Zach is a Legislative Director for ExcelinEd in Action. In this role, he works with leaders and lawmakers from the midwestern states to promote student-centered solutions.
September is National Literacy Month, and while reading is top of mind across the country, the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Education took bold steps to ensure all students can read by the end of third grade. According to the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 64% of Wisconsin fourth graders were not proficient readers – and not much has changed in 20 years. Wisconsin also has the nation’s highest Black-white student achievement gap in reading.
There is an urgent need to move the needle before another generation of students falls behind.
Learning to read by the end of third grade is the gateway to lifelong success. When students are not able to read by the end of third grade, their risk of falling behind grows exponentially. In fact, research shows that nearly 90 percent of high school dropouts were struggling readers in third grade.
The committee considered Assembly Bill 446, which includes several fundamental principles of a comprehensive early literacy policy:
Assembly Bill 446 – and its companion Senate Bill 454 – include many of Florida and Mississippi’s policies and practices in an aim to emulate their nationally recognized success and improve student reading achievement statewide in Wisconsin.
This builds on momentum in the 2022 budget, which directs more than $7 million for teacher professional development and preparation aligned with the science of reading, tutoring and administering the Reach Out and Read Wisconsin program.
The progress being made on behalf of students across Wisconsin doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen alone. It’s a result of tireless work by Chairman Jeremy Thiesfeldt, Representative Joel Kitchens, Senator Kathy Bernier, Institute for Reforming Government, Decoding Dyslexia and many other leaders advocating for foundational reading skills.
