Today’s Literacy Headlines

Beyond her trailblazing role as the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor considered iCivics – a civics education nonprofit founded after she retired from the court – to be her “most important legacy.” “The practice of democracy is not passed down through the gene pool,” O’Connor once stated. “It must be taught and learned by each new generation.”

We’ve heard a lot about the science of reading this year. Within this scripted method of how to make children proficient readers, there’s one critical element that’s been largely overlooked: the joy of reading. As efforts toward developing strong readers go, reading aloud to children is one that teachers’ anecdotes and research inform us is worthwhile. Here’s a glance at why reading out loud to students matters, the barriers teachers face in executing the read aloud, and the benefits of making it happen.

For decades, researching dyslexia has been a passion and a fascination for Albert Galaburda, the Emily Fisher Landau Professor of Neurology, Emeritus, at HMS. Ask him why, and he’ll likely say that, for him, it is a quest to untangle a condition shaped by so many facets of who we are. “It extends from sociology to molecular biology,” he says. “It has to do with how genes regulate themselves, but also with our brains, our schools, our education system, and our cultural attitudes toward reading.”

One of the most fundamental skills students learn in school is still at the forefront of the national education conversation—how kids learn to read. The “science of reading” movement pushed forward in 2023, with at least five more states passing new laws designed to bring reading instruction in line with evidence-based practice. At the same time, opposition to these attempts to overhaul classroom practice has surfaced, too, with one state seeing the first major legal challenge to new legislation. Looking back over the year, Education Week rounded up four important developments in reading instruction policy and practice. 

Great books can make you feel like you are actually in them; they whisk you away to imaginary worlds and far-off places. Many of this year’s best children’s books had this effect. Shana Gozansky’s My Art Book of Adventure drops readers into famous works of art, like Thomas Moran’s The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Edvard Munch’s The Sun. Nikki Grimes’ A Walk in the Woods envelops us in a thick forest, home to garter snakes, owls and white-tailed deer. And David LaRochelle’s latest book transports us to a magical land of 100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli.

Indiana state officials must continue to fund strong afterschool and summer learning programs that have helped many students catch up after the pandemic — even when government money runs out, according to a new report from advocates. Programs that add hours and support to the school day, are especially critical for low-income students who were set back the most during the pandemic, according to the report, “The Expanded Classroom.” Those students’ families can’t pay for tutoring, museum visits, and arts activities that more affluent families can.

Kids have questions about death, and we don’t always have answers. In fact, we rarely do; we have questions of our own! “There are no words” might be all the rage in condolence cards, but there are words, and you can find them in these new picture books about grief. 

As a newly minted middle school English teacher, I was shocked by the number of students who entered my classroom unable to decode text. As I got to know them, I saw that herculean efforts to mask their reading disabilities revealed intelligence, determination, and traumatic relationships to school.

First, new funding is meant to increase the number of children served and get kids off waitlists. Second, additional funding is targeted to better meet the needs of working families. Finally, $35 million is slated for classroom startup grants of $25,000 to help open new classrooms and expand existing programs in public schools and community-based organizations.

In this video, Sarah Schwartz, Education Week’s curriculum and instruction reporter, recaps developments in reading policy in 2023, and offers a look at what’s ahead in the new year.

Children learn at their own pace, and therefore, some meet communication milestones earlier or later than others. Multilingual children develop language skills progressively, just as monolingual children do. When children do not meet developmental milestones that are typically displayed by children of the same age and learning the same language, families may be concerned. Here are some areas to consider more closely when there are communication concerns in multilingual children.

From students’ stalled learning recovery to the shifting politics of education reform and cybersecurity at schools, here were the year’s top themes.

Three years after the COVID pandemic began, schools across America are still finding their new normal. School communities are desperately trying to reduce chronically absent students, struggling with how to spend waning federal COVID relief dollars, implementing new “science of reading” laws, and waffling on how ChatGPT should (or should not) be a part of classrooms. Here are nine storylines from Chalkbeat reporters across the country that dove into those topics.

Every year we ask our staff and book critics for recommendations for Books We Love — NPR’s annual, year-end books guide. Here are some of the 2023 picture books they selected — to see the full list, including books for older kids — head over to Books We Love.

This year marked the fortieth anniversary of “A Nation at Risk,” the seminal report that did so much to reshape America’s modern education landscape. In the four decades since its publication, there have been unsung highs—like the rise in student achievement in the early aughts—and unwelcome lows, such as the post-Covid achievement crash that’s still with us. Indeed, nary a year has passed without both positive and negative developments, many of them traceable to the education-quake that NCLB triggered. This past year was no different. Here’s a roundup of some of the biggest ed headlines from 2023.

Studies have shown a link between dramatic play games and emotional control in children. In my work as an educator, I use theater training to help all students grow their self-regulation. Research demonstrates that children who have strong self-regulation skills at a young age are more likely to have academic success and greater physical and mental health as adolescents and adults. Use these games as part of your morning meetings, body breaks, or closing circles. There’s ample opportunity to tie in curriculum as well.

While standards can and should set the bar for annual learning targets, they shouldn’t be used to define the particulars of daily classroom instruction. Fluent reading is built on skills, yes, but it is ultimately fueled by curiosity and the desire to make meaning. Nobody picks up a text to practice finding the main idea of a paragraph. Rather, they learn to find the main idea by engaging with a text because it’s interesting, opens a window into new knowledge or offers a unique insight. What if, instead of foregrounding skills, students were learning about dinosaurs, butterflies, or the American Revolution, and mastering reading skills along the way?

Kindergarten enrollment remained down 5.2 percent in 2022-2023 school compared with 2019-2020, as fewer families consider it an assumed first step in a child’s formal education. Kindergarten is considered a crucial year for children to learn to follow directions, regulate behavior and get accustomed to learning. Missing that year of school can put kids at a disadvantage, especially those from low-income families and families whose first language is not English, said Deborah Stipek, a former dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Those children are sometimes behind in recognizing letters and counting to 10 even before starting school, she said. 

States across the country have their versions of mandates meant to support students with dyslexia, and these continue to evolve. One example in recent headlines is dyslexia screening mandates, which the majority of states now have in place. These policies require all students be screened for dyslexia, mainly in grades K–2, ideally to catch at-risk characteristics early and provide interventions immediately. Far fewer states have mandated intervention for students with dyslexia, and states that do have proper mandates often fail to support and coach educators in the classroom on how to implement necessary instruction.

Carey Wright is a top-tier recruit with deep ties to Maryland. She spent decades working as a teacher and administrator in some of the state’s largest school districts before serving a nine-year stint as schools chief in Mississippi, where she was credited with leading a highly successful overhaul to literacy instruction. Locals are hoping her appointment can jump-start a similar revival in Maryland, where pandemic-era learning loss has dealt a severe blow to student scores that once ranked among the best in the country. 

Promoting creativity with educational technology in elementary school is a fantastic way to foster the 4Cs of 21st-century learning—communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity—while providing students with future-ready experiences. Teachers can guide students to explore versatile tools like Flip and Seesaw in a range of assignments across the curriculum.

Beginning readers have a lot to learn in a short amount of time. The clock is ticking toward the grade 4 deadline for gaining basic skills. The science of reading approach has lost the sense of urgency about getting readers off the ground quickly. Explicit instruction is time-consuming. Only a limited amount is necessary, and the “harm” of overteaching is the opportunity costs: It eats up precious classroom time that could have focused on other goals.

To wrap up 2023, we’re taking a look at the big themes that emerged in your comments and conversations across our channels. We’re digging into the ideas and solutions that you—teachers, administrators, counselors, and other school staff—praised and critiqued. Here are nine big themes and conversations that lit up our channels this year. 

As educators stress the importance of social and emotional learning, more are adopting sensory spaces to help support self-regulation for all students. During the pandemic, and now beyond, sensory spaces have morphed from being used with just those with special needs to more inclusive environments that support all students as part of universal design for learning.

How much faith should parents have that their child’s school and teachers understand good literacy instruction? And if schools and teachers are shaky on effective practice, how much do parents need to know to advocate for their children and raise strong readers?

Researchers have found kindergarten through third grade classes spend, on average, 89 minutes a day on English language arts, 57 minutes a day on math — and just 18 minutes a day on science. One way advocates are trying to encourage more science time? Adding outdoor classrooms to elementary schools.

The state has for decades, over numerous initiatives, attempted to battle its literacy crisis by adopting the science of reading.

Setting up a self-contained classroom for English language learners bolsters academics and helps students reach fluency faster.

Key to all these lessons is teachers’ effective use of instructional time through student engagement.

Though perhaps best known for his children’s books featuring animals illustrated in collage, Lionni was also an innovative graphic designer, painter, sculptor and teacher. Across his work, he promoted curiosity and creativity, and encouraged people to consider their role in the world. Lionni associated with a wide swath of creatives, including artist Andy Warhol, designer Paul Rand and architect Buckminster Fuller. He also helped launch many careers, including that of Eric Carle, who also became a renowned children’s book creator.

Faced with classrooms comprising readers at myriad levels—often several grades apart in the same room—how can principals best support teachers in differentiating? How can they orchestrate school-wide interventions that support students’ growth and success as readers and communicators, and build the skills that are foundational for success in career and life? To better understand the nuances of this leadership challenge, [Edutopia] spoke with Nicole Ey, principal of Ellenville Elementary School in New York State and a 2022 NAESP National Distinguished Principal, about her school’s approach to closing gaps in reading scores across elementary grade levels.

Last week, as leading education experts gathered — again —to ponder the nation’s sluggish recovery from pandemic learning loss, one speaker put the issue in stark relief. “This is the biggest problem facing America,” Jens Ludwig, a University of Chicago professor, said flatly. Nonetheless, he told those assembled at the Washington, D.C., event sponsored by the Aspen Institute, a think tank, “We do not have our hair on fire the way it needs to be.”

Some of America’s biggest names in education tackled some of the thorniest issues facing the country’s schools on the op-ed pages of The 74 this year, expressing their concerns about continuing COVID-driven deficits among students and the future of education overall. There were some grim predictions, but also reasons for hope. Here are some of the most read, most incisive and most controversial essays we published in 2023.

Here are the year’s most notable picture, chapter and middle grade books, selected by our children’s books editor.

Following our annual tussle with hundreds of studies of merit, we’ve pared them down to 10 you shouldn’t miss—from what AI can (and can’t) do to the neuroscience of brain synchrony.

It was a weekend of learning, sharing, laughing — and even shedding some tears — as librarians and library leaders gathered at the SLJ Summit 2023: A Vision for the Future. The highlight of Sunday’s program was a keynote from “Wimpy Kid” author Jeff Kinney, who spoke about librarians’s impact. “You’ve made it your life’s work to make sure we see the humanity in one another,” Kinney said. “Books might be empathy machines, but librarians are the beating hearts of the communities they serve.” Kinney has spent his most recent book tour celebrating librarians across the country and around the world. 

A new report finds that a parent-led tutoring effort in Oakland produced similar gains in reading for young students as instruction from classroom teachers — a nod that could fuel similar efforts in other districts. The evaluation, from the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University, calls community members “untapped pools of talent” in the effort to improve student achievement.

Students around the world suffered historic setbacks in reading and math during the COVID-19 pandemic, with declines in test scores so widespread that the United States climbed in global rankings simply by falling behind less sharply, a new study finds. The state of global education was given a bleak appraisal in the Program for International Student Assessment, the first study to examine the academic progress of students in dozens of countries during the pandemic. It finds the average international math score fell by the equivalent of three-quarters of a year of learning. Reading scores fell by the equivalent of half a year.

Spring 2024 Scholastic Book Fairs will integrate books that were controversially separated out this fall in a now-discontinued elementary school collection of titles related to diversity and LGBTQ+ issues, the company has announced. The company has enhanced its online title previews, saying they’ve become necessary to help educators navigate around state and local curriculum restrictions.

[The] call-and-response approach, where kids are asked to sound out letters, split apart sounds and put them back together is a peek into the future of how all Minnesota kids will learn to read. It’s called phonemic awareness and it’s one strategy that teachers in Rochester are using to help kids decode words. Earlier this year the Legislature passed the Read Act. The new law seeks to undo the legacy of Minnesota’s vast reading gap by requiring schools to teach reading in new ways. The act gives $70 million to schools to pay for training and curriculum from a menu of approved options. 

Anyone who has ever read a picture book that bored kids to tears will understand what I mean when I say that not every picture book is a “readaloud” picture book. In this world there are lapsit books and there are readaloud books. The lapsit book is for a one-on-one experience. The readaloud can work just as well for 400 kids as it can for one. It just has to have something about it that engages and interacts with its audience.

Hanford said what will be needed to bring substantial success includes good training of teachers, adequate resources and staffing, and strong attention to all the aspects of what is often called the “science of reading.” Plus patience, a willingness to make mid-course corrections, and humility in thinking that you know the answers.   

I have been building my Black history library since my junior year of college, when I taught third and fourth graders about the Harlem Renaissance. My library has been growing ever since, but whether you have a large collection of books or are just starting out, there are always new titles for you to discover. Here are a few tips for getting started building your own collection of Black history-focused books.

From a 200th-anniversary edition of Clement C. Moore’s Christmas Eve tale to lightheartedly loopy poems for every day of the year.

The science of reading is thankfully supplanting dubious methods of teaching young children to read, as state policymakers across the country are increasingly expanding, refreshing, and/or adopting new early reading legislation to prioritize what works. A recent study, conducted by Michigan State University researchers, asks whether such legislation impacts short-term reading and math achievement, as well as economic and racial test-score gaps. They also investigate whether potential impacts depend (or not) on particular policies or groups of policies to move the needle.

With the ‘right-to-read’ settlement, California agreed to give an extra $50 million to 75 elementary schools with the worst reading scores in the state to improve how they were teaching reading. A pair of Stanford University education researchers studied whether the settlement made a difference, and their conclusion was that yes, it did. Third graders’ reading scores in 2022 and 2023 rose relative to their peers at comparable schools that weren’t eligible for the settlement payments. Researchers equated the gains to an extra 25% of a year of learning.

To try to make up for pandemic learning loss, educators and policymakers have searched for solutions that work and — just as important — are cost effective. Now a new stud reports positive results from a reading program in California that emphasized training teachers in the principles of the science of reading, a movement focused on foundational skills such as phonics, vocabulary and comprehension.

New research suggests that parents should use sing-song speech, such as nursery rhymes, with their babies, as it aids language development. Phonetic information is not reliably processed until around seven months of age, whereas rhythmic information helps babies recognize word boundaries from the start. The study sheds light on language learning and its relation to dyslexia and developmental language disorders.

Children’s and YA author Kelly Barnhill asks, Am I still a writer if I’ve lost my words? “Recently, I wrote a story. Only six sentences long, but a story nonetheless. With a character, a place and the passage of time. An opening, a turn, a conclusion. Such a small thing, a tiny accomplishment. And yet. I stared at the card for a long time, utterly astonished.”

Formal childcare gave pre-schoolers’ vocabulary a boost during the first year of the pandemic, according to new research. Young children could produce an average of 29 more words for each day they spent in childcare, and understand an average of 16 words more than toddlers who did not spend time in childcare settings. Communication and problem-solving skills also improved for children from less affluent homes who attended early childhood education and care (ECEC), the U.K. study found.

These games can spark creativity, boost engagement, and teach important executive function skills such as turn-taking. The following are some favorite games for morning meetings, developed over the last decade of bringing theater residencies to schools. These can be played in a circle by the whole class simultaneously, in table groups, or even in partnerships.

When Gil Gershoni was in 3rd grade and his teacher assigned the 30 or so students in his class turns at reading aloud, he quickly developed an avoidance strategy. He figured out the approximate number of seconds that each student read. Two students before his turn, he would raise his hand and ask to go to the restroom, where he’d sit in a stall and count in his head until he knew that his turn had been bypassed by at least two students. Then he would return to his seat in the classroom and hope the teacher didn’t circle back to him. Decades later, Gershoni now jokingly calls it his “power play.”

Here’s to keeping it interesting. Pushing the envelope. Pushing boundaries. Pushing buttons. Here’s to children’s books that expand our assumptions of what a children’s book can be.

Providing elementary students with multiple means of action and expression helps ensure that teachers create equitable, valid assessments.

Advocates of teaching morphology argue that it can help older students who still struggle to read multisyllabic words, and that it can support deeper and richer vocabulary development as reading becomes more complex and discipline-specific. Morphology instruction is also gaining popularity within the “science of reading” movement, which aims to align classroom practice with research evidence. Still, exactly how and when—or even if—to teach morphology are open questions, said Kathleen Rastle, a professor of cognitive psychology who studies language, literacy, and learning at the Royal Holloway University of London.

New laws give the Minnesota Department of Education more say over how schools approach reading instruction. A handful of districts may provide a glimpse into how state leaders expect every educator to teach young children how to read. It’s been nearly a decade since Anoka-Hennepin officials began moving away from a literacy approach that relies heavily on the development of vocabulary and context clues. Educators now teach children the roots of words and repeatedly practice decoding them so that it becomes second nature, part of a strategy known as structured literacy.

Literacy experts have largely praised the new mandate. By moving from a hodgepodge of different curriculums that varied school by school, it’s easier to train teachers at a larger scale. But observers also warned that getting teachers up to speed quickly with new materials would prove challenging — and that success would hinge on whether teachers felt adequately supported. The city did not give schools much lead time, announcing the overhaul less than two months before the summer break. Teachers were expected to roll out new materials when they returned in September.

The animated show called “Carl the Collector” follows Carl, a raccoon with autism who loves to collect things, and his friends in Fuzzytown, a place where everyone is learning about themselves and those around them. Carl is described as warm-hearted and energetic, laser-focused and having great attention to detail, but he struggles with anxiety in new circumstances and when things don’t go as expected. His friends include both neurotypical and neurodiverse characters.

What children who face eyesight, hearing and literacy challenges can decipher may be limited, but what they appreciate and celebrate knows no bounds.

The nonprofit Khan Academy is making strategic decisions to shore up its position at the forefront of the use of artificial intelligence in K-12 education. One move it’s making—announced Nov. 15—is to cut the price almost in half for use of Khanmigo, its AI-powered chatbot that is currently being used in 32 school districts. Later this month, the school districts that use the tool will be able to employ a new feature, offering personalized feedback on student essays and other writing.