A bipartisan coalition of state representatives want to equip schools with structured literacy curriculum.

Rep. Justin Fleming (D-Dauphin) spoke with Bill Break about HB684, which he is co-sponsoring. The bill creates a grant program for schools to ensure their elementary level reading curriculum has “structured literacy” foundations. It also lays out professional development standards and assistance to implement the new curriculum.

Literacy advocates want $100 million to go towards the grant program to help with the transition.

Fleming discusses our state’s current literacy rates, how Mississippi went from bottom 40 to top 10 in their literacy rates, and more.

 

a transcript of the interview is below.

 

KARA JEFFERS, STATE GOVERNMENT REPORTER: "Hello. I'm Kara Jeffers here with Representative Justin Fleming. And we are going to take a break, and talk about a bill. You have something that deals with literacy rates?

REP. JUSTIN FLEMING (D-DAUPHIN): "That's exactly right. Sadly, about 70% of our fourth graders do not read at grade level statewide. And that's an abominable statistic and we need to do better and we can do better.

"Fortunately, Representative Jason Ortitay and I are partnering for the second consecutive session on a bill that will help boost literacy by fourth grade. And it will do that in part by identifying folks who have trouble reading at the earliest ages. So kindergarten, first and second grade. Make that identification and make sure they get the intervention and the help they need.

JEFFERS: "Explain how we got here, with these literacy rates for fourth graders. What went wrong?"

FLEMING: "So it started a long time ago. And, you know, education is a big business. And with big business comes purchasing and things like that. And unfortunately for many, many years, we had a curriculum called ‘balanced literacy, which is more I would say literacy based on vibes, actually, rather than actual, you know, phonemic awareness and things like that."

"So, so balanced literacy was like context clues. Using pictures in order to sort of figure out what's happening. You weren't really dealing with the words as much as you were dealing with, you know… saw what the pictures tell you or what the context is.

"And unfortunately, we also got away from teaching teachers how to read correctly. So you know, when teachers were going through their university experience, they were not adequately taught how to teach kids to read.

"And so we are trying to unwind the last couple of decades of this with something called structured literacy. And structured literacy is really simple. It’s— if you're of a certain age like me, you know, and you grew up watching Sesame Street and the electric company and things like that— you know, you you they would have the two fragments ‘c’, ‘at’, Cat; and then they would put them together. That's phonemic awareness.

"That is an understanding of what sounds letters make, what they sound like, you know, sound it out, things like that. And that's that first phonemic awareness piece that we need to get back to.

"And my inspiration for being a part of this was, was Mississippi. Mississippi at one time was 49th in the country in literacy. They are now in the top ten because they have committed to structured literacy, are committed to funding it. And so that's what Representative Ortitay and I are looking to do. But that's, that's a little bit of the history in terms of how we got here."

JEFFERS: "Specifically, what does your bill do?"

FLEMING: "So our bill actually builds on the progress we made from our bill that was passed into law last year. Our bill last year, what it did was it created a… it created a cadre of vendors which the Department of Education could use. And it was.. it was almost a ‘may', you know. So school districts ‘may' go in this direction.

"What we're looking to do this year is, we're looking to pass further enhancements to structure literacy, but also tied to funding. So because like I said, education is big business. You know, if we're going to do this correctly, we're going to need to give the school districts the ability to purchase curriculum. We're going to need to give school districts the ability to do proper professional development.

"And so that comes at a cost. But I tell you that the gains we will make from this, and the improvement we will see in our fourth graders, are going to far outweigh what this bill costs. And it's going to be a huge net positive in the end.

"And you know, we can look at Mississippi as an example, you know, going up more than 40 spots in reading in just about ten years. So they have done the work. They've committed. And they've given us a blueprint. We had, we had the person who used to run the literacy program for Mississippi, for the state of Mississippi, as one of the legislators who was responsible. He came and spoke to the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, and he gave us the blueprint and how to do this.

"We just need to commit to it. And follow it. And our kids are going to see a lot of success if we can do this and do it with fidelity."

JEFFERS: "Have you gotten any opposition to this? And what is that final tax number that’s associated with it?"

FLEMING: “The opposition, ff course, that comes with the cost. So anything [that] comes with a cost, you know, is carefully looked at. And the advocates with the literacy coalition who I'm working with, they're looking for $100 million to fund this effort. So, you know, that is… that naturally brings about a pause as we talk about that kind of cost. But again, the benefits will far outweigh the costs."

JEFFERS: “This has been Bill break where we talk about the legislation that doesn't always get into the limelight."