Blog Post #4: Legislation

Federal Legislation

In 2015, No Child Left Behind was replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) when signed into law by President Obama.  This act focuses on preparing all students for college and career.  Each state has flexibility in how they will create these paths to success and must submit their plan to the U.S. Department of Education.   

Here are a few main components of this act and the impact they have on schools: 

• Each State has the ability to set their own rigorous academic standards.  Additionally, each state has tests administered to measure students’ achievement agains those standards.
• Information about students’ achievements against these standards on state assessments is communicated annually with families and the community.  This information can be viewed State and Local Report Cards.  Here is a helpful guide for parents on how to interpret the information presented on these report cards. 
• Focuses on accountability for lowest performing schools, schools with low graduation rates, and where specific subsets of students are not making progress. There is also a focus on action to change and improve performance through improvement plans for schools. 

Here is a link to view each individual State’s ESSA Plan.

State Legislation 

Along with federal legislation, states also have statutes that impact instruction.  Minnesota statute 120B.12 states that “The legislature seeks to have every child reading at or above grade level no later than the end of grade 3, including English learners, and that teachers provide comprehensive, scientifically based reading instruction.”  There are subdivisions within this statute that outline identification of students, parent involvement, intervention, staff development, and local literacy plans. 

• Every school district must identify kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade students that are reading below grade level at the end of every school year.  Students in grade 3 or above and have a reading difficulty are included in the report as well. 
• Annual communication to parents about a students’ reading proficiency, reading-related services, as well as strategies for parents to use at home to support learning at school is required for students not reading at or above grade level. 
• Districts must provide reading intervention to those students reading below grade level and continue to provide intervention services after grade 3 if the student does not reach grade level by the end of that year. 
• Districts must use data on student reading achievement to identify specific staff development needs. This includes training in scientifically-based reading instruction, culturally responsive instruction, and English Learners. 
• Every district must have a local literacy plan that outlines how they will have every child reading at or above grade level by the end of 3rd grade. 
• In 2018, there is a new requirement for districts to report the number of students who have been screened or identified for dyslexia or convergence insufficiency disorder, which is a vision disorder in which the eyes turn inward.  A challenge in this requirement is that schools do not have the tools currently to test for dyslexia.  It will be interesting to see what this new legislation leads to in the realm of education. 

Legislation has a definite impact on literacy learning at both the federal and state levels. Unfortunately there are many students who are not “reading well” by 3rd grade, and I am not sure that requiring districts to report this information is changing the narrative at all.  There are other changes that will need to take place to ensure reading success by this critical age. 

Here is a short video clip by the Children’s Literacy Initiative discussing improving literacy rates that I encourage you to watch. 

References: 

[Children’s Literacy Initiative]. (2014, September 11).  Children’s literacy initiative: Improving literacy rates Retrieved from: https://cli.org/2014/09/11/why-reading-why-third-grade-why-cli/

ed.gov. (2018, November). A parent guide to state and local report cards [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/index.html

Minnesota Department of Education. (2018). Frequently asked questions: Read well data and plan submission [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/datasub/ReadK3/

Officer of the Revisor of Statutes. (2018). 2018 Minnesota Statutes. Retrieved from https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/120B.12

U.S. Department of Education. Every students succeeds act (ESSA). Retrieved from https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=policy