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School districts ask, "What can we do to better serve low-income and students of color?" Ed Trust's podcast, ExtraOrdinary Districts visits ordinary school districts that get extraordinary results

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Abridged agenda does not include welcome messages or break out groups. For full agenda see UMD COE website.

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Keys to Literacy, Joan Sedita
Includes videos on comprehension, writing, adolescent literacy, information for teachers of students in grades 5+.

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Webinar: Instructional Suggestions for Writing About Reading

Archived from 2022. This webinar presented by Joan Sedita for the Oregon RTIi Annual Conference begins with an overview of The Writing Rope framework for writing instruction and then presents instructional suggestions for writing responses to prompts in any subject area based on sources. Strategies are introduced for the ANSWER Routine ( Analyze the question, set Notes, Select relevant information from sources, Write the response, Edit and R evise.

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Start learning now with our free webinars and videos.

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Literacy Academy Live | Ohio Department of Education

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The Science of Reading & English Learners

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The Science of Reading & English Learners

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Ohio Department of Education Literacy Academy

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Literacy Academy Live | Ohio Department of Education

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Literacy Academy provides professional learning to support the use of evidence-based language and literacy practices and to assist districts, schools and early childhood education programs working towards raising literacy achievement. Literacy Academy Live 2022 will include four livestream keynotes…

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Examining the Balance in Literacy Instruction

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Examining the Balance in Literacy Instruction

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In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat

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In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat

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In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat (Published 2022)

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Lucy Calkins, a leading literacy expert, has rewritten her curriculum to include a fuller embrace of phonics and the science of reading. Critics may not be appeased.

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Willie Flowers, President, NAACP, Maryland State Conference, Introduction to Panel 2

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Willie Flowers, President, NAACP, Maryland State Conference, Introduction to Panel 2

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About the Maryland Conference of the NAACP

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Willie Flowers - Executive Director - Park Heights Community Health Alliance | LinkedIn

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View Willie Flowers' profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. Willie has 7 jobs listed on their profile. See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Willie's connections and jobs at similar companies.

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Moderator:  Winifred A. Winston, founder of Dyslexia Advocation, Inc. & Co-Host, Black & Dyslexic Podcast

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Moderator:  Winifred A. Winston, founder of Dyslexia Advocation, Inc. & Co-Host, Black & Dyslexic Podcast

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Winifred A. Winston, Dyslexia Advocation
Black and Dyslexic Podcast

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Moderator, Joan Mele-McCarthy, MD State Board of Education Member

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Moderator, Joan Mele-McCarthy, MD State Board of Education Member

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​ Dr. Joan Mele-McCarthy, D.A., CCC-SLP brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Maryland State Board of Education. She currently serves as the Executive Director at The Summit School in Edgewater, MD, an independent school serving bright children with dyslexia and other learning differences. She is a nationally recognized speech-language pathologist with expertise in theoretical models and practical application of the link between oral language and reading, service delivery models in school settings, and teacher training.

Prior to her current position, Dr. Mele-McCarthy served as Senior Policy Advisor and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS) in the U.S. Department of Education. She has a national perspective on general education and special education as a result of her policy work on the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004). Her philosophy of education holds as a priority, high expectations for all children in a way that meets their learning needs. In addition to her federal policy role, Dr. Mele-McCarthy has worked in public schools, universities, and private practice. As part of her clinical work she served children with communication disorders, reading difficulties, and executive function challenges, which she brings to her work with children in classrooms. She believes in partnerships between families and schools, and to continues to be a strong and effective advocate for that partnership.

Dr. Mele-McCarthy brings extensive board member experience to the Maryland State Board of Education, having recently completed a term on the Board of Directors for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) as the Vice President for Governmental Relations and Public Policy (2015-2017). Additional board work includes advisor to the board for The George Washington University K-12 On-line High School, the Financial Planning Board and Governmental Relations and Public Policy Board with ASHA, the International Dyslexia Association, the Maryland Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the District of Columbia Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the Long Island Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the Association of Independent Maryland Schools Board of Trustees. She is an active participant in the professional activities of The Dyslexia Foundation and serves as Chair of the Academic Centers for Excellence initiatives. She also serves on the Communication Disorders Research Group Schools Liaison Committee and is a member of Leadership Maryland, Class of 2012. She was appointed as the Chair of the Governor's Task Force on the Implementation of a Dyslexia Education Program (August 2015-December 2016) for the State of Maryland.

Dr. Mele-McCarthy's scholarly work includes presentation of peer reviewed research-to-practice papers, seminars, and workshops locally and nationally. Her publications include articles and book chapters related to policy for NCLB, IDEA, students with disabilities, and English learners with disabilities.
Dr. Mele-McCarthy lives in Calvert County with her husband, Kevin, where they raised two children, who are now adults residing with their families in the greater Washington DC and Southern Maryland regions.

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​ Dr. Joan Mele-McCarthy, D.A., CCC-SLP brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Maryland State Board of Education. She currently serves as the Executive Director at The Summit School in Edgewater, MD, an independent school serving bright children with dyslexia and other learning differences.

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Dr. Nancy J. Nelson Fien, National Center for Improving Literacy (NCIL), What is the Science of Reading?

Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, Literacy & English Language Learners

Dr. Inte’A DeShields, Morgan State University, Literacy & Children of Color

Dr. Rachel Romeo, College of Education, University of Maryland, Literacy & Poverty

Ben Shiffrin, Jemicy School, Literacy & Learning Disabilities

Dr. Kelli Cummings, College of Education, University of Maryland, Multi-tiered System of Support for Reading

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Moderator, Curtis Valentine, Progressive Policy Institute

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Moderator, Curtis Valentine, Progressive Policy Institute

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Co-Director, Reinventing America’s Schools

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Walking a Tightrope Between Advocacy and Knowledge: An Appeal from Teacher Educators to Speech Language Pathologists Regarding African American English

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Walking a Tightrope Between Advocacy and Knowledge: An Appeal from Teacher Educators to Speech Language Pathologists Regarding African American English

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Senior Policy Fellow

Solution Areas:

Early Literacy

National

Kymyona Burk is a Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd. In this role, she supports states pursuing a comprehensive approach to K-3 reading policy by assisting state leaders in building new or improving existing K-3 reading policies, with a heavy focus on supporting successful policy implementation.

Kymyona most recently served in Mississippi as the Executive Director for the Jackson Public School District’s Office of Teaching and Learning and led all aspects of the district’s instructional programming. Prior to this, she was the State Literacy Director at the Mississippi Department of Education where she led the implementation of Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act. Kymyona began her career as an elementary reading teacher and has also taught middle and high school English. At Jackson State University, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Master of Arts in Teaching English, Master of Science in Education Administration and Supervision and a Doctor of Education in Early Childhood Education.

Resources and Posts by Kymyona Burk, Ed.D.

Four Reasons to Attend Alaska’s Upcoming Reading Symposium

April 19, 2022

State Spotlight: Mississippi Identifies the State’s First Emerging Science of Reading Elementary Schools

Kymyona Burk, Ed.D. &  Kristen Wynn September 28, 2021

#AskExcelinEd: What is the State of Black Education in Louisiana?

Kymyona Burk, Ed.D. June 24, 2021

#AskExcelinEd: What is the State of Black Education in Mississippi?

Tim Abram &  Kymyona Burk, Ed.D. April 14, 2021

#AskExcelinEd: What is the state of Black education in America?

Tim Abram &  Kymyona Burk, Ed.D. February 24, 2021

Closing the Teacher Preparation Gap: Implementing the New Science of Teaching Reading Exam in Texas

Kymyona Burk, Ed.D. February 16, 2021

Awareness to Action: How Adopting a Dyslexia Policy Can Positively Impact Instructional Practices for All Students

Kymyona Burk, Ed.D. October 30, 2020

The Reading League Journal - The Perfect Storm: Mississippi's Momentum for Improving Reading Achievement

Kymyona Burk, Ed.D. September 01, 2020

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Kymyona Burk, Ed.D., is a Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd.

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Delegate Eric Luedtke, Majority Leader and Member of the House Ways and Means Committee

Delegate Jared Solomon, Member of the House Appropriations Committee

John Woolums, Esq., Director of Governmental Affairs, Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE)

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Includes

Morning and Afternoon panel and speaker schedule

Panel Session Titles & Topics

Breakout session times

Summit Purpose
A sequel to the January 2021 summit, the Fearless Conversations II Literacy and Equity in the 21st Century: How Evidence-Based Instructional Practices Can Raise Literacy Achievement for All Students in Maryland is a one-day virtual summit that brings together government and community stakeholders to:

provide a deeper understanding of evidence-based literacy practices that advance achievement, particularly for the most vulnerable learners

align knowledge and practice standards with the established reading science, and

develop actionable solutions to improve student reading outcomes through innovative approaches to increase educator access to professional development.

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The University of Maryland College of Education, in partnership with Morgan State University, the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) of Maryland, is hosting its 2nd Annual Literacy and Equity in the 21st Century Summit.

A sequel to the January 2021 summit, the Fearless Conversations II Literacy and Equity in the 21st Century: How Evidence-Based Instructional Practices Can Raise Literacy Achievement for All Students in Maryland is a one-day virtual summit that brings together government and community stakeholders to

provide a deeper understanding of evidence-based literacy practices that advance achievement, particularly for the most vulnerable learners,

align knowledge and practice standards with the established reading science, and

develop actionable solutions to improve student reading outcomes through innovative approaches to increase educator access to professional development.

WATCH LIVE b eginning Thursday, May 26 at 8:00 a.m.

Welcome Remarks

Clarence Crawford, Chair, Maryland State Board of Education

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, President, Valley Speech Language and Learning Center; Research Associate Professor, Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics at the University of Houston

Featured Panelists

Dr. Deann Collins, Deputy Superintendent, Maryland State Department of Education

Dr. Nancy J. Nelson Fien, Leader of Professional Development, National Center for Improving Literacy

Dr. Monica McHale-Small, Past-Chair, Learning Disabilities of America;  Assistant Professor, Temple University

Dr. Phelton Moss, Senior Lecturer, American University

Agenda

8:15 -
8:30 a.m.

Introductory Messages
Glenda Prime, Ph.D., Dean of School of Education &  Urban Studies, Morgan State University

Laura Stapleton, Ph.D., Interim Dean, College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park

8:30 -
9:15 a.m.

Keynote:  “Bridges to Literacy for English Learners”
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, President, Valley Speech Language and Learning Center; Research Associate Professor, Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics at the University of Houston

9:15 -
10:45 a.m.

Panel 1: Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching Historically Underserved Students to Read

Moderator: Dr. Joan Mele-McCarthy, Member, Maryland State Board of Education

Dr. Nancy Nelson, National Center for Improving Literacy (NCIL), What is the Science of Reading?

Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, Literacy & English Language Learners

Dr. Inte’A DeShields, Morgan State University, Literacy & Children of Color

Dr. Rachel Romeo, College of Education, University of Maryland, Literacy & Poverty

Ben Shiffrin, Jemicy School, Literacy & Learning Disabilities
Dr. Kelli Cummings, College of Education, University of Maryland, Multi-tiered System of Support for Reading

10:45 -
10:50 a.m.

Break

10:50 -
11:15 a.m.

Moderated Break Out Rooms

11:15 -
11:45 a.m.

Introduction of Panel 2:  Building Vibrant & Literate Communities

Willie Flowers, President, NAACP Maryland Branch

11:15 -
11:45 a.m.

Panel 2: Building Vibrant & Literate Communities

Moderator:  Winifred A. Winston, Founder of Dyslexia Advocation, Inc.

Nora Morales, Program Director, Identity, Inc.

Lauren Stouten, Decoding Dyslexia Maryland

Willie Flowers, President, NAACP Maryland Branch

Marla Posey-Moss, President,  Free State PTA

11:45 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.

Lunch/Break

12:20 -
12:35 p.m.

Introductory Messages

Nina Harris, Ed.D., Associate Dean, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park

Clarence Crawford, President, Maryland State Board of Education

12:35 -
2:35 p.m.

Panel 3: Busting the Myth that Black and Brown Children Can’t Read (And Poor and Learning Disabled Children too!)

Moderator: Curtis Valentine, Progressive Policy Institute, Co-Director, Reinventing America’s Schools

12:35 -
1:35 p.m.

Part 1:  Lessons for Teacher Preparation and Professional Development: The Science of Reading in Action

Simone Gibson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Education & Urban Studies, Morgan State University Teacher Prep, HBCU Perspective

Monica McHale-Small, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Temple University, School District Changes

Phelton C. Moss Ph.D., Sr. Professorial Lecturer, American University, Developing & Retaining Educator Talent

John Bennetts, formerly with Rhode Island Department of Education, Transforming Teacher Practices Schoolwide

Kari Kurto, National Science of Reading Project Director, The Reading League, Professional Learning Community

1:35 -
2:35 p.m.

Part 2: Lessons for Our Schools: The Science of Reading in Action

The role of the state department of education:
Dr. Deann Collins, Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, MD State Dept of Education

English Language Learner Workgroup:
Dr. Drew Fagan

Teacher Perspective/Choosing Curriculum and Intervention:

Rhea Espedido Graham, Baltimore City Public Schools

Camille Johnson, Prince George's County Public Schools

Principal Perspective:
Kelly O’Connell and Brian Powell, Baltimore County Public Schools

System Administrator Perspective:

Heather Boles, Baltimore City Schools

Melaika Brown, Montgomery County Public Schools

Simone McQuaige, Prince George's County Public Schools

2:35 -
3:30 p.m.

Panel 4: Shaping Reading & Literacy Policy to Avoid Pitfalls & Benefit Student Outcomes

Moderator: Kymyona Burke, ExcelinEd

Eric Luedtke, House Ways and Means Committee, Majority Leader

Delegate Jared Solomon, House Appropriations Committee

John Woolums, Maryland Association of Boards of Education; Education Lobbyist

3:30 p.m.

Conclusion

>3:30 p.m.

Implementation and Policy Breakout Rooms/Next Steps

This event is sponsored by The Reading League of Maryland and Maryland READS.

For more information, please contact Donald J. Bolger, associate professor, at djbolger@umd.edu

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Literacy and Equity in the 21st Century: How Evidence-Based Instructional Practices Can Raise Literacy Achievement for All Students in Maryland | UMD College of Education

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The University of Maryland College of Education, in partnership with Morgan State University, the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and t

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Lessons from Our Schools: The Science of Reading in Action

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Lessons from Our Schools: The Science of Reading in Action

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Deann Collins, Ed.D., Deputy State Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, MD State Dept. of Education, T he Role of the State Department of Education

Drew Fagan, Ed.D., Assoc. Clinical Professor, University of MD and Maryland English Language Learner Workgroup, Teacher Perspective/Choosing Curriculum and Intervention

Teacher Perspective:

Rhea Espedido Graham, Baltimore City Schools

Camille Johnson, Prince George's County Public Schools

Principal Perspective:

Kelly O’Connell, Principal Mars Estates Elementary School, Baltimore County Public School

Brian Powell, Principal, Kenwood High School, Baltimore County Public Schools

System Administrator Perspective:

Heather Boles, Baltimore City Schools

Melaika Brown, Montgomery County Public Schools

Simone McQuaige, Prince George’s County Public Schools

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The Science of Reading within the Department of Teacher Education at Morgan State University. 

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Dr. Simone Gibson, Morgan State University

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Dr. Simone Gibson, Morgan State University

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Lessons for Teacher Preparation: The Science of Reading in Action

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Lessons for Teacher Preparation: The Science of Reading in Action

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Simone Gibson, Ph.D. Associate Professor, School of Education & Urban Studies, Morgan State University Teacher Prep, HBCU Perspective

Monica McHale-Small, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Temple University, School district changes

Phelton C. Moss Ph.D., Sr Professorial Lecturer, American University, Developing & retaining educator talent

John Bennetts, formerly with Rhode Island Department of Education, Transforming teacher practices schoolwide

Kari Kurto, National Science of Reading Project Director, The Reading League, Professional Learning Community

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Recommended by Curtis Valentine, Progressive Policy Institute

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Real men Teach gear

Proceeds from sales of Real Men Teach gear will go to scholarships for male educators of color

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The Reading League, Ed Prep SOR Community of Practice Interest Form

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The Reading League, Ed Prep SOR Community of Practice Interest Form

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MCPS Elementary English Language Arts Block Schedule 2022-2023

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MCPS Elementary English Language Arts Block Schedule 2022-2023

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Provided by Melaika Brown, Supervisor, Elementary English/LA, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

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Elementary English Language Arts Schedule 2022-23

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K-2 Structured Literacy Block Best Practices

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K-2 Structured Literacy Block Best Practices

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Provided by Melaika Brown, Supervisor, Elementary English/LA, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

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University of Maryland College of Education

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University of Maryland College of Education

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Our three research and practice-oriented departments provide inspired learning opportunities that develop students into leaders in education. Our programs prepare students to transform lives on the local and national level, through hands-on teaching, research, policy, counseling, school administration, and education specialist positions. From strong partnerships with school systems to innovative research on how the brain influences complex learning behaviors, our academic programs are at the forefront of the field of education.

Our Departments

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Our three research and practice-oriented departments provide inspired learning opportunities that develop students into leaders in education. Our programs prepare students to transform lives on the local and national level, through hands-on teaching, research, policy, counseling, school administration, and education specialist positions.

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As a member of the leading and most effective Civil Rights organization in the Nation!
You can. Take a stand.
​Answer the call for equality
Answer the call for civil rights!
​Find your branch and join or support today!

Your support is essential to ensure that the efforts of the NAACP are visible and effective in protecting the civil rights of all citizens. If you prefer to donate in support of advancing our efforts, please select your donation amount and submit it using the above button.
​Thank you!

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As a member of the leading and most effective Civil Rights organization in the Nation!You can. Take a stand.​Answer the call for equalityAnswer the call for civil rights! ​Find your branch and join or support today! Your support is essential to ensure that the efforts of the NAACP are visible and effective in protecting the civil rights of all citizens.

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University of Maryland School of Public Policy

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University of Maryland School of Public Policy

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University of Maryland School of Public Policy

slide 1 of 5

SPP Celebrates the Class of 2022 on May 20

Learn More

Our Programs

Make Your Impact in the World

From local to global, our students, faculty and alumni are changing the world for the better

Our greatest contribution as policymakers will be that when others heard ‘no,’ we heard ‘find another way.’

Theo Caruthers '18

Experience Policy the Maryland Way

Join a community at the center of the policy world committed to making a difference

Hear from a range of illustrious speakers about groundbreaking research, the student experience and the latest in the policy world. From lunchtime lectures to service events, we offer a range of ways to get involved with your fellow #PolicyTerps.

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The School of Public Policy is a home for those committed to translating their passions into action. As we develop the next generation of policy leaders and push the boundaries of knowledge, we teach, research and impact public policy the Maryland way.

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About The Reading League Maryland

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THE READING LEAGUE NATIONAL

The Reading League is a national not-for-profit that promotes knowledge to reimagine the future of literacy education and accelerate the global movement toward reading instruction rooted in science.

THE READING LEAGUE'S MISSION IS TO ADVANCE:

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Welcome to THE READING LEAGUE MARYLAND Sharing Knowledge - Inspiring Change Join the Reading League Maryland. Support the Reading League Maryland. Join us for our 4 book study sessions starting February 22! Learn about our mission and meet our board.

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Maryland READS is a new Maryland nonprofit that plans to build partnerships across the state to support evidence based reading and writing instruction.

The Vision: Maryland schools will teach every child to read so they are college, career and life ready.  Our mission is to improve the effectiveness of reading instruction and ensure that it meets the diverse academic, cultural and linguistic needs of every student. We do this by participating in research, generating and promoting evidence, and building partnerships to inform decision making among policy makers, educators, and families.

*Website coming soon!

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Nina Harris, Ed.D., Associate Dean, School of Public Policy

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Nina Harris, Ed.D., Associate Dean, School of Public Policy

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Nina Harris, Ed.D.

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"Doors Open" at 8:00 am
Livestream Starts: https://www.facebook.com/UMDCollegeofEducation

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Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, Ed.D, is a Bilingual Speech Language Pathologist and a Certified Academic Language Therapist. She is the Director of Valley Speech Language and Learning Center in Brownsville, Texas which was established in 1993.  She also works with Texas Institute for Measurement Evaluation and Statistics at the University of Houston.

Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan is the author of Esperanza (HOPE), a Spanish language program designed to assist students who struggle with learning to read. Her research interests include the development of early reading assessments for Spanish-speaking students and the development of reading interventions for bilingual students.

She was the co-principal investigator of a longitudinal study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Institute for Education Science that examined the oracy and literacy development in English and Spanish of Spanish-speaking children.

She serves as the Vice President for the International Dyslexia Association and has authored curricular programs, book chapters, and journal articles related to oracy and literacy development for English language learners.

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Will tell you the common sounds in different languages.

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Welcome to our languages learning site which focuses on grammar and vocabulary. We have useful resources that you might enjoy for free such as: lessons, grammar tips, vocabulary, phrases, language tools, and audio files to download.

Languages Lessons

Learning new languages can help you communicate with other people and also understand their culture and behavior. Here is a list of the languages we offer:

MYLANGUAGES.ORG is a website dedicated to language learning. Our goal is to build an on-line language community where people from all over the world with the same passion can come and learn a language through grammar, vocabulary, audio, dictionaries, quizzes and much more resources. All our pages are available absolutely FREE. Our philosophy is that you shouldn't have to pay to learn a language! All we ask is to share this site with others so that they can benefit too.

Learning a language has many benefits some of which are: an understanding of the world, leading to a better career potential, sharpening cognitive skills, appreciating international literature, experiencing a more enjoyable travel, making lifelong friends and ultimately understanding one's own culture and self. Enjoy learning with mylanguages.org. Don't forget to bookmark this page.

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Welcome to our languages learning site which focuses on grammar and vocabulary. We have useful resources that you might enjoy for free such as: lessons, grammar tips, vocabulary, phrases, language tools, and audio files to download. Learning new languages can help you communicate with other people and also understand their culture and behavior.

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Literacy for All: Equitable Practices for Reading & Dyslexia, National Center on Improving Literacy & Decoding Dyslexia Maryland 2.20.20

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Literacy for All: Equitable Practices for Reading & Dyslexia, National Center on Improving Literacy & Decoding Dyslexia Maryland 2.20.20

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The Literacy For All: Equitable Practices for Reading & Dyslexia Series | National Center on Improving Literacy

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Your source for improving outcomes for students with literacy-related disabilities, including dyslexia.

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A popular program for teaching kids to read just took another hit to its credibility

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Popular Reading Program Takes Another Hit

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Popular Reading Program Takes Another Hit

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One of the world's most widely used reading intervention programs for young children has taken another hit to its credibility.

Reading Recovery - a one-on-one tutoring program for first graders - has long been controversial because it's based on a theory about how people read that was disproven decades ago by cognitive scientists. A 2019 story by APM Reports helped bring public attention to the fact that reading programs based on this theory teach the strategies struggling readers use to get by. In other words: Children are taught to read the way that poor readers read.

Now, a new, federally funded study has found that, by third and fourth grade, children who received Reading Recovery had lower scores on state reading tests than a comparison group of children who did not receive Reading Recovery.

"It's not what we expected, and it's concerning," said lead author Henry May, director of the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy at the University of Delaware. May delivered the findings at an April gathering of education researchers in San Diego.

At least 2.4 million students in the United States have participated in Reading Recovery or its Spanish-language counterpart since 1984, when the program first came to America from New Zealand. The program is also used in Australia, Canada and England, among other countries.

The new research could prompt schools to reexamine their investment in Reading Recovery, and consider other ways to help struggling first-graders.

The new research shows children make initial gains, then fall behind

May was the principal investigator of an earlier federally funded study of Reading Recovery, one of the largest ever randomized experiments of an instructional intervention in elementary schools. That study, which began in 2011, found evidence of large positive gains in first grade, as has other research. The program's advocates have pointed to that research as evidence that the instructional approach is effective and based on sound science.

But whether the initial gains last and translate into better performance on state reading tests remained a question. This new study on the long-term impact of Reading Recovery is the largest, most rigorous effort to tackle that question, according to May.

The fact that students who participated in Reading Recovery did worse in later grades than similar students who did not get the program surprised May.

"Was Reading Recovery harmful? I wouldn't go as far as to say that," he said. "But what we do know is that the kids that got it for some reason ended up losing their gains and then falling behind."

In a written response to the study, the Reading Recovery Council of North America, the organization that advocates for the program in the United States, disputed some of the research methodology and maintained that their program is effective. It also said: "Reading Recovery has and will continue to change in response to evidence gathered from a wide range of studies of both students having difficulties with early reading and writing and their teachers."

U.S. schools have been dropping Reading Recovery

At one point, Reading Recovery was in every state. But school districts have been dropping the program - today, it's in nearly 2,000 schools in 41 states.

... do you have evidence of impact? That's really the key. Do you have evidence of impact, and how do you know? And if you don't have evidence of impact, you have to ask yourself why and then what are you going to do about it?

In fact, the first district to implement the program in the U.S. recently decided to stop using it.

Leslie Kelly, executive director of teaching and learning at Columbus City Schools in Ohio, said the decision to drop Reading Recovery is part of a larger effort to bring "the science of reading" to the district. She said she and her colleagues realized that their approach to reading instruction, including Reading Recovery, didn't align well with that science.

Her advice to other districts that are still using Reading Recovery is to take a close look at the program's effectiveness: "Do your research. Read a lot, and really look at do you have evidence of impact? That's really the key. Do you have evidence of impact, and how do you know? And if you don't have evidence of impact, you have to ask yourself why and then what are you going to do about it?"

Reading Recovery was already controversial

Critics of Reading Recovery have long contended that children in the program do not receive enough explicit and systematic instruction in how to decode words. In addition, they say, children are taught to use context, pictures and other clues to identify words, a strategy that may work in first-grade books but becomes less effective as text becomes more difficult. They say kids can seem like good readers in first grade but fail to develop the skills they need to be good readers in the long run.

May said this could explain his latest research findings. "If you don't build up those decoding skills, you're going to fall behind, even though it looked like you had caught up in first grade."

He said the results could also be explained by the fact that about 40% of the students who received Reading Recovery got no further intervention after first grade. "Because the kids didn't get the intervention that they needed in second and third grade, they lost those gains," May said. "I think that's a plausible hypothesis."

But the study also found that the students who were in Reading Recovery were more likely than the comparison group to receive extra help for reading after first grade. Advocates for Reading Recovery have justified the program's high cost - estimated to be up to $10,271 per student - by saying that the program reduces the need for further reading intervention.

This new research comes as schools and states are looking for ways to help students recover from the disruptions of the pandemic, including disruptions to their reading development. May's findings are something for policymakers and school leaders to consider as they make decisions about what programs to invest in.
Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and Christopher Peak is a reporter for APM Reports, the documentary and investigative reporting group at American Public Media. This story was adapted from their earlier reporting. A collection of stories from APM Reports on how kids learn to read can be found

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A popular program for teaching kids to read just took another hit to its credibility

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One of the world's most widely used reading intervention programs for young children has taken another hit to its credibility. Reading Recovery - a one-on-one tutoring program for first graders - has long been controversial because it's based on a theory about how people read that was disproven decades ago by cognitive scientists.

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Messaging from reading advocates comes off as lopsided. The Science isn't, Linda Diamond

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Messaging from reading advocates comes off as lopsided. The Science isn't, Linda Diamond

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"In particular, those educators who teach English learners have raised concerns about what they see as an overemphasis on word recognition and decoding skills, while neglecting equally important skills related to oral language development, syntax, vocabulary, and comprehension (see examples of these concerns here and here).

In spite of a decades-long advocacy campaign to improve reading instruction, most teachers still have not learned and practiced how to teach children to decode words during their preservice training, and most practicing teachers have few professional development opportunities to hone these skills.

However, Torgesen also observed that even with strong word recognition and fluency, some children still did not enjoy reading or choose to read more extensively. Reading development suffers, he observed, if children also have not developed strong oral language, lack robust vocabulary knowledge, or have restricted content knowledge.

Let's give some important perspective: word recognition skills are essential as a base, but teachers must also systematically develop language comprehension."

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National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)

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A recent Education Week op-ed takes to task many of the advocates for the "science of reading," asserting that they must share some of the blame for the reluctance on the part of many classroom teachers to adopt more effective methods of reading instruction.

Speaking to some of the pushback around the popular term "science of reading," English learner expert and Stanford professor emeritus Claude Goldenberg contends it is the consequence of a number of differing interpretations of what constitutes the science of reading, including a view of what it takes to create a good reader that is far too narrow. In particular, those educators who teach English learners have raised concerns about what they see as an overemphasis on word recognition and decoding skills, while neglecting equally important skills related to oral language development, syntax, vocabulary, and comprehension (see examples of these concerns here and here).

These concerns are not wrong. For children to learn English as a second language-and indeed for all children to become good readers-there needs to be much more focus on oral language development than is common in today's classrooms. For English learners, it requires explicit instruction in the letter sounds that are different from those in the first language, careful instruction in the syntax and spoken grammar of English, academic and general vocabulary, and continual exposure to rich content and conversation from the very start of school.

If we all fully attend to what the research really says, it is clear that neither word recognition nor comprehension at the expense of each other produces successful readers. Both are necessary.
How we got here
So why do some reading advocates understate the importance of language and comprehension?

In part, it's because chronically poor word recognition skills among so many American school children is the canary in the coal mine, the one symptom of schools that can be easily measured as a result of schools using ineffective reading curricula.

In addition, teaching word recognition skills has been the area of reading instruction many educators are least equipped to address and, as such, deserving of immediate attention. In spite of a decades-long advocacy campaign to improve reading instruction, most teachers still have not learned and practiced how to teach children to decode words during their preservice training, and most practicing teachers have few professional development opportunities to hone these skills. Even many of the popular reading journals that teachers are likely to read have rarely covered the importance of these foundational skills (with one notable exception, the AFT's American Educator).

Although the seminal report of the 2000 National Reading Panel certainly emphasized the importance of both word recognition and language comprehension skills, its findings were not intended for a teacher audience. It provides little practical advice for teaching any of the five components. The Reading First initiative that followed on the heels of the NRP report did try to solve for that omission and was certainly successful in some states, but implementation proved inconsistent-and ugly politics its death knell.

Perhaps the most significant unintended consequence from both the NRP report and the Reading First initiative was the exploding "reading block" during the school day. With schools expanding reading blocks to as long as two and a half hours each day, some schools stopped teaching science and social studies altogether-a decision rife with irony given how important it is to teach science and social studies in order to improve reading comprehension.

Rather than correct for this mistake, the Common Core State Standards swung too far in the other direction, implicitly de-emphasizing the early foundational skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency (which its creators vigorously deny while pointing to their only reference buried in an appendix). Some schools interpreted the new standards as a license to forgo foundational skills and instead focus solely on "reading complex texts"-an utterly impenetrable, ambiguous term that only led to further poor instruction. The standards movement, much in need of winning the support of reading advocates, instead lost it.

The heart of the resistance to the science of reading

Eminent reading researcher Joe Torgesen helped to raise awareness of this troubling tension. He reinforced the findings that word recognition skills are, of course, the foundation and backbone of becoming a reader-but they are not enough. He could see that children who could recognize words automatically and quickly were at a great advantage: that the more fluent their reading was, the more they read, the more their vocabulary grew, and the better their comprehension became. However, Torgesen also observed that even with strong word recognition and fluency, some children still did not enjoy reading or choose to read more extensively. Reading development suffers, he observed, if children also have not developed strong oral language, lack robust vocabulary knowledge, or have restricted content knowledge.

Let's give some important perspective: word recognition skills are essential as a base, but teachers must also systematically develop language comprehension.

Even more importantly, we must recognize that comprehension is not a skill that can be mastered in a relatively short time, but rather is " a collection of knowledge and processes that takes many years to acquire."

Reading advocates might nod in agreement, but mere acknowledgement is not enough. We-reading researchers, teacher educators, and PD providers-must demand more of ourselves, addressing the role language plays in reading comprehension, demanding effective curriculum and professional development, and ensuring that teacher preparation fully equips preservice educators to be effective teachers of reading.

Linda Diamond is the founder and former president of Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education (CORE), a professional learning organization that serves schools, districts, and state agencies to improve literacy and math achievement for all students. Ms. Diamond is the author of three widely-used professional books for educators, Teaching Reading Sourcebook, Assessing Reading: Multiple Measures, and the Vocabulary Handbook. Previously, Ms. Diamond served as a K-12 district administrator, a middle school and elementary principal, a high school teacher, and a senior policy analyst in an education think tank. She is now spending part of her retirement overseeing NCTQ's revision and implementation of the Reading Foundations standard for the Teacher Prep Review.

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Messaging from reading advocates comes off as lopsided. The science isn't.

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A recent Education Week op-ed takes to task many of the advocates for the "science of reading," asserting that they must share some of the blame for the reluctance on the part of many classroom teachers to adopt more effective methods of reading instruction.

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Colorado's 2nd Largest Teacher Preparation University Ordered to Revamp

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Colorado's 2nd Largest Teacher Preparation University Ordered to Revamp

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For the second time this summer, state officials ordered one of Colorado's largest teacher preparation programs to change the way it covers reading instruction after a review found significant shortcomings.

The decision, unanimously approved by the State Board of Education on Wednesday, means Metropolitan State University of Denver will not receive the state's full seal of approval for its elementary education and early childhood programs - either within its traditional four-year bachelor's degree program or its shorter alternative track. Both majors within both tracks, which enroll around 900 students altogether, will face follow-up reviews next spring.

State evaluators found that texts used in the university's reading courses contradicted or dismissed science-based approaches to reading instruction, often focusing on debunked methods. They also found that teacher prep students were given little information about the READ Act, a major 2012 state law that spells out how schools should help struggling readers.

In addition, one report presented Wednesday said that all current and former alternative track students interviewed "asked for more instruction around literacy, specifically stating they did not feel prepared to teach reading."

Metro State, the state's second largest teacher prep program, isn't the only one that's been sent back to revamp its reading courses. The same thing happened to the Greeley-based University of Northern Colorado, first in 2019, and again in June after state evaluators determined it had made too little progress in changing its approach.

The state's crackdown on teacher preparation programs, specifically their approach to reading instruction, began in 2018 as part of a broader push by lawmakers, state education officials, and parents of students with dyslexia to get more Colorado children reading at grade level.

Despite millions of state dollars spent on struggling readers since the passage of the READ Act, only about 40% of third-graders are reading proficiently - and many experts fear changes related to the coronavirus pandemic could make things worse.

Even before Wednesday's meeting, there were signs that Metro's reading courses were lacking. A January report from a national group rating teacher prep programs on how they cover reading instruction gave a D to Metro State's traditional program and an F to its alternative program.

State evaluators on Wednesday did acknowledge bright spots in Metro State's efforts on reading instruction over the past year.

They praised university faculty for identifying the need to improve reading instruction even before the state's review, and making some progress toward that goal before the evaluation team's February campus visit.

Mary Bivens, director of educator development at the state Department of Education, said Wednesday that the university has already changed some of the texts it uses in reading courses and hired faculty with expertise in reading science.

But evaluators decided the changes underway weren't enough and recommended the university's elementary and early childhood programs - in both traditional and alternative tracks - get only conditional approval instead of full approval. Four other programs within Metro State's traditional track and three others within its alternative track won full approval on Wednesday and will not be reviewed again for five years.

The state board agreed with the evaluators' recommendation, which means Metro State will have to satisfy several conditions by next year to earn full approval for the two majors. Wednesday's decision will not prevent the university from enrolling new students in its elementary education and early childhood programs.

Liz Hinde, dean of Metro State's school of education, reached by phone after the meeting, said the state board's decision wasn't surprising and reiterated that the university has made several changes related to reading instruction over the past year.

"If they were to come back right now, they'd say, 'You're fine,'" she said.

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Metro State, Colorado's second largest teacher preparation program, ordered to revamp reading courses

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For the second time this summer, state officials ordered one of Colorado's largest teacher preparation programs to change the way it covers reading instruction after a review found significant shortcomings.

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The Maryland Leads Initiative

Maryland Leads is a new grant initiative designed to support Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in utilizing federal funds to overcome the learning loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerate student learning to narrow opportunity and achievement gaps, and provide more targeted support for historically underserved students and their communities. Maryland Leads also supports LEAs in addressing short and long-term challenges related to the current labor shortage and attends to the longstanding need to establish and strengthen teacher pipelines and development.

Maryland's 24 LEAs will access the state's allotment of $133 million in ESSER funds through a single, non-competitive grant process. MSDE will provide LEAs with a series of information sessions and workshops beginning in February 2022 and continuing throughout the Spring to support LEAs through the grant submission process. Awards will be announced in Spring 2022 with implementation beginning in Summer 2022 and continuing through the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. The grant initiative is centered around seven high-leverage strategies that have been proven to be effective and transformative for schools and school systems.

Each strategy contains a number of focus areas and best practices from the field that LEAs may choose to implement. The LEAs' choices will depend on the individual needs of their students, schools, and communities. LEAs will have the opportunity to work with best-in-class partners to strategize and execute plans within and across all seven strategies. To participate in this grant opportunity, LEAs must choose at least two of the seven strategies. Choosing The Science of Reading or Grow Your Own Staff will allow LEAs to access a greater amount of grant funding.

Read the guidance document in its entirety as it provides a comprehensive overview of the grant's purpose, opportunities, process, and timeline.

Explore the links to additional resources and readings identified as "Inspiration from the Field" for each of the seven grant strategies.

Learn more by attending live information sessions which will be recorded and posted online for asynchronous viewing.

Assess the needs of your students, schools, and communities to determine which strategies best meet the identified needs and begin planning.

Consider how the high-leverage strategies in this grant align with the LEA's goals, priorities, or current activities.

Plan to use grant funds to inspire and initiate activities and programs while also planning for sustainability.

Identify the primary point of contact and key collaborators responsible for the LEA's grant submission.

Build in opportunities to gather input from LEA stakeholder groups.

Utilize the collaboration sessions and office hours hosted by MSDE to pressure test ideas, gain new insights, and refine grant plans.

Attend one General Information Session and both the Strategy Information Sessions and Collaboration Sessions related to the strategies an LEA intends to include in their grant submission. (Required)

Include a copy of the LEA's completed budget workbook in the grant submission. (Required)

Submit the online grant application. (Required)

Maryland Leads Partner Program

The Maryland State Department of Education is issuing program guidance and applications to identify and select a series of vendors that will work with one or more than one of the state's twenty-four Local Education Agencies (LEAs) as part of the MSDE's new Maryland Leads program and one (or more) of the program's seven, high-leverage strategies. The Maryland Leads Partner Program is open to any and all applicants that can, either directly or through its subcontractor(s), provide all goods and services and meet all of the requirements `related to the Maryland Leads strategy(ies) and focus area(s) to which the Applicant responds.

Award amounts will vary based on the number, type, and scope of strategy(ies) and the number, type, and scope of a given strategy's focus areas for which an applicant receives an award, as well as the number of Local Education Agencies (LEAs) who select that vendor for their Maryland Leads program. Applicants can respond to one, some, or all of the strategies and/or one, some, or all of a strategy's focus areas. Grant award for program participation does not ensure an applicant will receive all or any grant funding since final award amounts are related to LEA program partner choice and LEA Maryland Lead program(s) selection.

LEAs will have the opportunity to work with best-in-class partners to strategize and execute plans within and across all seven strategies. To participate in the grant opportunity, LEAs must choose at least two of the seven strategies. The different strategies will have different partners available from which to choose. Some partners may be available to support LEAs in all of the focus areas for a particular strategy, while others may only support the execution of some areas. For example, Partner A may offer to support an LEA in developing a strategic staffing plan while Partner B offers to support the LEA in developing a marketing and recruiting campaign for prospective employees. Meanwhile, Partner C may offer to support the LEA in doing both. LEAs will choose from available partners within their awarded strategies after completing the grant submission process.

The application window opens on March 4th, 2022 and applications are due no later than 5pm on April 5, 2022.

Register for a Maryland Leads Partner Program Customer Service Support Session Here:

Justin Dayhoff, Assistant State Superintendent, Financial Planning, Operations, and Strategy

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Maryland Leads is a new grant initiative designed to support Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in utilizing federal funds to overcome the learning loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerate student learning to narrow opportunity and achievement gaps, and provide more targeted support for historically underserved students and their communities.

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MSDE Technical Assistance Bulletins (TAB)

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MSDE Technical Assistance Bulletins (TAB)

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TAB on Curriculum, Instruction and Assessments
TAB on SLD: Dyslexia, Dyscalculia & Dysgraphia

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Google Translate Disclaimer

The Maryland Department of Information Technology (“DoIT”) offers translations of the content through Google Translate. Because Google Translate is an external website, DoIT does not control the quality or accuracy of translated content. All DoIT content is filtered through Google Translate which may result in unexpected and unpredictable degradation of portions of text, images and the general appearance on translated pages. Google Translate may maintain unique privacy and use policies. These policies are not controlled by DoIT and are not associated with DoIT’s privacy and use policies. After selecting a translation option, users will be notified that they are leaving DoIT’s website. Users should consult the original English content on DoIT’s website if there are any questions about the translated content.

DoIT uses Google Translate to provide language translations of its content. Google Translate is a free, automated service that relies on data and technology ​​​to provide its translations. The Google Translate feature is provided for informational purposes only. Translations cannot be guaranteed as exact or without the inclusion of incorrect or inappropriate language. Google Translate is a third-party service and site users will be leaving DoIT to utilize translated content. As such, DoIT does not guarantee and does not accept responsibility for, the accuracy, reliability, or performance of this service nor the limitations provided by this service, such as the inability to translate specific files like PDFs and graphics (e.g. .jpgs, .gifs, etc.).

DoIT provides Google Translate as an online tool for its users, but DoIT does not directly endorse the website or imply that it is the only solution available to users. All site visitors may choose to use alternate tools for their translation needs. Any individuals or parties that use DoIT content in translated form, whether by Google Translate or by any other translation services, do so at their own risk. DoIT is not liable for any loss or damages arising out of, or issues related to, the use of or reliance on translated content. DoIT assumes no liability for any site visitor’s activities in connection with use of the Google Translate functionality or content.

The Google Translate service is a means by which DoIT offers translations of content and is meant solely for the convenience of non-English speaking users of the website. The translated content is provided directly and dynamically by Google; DoIT has no direct control over the translated content as it appears using this tool. Therefore, in all contexts, the English content, as directly provided by DoIT is to be held authoritative.

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Maryland State Board of Education Equity Policy

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Maryland State Board of Education Equity Policy

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Maryland's Educational Equity Guidebook
Educational Equity Web Page

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Task Force on Achieving Academic Equity and Excellent for Black Boys

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Task Force on Achieving Academic Equity and Excellent for Black Boys

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In June 2003, Maryland's K-16 Leadership Council established a Blue Ribbon task force, the Task Force on the Education of Maryland's African-American Males. The purpose was "to evaluate and report on the State's efforts and progress to address the continuing school performance and educational achievement problems that so seriously imperil the future of many of our African-American males." (excerpt from the Task Force Report). After years and hundreds of hours of research and discussion, the final report was issued in March 2007. Those recommendations were assembled and distributed. However, the implementation of those plans have failed to translate into the desired gains for black male students in Maryland.

Based on consideration of the previous statements -- and the understanding that all students in Maryland should receive an education that is both equitable and excellent - the Task Force is charged to make recommendations that should be adopted to improve the learning environment for every black male student in Maryland public schools.

Task Force recommendations to the State Board should be in the following areas: Regulatory, policy, or guidance changes; curricular changes; adoption of instructional materials and resources; professional development; financial and human resources; and where appropriate, recommendations for legislative actions.

It is further charged that the Task Force on Academic Equity and Excellence for Black Boys will report its findings, recommendations, and a suggested implementation plan (including assignment of lead offices and departments within MSDE, an implementation timeline, and responsibilities regarding progress monitoring) to the State Board on or about February 23, 2021.

MEMBERSHIP AND DEADLINES:

Two members of the State Board will head the Task Force: Dr. Vermelle Greene, Chair and Dr. Joan Mele-McCarthy, Co-Chair. There will be at least six additional members. These individuals will be selected based upon their background in education, with preference given to those who have experience working with black boys.

Interested parties will submit their resumes and a brief statement describing the skills and experiences they would bring to the team. The Chair and Co-Chair will select team members. The final selection of the Task Force members will be on or before July 15, 2020, with the list presented to the Board at the July 28th meeting.

Thirteen years later, scores on state assessments for black boys have remained at the bottom, while their suspension and expulsion rates are consistently high. These are not indicators of either educational equity or excellence for these children. The perpetuation and tolerance of low academic performance of our black boys deny them the same opportunities available to their well-educated peers. Denying them the education and skills necessary to prosper in this technology-based society demonstrates systemic racism in our public schools.

As stated in the recent letter from the Maryland Association Boards of Education, "... education provides the foundation to change perceptions and attitudes." And it is those negative perceptions and attitudes that continue to plague our boys of color.
Our State Superintendent, Dr. Karen Salmon, has eloquently written, " We have a call to action to work together to tackle the inequities and systemic racial barriers that persist for our black students......" The purpose of this task force is to answer that call.

CHARGE:

The Maryland State Board of Education provides the following charge to the Task Force on Academic Equity and Excellence for Black Boys (Task Force):

Consider the impact that discipline policies have on black boys in the classroom; determine best practices to minimize disciplinary problems and correct behavior without discouraging academic achievement.

Evaluate the availability and effectiveness of teacher preparation and professional development for culturally responsive teaching and cultural literacy as it pertains to black boys.

Identify opportunities to improve current curricula and instructional techniques, strategies, and methods to educate black boys.

Review current research and identify effective, research-based practices for educating boys of color inside and outside of Maryland; best practices can include but are not limited to, single-sex classes, mentoring, rites of passage programs, male-specific pedagogy, and phonics-based reading instruction.

Evaluate current hiring methods and identify obstacles to the recruitment and retention of black male teachers; identify organizations that could form partnerships to support the Department's efforts to recruit black male teachers.

Examine the reports of other MSDE task forces and commissions, including, but not limited to, the Kirwan Commission, the Commission on the School to Prison Pipeline, the Task Force on Student Discipline Regulations, and the Task Force on the Education of Maryland's African-American Males (March 2007); review those reports' findings and determine to what degree the recommendations have been successfully implemented.

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Task Force on Achieving Academic Equity and Excellence for Black Boys

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In June 2003, Maryland's K-16 Leadership Council established a Blue Ribbon task force, the Task Force on the Education of Maryland's African-American Males. The purpose was "to evaluate and report on the State's efforts and progress to address the continuing school performance and educational achievement problems that so seriously imperil the future of many of our African-American males."

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Maryland's Keys to Comprehensive Literacy (revised 2020)
Subpart 2—Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation
(includes the definition of Comprehensive Literacy (ESSA))

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At a glance

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the main education law for public schools in the United States.

The law holds schools accountable for how students learn and achieve.

ESSA aims to provide an equal opportunity for disadvantaged students, including those who get special education.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the main law for K-12 public education in the United States. It replaced . ESSA is a large, complex law. It affects all students in public schools.

The main purpose of ESSA is to make sure public schools provide a quality education for all kids. It gives states a central role in how schools account for student achievement. This includes the achievement of historically disadvantaged students who fall into one or more of four key groups:

Students in poverty

Students of color

Students who receive services

Those with limited English language skills

Under ESSA, each state creates an education plan for its schools within a framework provided by the federal government. The law gives parents and caregivers a chance to weigh in on these plans. Each state plan must describe:

Academic standards

Annual testing

School accountability

Goals for academic achievement

Plans for supporting and improving struggling schools

State and local report cards

These aren't the only requirements for states and school districts. But they're the ones that most directly impact kids who learn and think differently.

ESSA also provides funding for literacy programs and other grants. And it encourages innovation in how schools teach kids.

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What is the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)?

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The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the main federal law for K-12 public education. It holds schools accountable for student performance. Find out how.

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Teacher Preparation & Personnel Regulations

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Teacher Preparation & Personnel Regulations

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2018-2019: https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DSFSS/SSSP/SIR20182019.aspx

2019-2020: https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DSFSS/SSSP/SIR20192020.aspx

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Google Translate Disclaimer

The Maryland Department of Information Technology (“DoIT”) offers translations of the content through Google Translate. Because Google Translate is an external website, DoIT does not control the quality or accuracy of translated content. All DoIT content is filtered through Google Translate which may result in unexpected and unpredictable degradation of portions of text, images and the general appearance on translated pages. Google Translate may maintain unique privacy and use policies. These policies are not controlled by DoIT and are not associated with DoIT’s privacy and use policies. After selecting a translation option, users will be notified that they are leaving DoIT’s website. Users should consult the original English content on DoIT’s website if there are any questions about the translated content.

DoIT uses Google Translate to provide language translations of its content. Google Translate is a free, automated service that relies on data and technology ​​​to provide its translations. The Google Translate feature is provided for informational purposes only. Translations cannot be guaranteed as exact or without the inclusion of incorrect or inappropriate language. Google Translate is a third-party service and site users will be leaving DoIT to utilize translated content. As such, DoIT does not guarantee and does not accept responsibility for, the accuracy, reliability, or performance of this service nor the limitations provided by this service, such as the inability to translate specific files like PDFs and graphics (e.g. .jpgs, .gifs, etc.).

DoIT provides Google Translate as an online tool for its users, but DoIT does not directly endorse the website or imply that it is the only solution available to users. All site visitors may choose to use alternate tools for their translation needs. Any individuals or parties that use DoIT content in translated form, whether by Google Translate or by any other translation services, do so at their own risk. DoIT is not liable for any loss or damages arising out of, or issues related to, the use of or reliance on translated content. DoIT assumes no liability for any site visitor’s activities in connection with use of the Google Translate functionality or content.

The Google Translate service is a means by which DoIT offers translations of content and is meant solely for the convenience of non-English speaking users of the website. The translated content is provided directly and dynamically by Google; DoIT has no direct control over the translated content as it appears using this tool. Therefore, in all contexts, the English content, as directly provided by DoIT is to be held authoritative.

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Specialized Intervention Reports 2017-2018 (SB1)

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The Maryland Department of Information Technology (“DoIT”) offers translations of the content through Google Translate. Because Google Translate is an external website, DoIT does not control the quality or accuracy of translated content. All DoIT content is filtered through Google Translate which ma…

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IDEA: Identification of Students with Reading Disability/Dyslexia

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IDEA: Identification of Students with Reading Disability/Dyslexia

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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

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The U.S. Department of Education’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act website brings together department and grantee IDEA information and resources. The IDEA makes available a free appropriate public education to and ensures special education and related services to eligible children with disabilities.

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Maryland’s Keys to Comprehensive Literacy

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Maryland’s Keys to Comprehensive Literacy

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Melissa & Lori Love Literacy (Baltimore)

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Melissa & Lori Love Literacy (Baltimore)

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum! Join Melissa Loftus and Lori Sappington every Friday as we tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of our experience has been in the classroom from primary through high school, but we also have experience at district and state leadership levels in literacy. Our guests include school-based educators and leaders, district leaders, literacy researchers and experts, and passionate parents and community members. Visit our website: www.literacypodcast.com

Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum! Join Melissa Loftus and Lori Sappington every Friday as we tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of our experience has been in the classroom from primary through high school, but we also have experience at district and state leadership levels in literacy. Our guests include school-based educators and leaders, district leaders, literacy researchers and experts, and passionate parents and community members. Visit our website: www.literacypodcast.com

Reading science is an art and a pleasure to learn

This is a really high quality show with great research and conversation. As a parent teacher there are hundreds of great takeaways and concepts covered so that I can best lay the foundation for my learner. Super thankful to have a place where I can come and absorb all the great guests, topics and start to ask the really big questions myself with how I approach teaching reading, and what best serves all readers. Amazing. Thanks so much

The educators all kids deserve!

I just discovered the pod and binging through it all! I live in a neighboring jurisdiction to Baltimore city-where the science of reading, the knowledge gap, cognitive development, are stubbornly resisted from the district down. While we have a population of students/resources far greater than the city, we continue to ignore the best practices (stubborn equity gap persists and grows).

I am so encouraged by the work amd effort from your super intendent-who absolutely grasps the challenge that has persisted in the city for 4+decades. She has made great strides in her tenure, most notably in her commitment to LITERACY!

I am so glad that you two exude those changes for your students. You are a gift to those students you serve, working and exploring how to serve them best! I hope you will engage with teacher prep programs in our state. Professional development-cannot compare to a focus and practice in the undergraduate prep. The teachers deserve it-the tools and experience to perform their role. The students deserve nothing less!

Thank you for all you do!

This is the best podcast...

If you love literacy or teach literacy then you should definitely be listening to this podcast!

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‎Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Podcast on Apple Podcasts

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum! Join Melissa Loftus and Lori Sappington every Friday as we tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of...

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Glenda Prime, Dean, School of Education & Urban Studies, Morgan State University

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Glenda Prime, Dean, School of Education & Urban Studies, Morgan State University

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Glenda Prime, Ph.D., Dean of School of Education &  Urban Studies, Morgan State University

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Skip to Content

School of Education & Urban Studies

Welcome to the School of Education and Urban Studies at Morgan State University. The mission of the School of Education and Urban Studies (SEUS) is to prepare a culturally and ethnically diverse student body to serve, with distinction, in the field of education and urban studies.

The programs in SEUS provide quality teaching, research and service to:

Meet the needs of the culturally diverse populations in urban settings

Provide knowledge, values, and skills for undergraduate and graduate students

Prepare professionals and change agents to improve the quality of life of urbanpopulations

Plan policies and programs that respond to societal problems.

The School is organized into three departments, each headed by a department chairperson. The departments are:

The Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education (CEMSE) is a special unit in the School which provides experiential opportunities for secondary teachers and students in the areas of science, engineering, technology, and mathematics. The School also offers two graduate online programs, the Community College Leadership Doctoral Program which prepares students for leadership roles and professional positions within the community college setting and the Master of Education in Community College Administration & Instruction, which equips students with administrative or teaching competencies for the community college sector.

Glenda Prime, PhD
Dean

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Skip to Content School of Education & Urban Studies Welcome to the School of Education and Urban Studies at Morgan State University. The mission of the School of Education and Urban Studies (SEUS) is to prepare a culturally and ethnically diverse student body to serve, with distinction, in the field of education and urban studies.

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Clarence Crawford, Maryland State Board of Education

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Clarence Crawford, Maryland State Board of Education

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​ Clarence C. Crawford (President) an adjunct professor in the American University's Master of Public Administration (MPA) Program where he teaches Federal budgeting, ethical leadership, and enterprise risk management (ERM). He was appointed by Gov. Hogan to serve as a Member of the Maryland State Board of Education. Clarence is the founder and president of the Teach 'em to Fish CDC whose God-given call is to be the best in world at battling poverty, hopeless, and violence by creating a generation of successful business owners and outstanding employees who will transform their world. Finally, he is a member of GAO's Center for Audit Excellence Advisory Board and OPM's Presidential Rank Review Panel.

Beginning as a GS-1, Clarence learned how to progress through the ranks and how to become a strong leader, enabling him to become a senior executive, ES-6 (i.e., four-star general equivalent) chief operating officer and chief financial officer. He used innovative approaches to lead successful transformations. Clarence specialized in starting up new functions, creating high performance organizations, and turning around less than stellar ones. His senior executive career included positions at the General Accounting Office, Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the Office of Personnel Management where he oversaw the $1.8 trillion Federal employee pension and benefits fund programs, and he implemented an ERM program. Clarence's career also included assignments as a Metropolitan Police Officer, Presidential Management Intern, and numerous assignments at the Internal Revenue Service.

Upon retirement from the Federal government with 39 years of service in 2006, Clarence was recruited as a managing director to create a Deloitte presence among Federal CFOs and establish the Deloitte Federal Financial Management Solutions Center. He created and hosted the Federal CFO Insights Radio Show on WTOP's FEDNEWS Radio. Clarence hosted the quarterly CFO Roundtable series. He helped create and/or tailored solutions to address many of the major challenges facing the Federal government. He grew his account into one of the Federal practice's best performing accounts. Clarence retired from Deloitte Consulting, LLP in April 2014. He later served as the Senior Vice President for Corporate Solutions for the Addx Corporation where he helped his clients develop and execute transformative strategies needed in this fast-paced, ever-evolving Federal environment. Clarence co-moderated the National Academy of Public Administration's (NAPA) quarterly Federal CFO Forum. Finally, he completed his appointment as a Principal Director (Maryland) and 1st Vice Chair of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Board.

Clarence was a Meritorious Presidential Rank Award recipient, elected as a NAPA Fellow, and received the African American Federal Executive Association's Ebenezer Bassett Award. He earned his MPA in Finance and Bachelor of Science in Administration of Justice from the American University, and he has taken classes at the Capital Bible Seminary.

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​ Clarence C. Crawford (President) an adjunct professor in the American University's Master of Public Administration (MPA) Program where he teaches Federal budgeting, ethical leadership, and enterprise risk management (ERM). He was appointed by Gov. Hogan to serve as a Member of the Maryland State Board of Education.

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Reality Check I can't even imagine how many teachers/districts will send in applications and plunk down $600 to $650 per person to take the Teachers College program entitled the Intersection of...

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Faith Borkowsky is a Certified Dyslexia Practitioner and the founder of High Five Literacy and Academic Coaching. Ms. Borkowsky is Orton-Gillingham trained and Wilson Certified, and has extensive training and experience in a number of other research-based, peer-reviewed programs that have produced positive gains for students with Dyslexia, Auditory Processing Disorder, ADD/ADHD, and a host of learning difficulties.

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Nora Morales, Program Director, Identity, Inc.

Lauren Stouten, Decoding Dyslexia Maryland

Willie Flowers, President, NAACP Maryland Branch

Marla Posey-Moss, President,  Free State PTA

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Grades 3-5 Structured Literacy Block Best Practices, MCPS

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Grades 3-5 Structured Literacy Block Best Practices, MCPS

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Provided by Melaika Brown, Supervisor, Elementary English/LA, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

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While I was in Tennessee this weekend for training for freedom school one of our read aloud guest read this book. This book was full of different folktales. What I loved about this book was that it was very age appropriate. It is a book that can serve as a read aloud and also a book that children can enjoy and read alone. I also love that this book can serve as a teachable book. If students are dealing with certain issues that are several stories in this book that they can relate to. I truly rec ...more

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While I was in Tennessee this weekend for training for freedom school one of our read aloud guest read this book. This book was full of different folktales. What I loved about this book was that it was very age appropriate.

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Laura Stapleton, Acting Dean, UMD College of Education

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Laura Stapleton, Acting Dean, UMD College of Education

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Laura Stapleton, Ph.D., Interim Dean, College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park

Event Information: Website

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HideResearch Interests

Analysis of administrative data and survey data obtained under complex sampling designs, multilevel latent variable models, tests of mediation within a multilevel framework

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Laura M. Stapleton is Interim Dean for the College of Education.  Prior to the 2021-22 academic year, she served as Associate Dean for Research, Innovation, and Partnerships.  She is also a Professor in Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation (EDMS) in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland and is the Director of the NSF-funded Quantitative Research Methods Scholars Program, which trains 20 early career scholars who focus on STEM education equity and access. She currently serves as Associate Editor of AERA Open and each year teaches as part of the faculty of the National Center for Education Research funded Summer Research Training Institute on Cluster Randomized Trials at Northwestern University.  She joined the faculty of the college in Fall 2011 after being on the faculty in Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and in Educational Psychology at the University of Texas, Austin. She served as the Associate Director of the Research Branch of the Maryland State Longitudinal Data System Center from 2013-2018. Prior to earning her Ph.D. in Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation, she was an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and, subsequently, conducted educational research at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and as Associate Director of institutional research at the University of Maryland.

HideFellowships

Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, Gulliksen Psychometric Fellowship, 2000 – 2001

HideHonors & Awards

Society for Prevention Research, Abstract of Distinction. Henneberger, A.K., Rose, B.A., Stapleton, L.M., & Woolley, M.E. (2021). Innovations in Administrative Data Linkage and Access to Advance Prevention Science Research and Policy.

Finalist, National Assessment Governing Board member as Testing and Measurement Expert, 2021

AERA Division D, Significant Contribution to Educational Measurement and Research Methodology Award: Hancock, G.R., Stapleton, L.M., & Mueller, R. (Eds.) (2019).  The reviewer’s guide to quantitative methods in the social sciences, 2nd edition.  New York, NY: Routledge.

AERA Division H, Outstanding Publication:  Henneberger, A., Feng, Y., Johnson, T., Zheng, Y., Rose, B. A., Stapleton, L. M., Sweet, T., & Woolley, M. E. (2020). Statistically Modeling Multiple Membership in the Real World: Lessons from Statewide Longitudinal Data in Maryland

Outstanding Director of Graduate Studies, University of Maryland Graduate School, 2018

Faculty Mentor of the Year, University of Maryland Graduate School, 2017

College of Education Senate Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2015-16

Elected Membership to the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology, 2016

9th Annual University-Wide Celebration of Scholarship and Research Honoree, 2016

Outstanding Reviewer, American Educational Research Journal, 2015

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Stapleton, L. M., & #Johnson, T. L. (2019). Models to examine the validity of cluster-level factor structure using individual-level data. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2, 312-329. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245919855039

Wang, W., Liao, M., & Stapleton, L. M. (2019). Incidental second-level dependence in educational survey data with a nested data structure. Educational Psychology Review. doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09480-6

Bonnéry, D., #Feng, Y., Henneberger, A. K., #Johnson, T. L., Lachowicz, M., Rose, B. A., Shaw, T.,  Stapleton, L. M., Woolley, M. E., #Zheng, Y. (2019). The promise and limitations of synthetic data as a strategy to expand access to state-level multi-agency longitudinal data. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2019.1631421   Note: authors listed in alphabetical order

Hancock, G. R., Stapleton, L. M., & Mueller, R. (Eds.) (2018).  The reviewer’s guide to quantitative methods in the social sciences, 2nd edition.  New York, NY: Routledge.Leite, W. L., Stapleton, L. M., & Bettini, E. F. (2018). Propensity score analysis of complex survey data with structural equation modeling: A tutorial with Mplus. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal.

Stapleton, L. M., & Kang, Y. (2018).  Design effects of multilevel estimates from national probability samples. Sociological Methods & Research. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0049124116630563

McNeish, D. M., Stapleton, L. M., & Silverman, R. (2017). On the unnecessary ubiquity of hierarchical linear modeling. Psychological Methods, 22,114-140.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/met0000078

Stapleton, L. M., McNeish, D. M., & Yang, J.-S. (2016). Multi-level and single-level models for measured and latent variables when data are clustered. Educational Psychologist, 51, 317-330. doi: 10.1080/00461520.2016.1207178

Stapleton, L. M., Yang, J. S., & Hancock, G. R. (2016). Construct meaning in multilevel settings.  Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 41, 481-520. doi: 10.3102/1076998616646200

HideGrants & Projects

National Science Foundation; 2019 – 2022; Principal Investigator; Quantitative Research Methods for STEM Education Scholars Program (#1937745)

Institute for Education Sciences; National Center for Education Research, 2018-2020, Exploring Links Between Arts Education and Academic Outcomes in the International Baccalaureate, PI: Dr. Ken Elpus, UMCP

National Science Foundation; Developmental Science,  2017 – 2020, Promoting Intergroup Relationships and Reducing Prejudice in Childhood, PI: Dr. Melanie Killen, UMCP

Institute for Education Sciences; National Center for Education Research,  2016 – 2019, Cognitive and Motivational Contributors to Reading Comprehension in English Learners (ELs) and English Monolinguals (EMs): Different or Similar Growth Patterns? (R305A160280), PI: Dr. Ana Taboada, UMCP

Institute for Education Sciences; State Longitudinal Data Systems, 2015 – 2019,  Feasibility of Synthetic Data for Population-Averaged and Cluster-Specific Analyses by Researchers Utilizing Integrated State Longitudinal Data Systems (R372A150045)

HideCourses

EDMS647 Causal Inference and Evaluation Methods

EDMS655 Multilevel Modeling

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Laura M. Stapleton is Interim Dean for the College of Education. Prior to the 2021-22 academic year, she served as Associate Dean for Research, Innovation, and Partnerships.

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Teaching, Reading, and Learning: The Reading League Podcast

Teaching, Reading, and Learning: The Reading League Podcast elevates important contributions to the educational community, with the goal of inspiring teachers, informing practice, and celebrating people in the community who have influenced teaching and literacy to the betterment of children. The podcast features people whose life stories are compelling and rich in ways that are instructive to us all. The podcast will focus on literacy as we know it (reading and writing) but will also connect to other "literacies" that impact children's learning; for example, emotional, physical, and social literacies as they apply to teachers and children.
Teaching, Reading, and Learning: The Reading League Podcast is taking a short break following our June 2022 episode.

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Teaching, Reading & Learning: The Podcast

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Teaching, Reading & Learning: The Podcast elevates important contributions to the educational community, with the goal of inspiring teachers, informing practice, and celebrating people in the community who have influenced teaching and literacy to the betterment of children.