Latest news with #MassPotential
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
25 Investigates: Lawmakers, advocates want to revamp reading instruction in Mass. schools
With literacy rates at a crisis level in Massachusetts schools, some want to change how students are being taught to read. For months, 25 Investigates has been tracking the troubling downward trend. Now on Beacon Hill, there is a proposal to change and revamp the teaching materials districts are using. 'Massachusetts students have been going in the wrong direction when it comes to literacy for more than a dozen years now,' said Mary Tamer, executive director of Mass Potential, a nonprofit dedicated to K-12 education. As 25 Investigates has reported, 60% of Massachusetts 4th graders are reading below grade level, according to a national report. 'In some of our cities it's only 2 out of 10 or 3 out of 10,' Tamer said. The numbers are even more stark for certain student groups. 78% of black 4th-grade students, 79% of Hispanic students, and 80% of students considered 'economically disadvantaged' are reading below grade level in the Commonwealth. Tamer was among those who gathered at the State House Wednesday to support new legislation. An 'Act promoting high-quality comprehensive literacy instruction in all Massachusetts schools' would require all districts use high-quality literacy instruction. And the curricula selected '…must be aligned with evidence-based literacy instruction.' Tamer says that includes teaching phonics and removing methods that have been 'debunked'. State Representative Sal DiDomenico is one of the sponsors on the bipartisan bill. 'This bill will address that in a meaningful way, trying to find a way to improve literacy rates and give the teachers the tools they need, the skills they need to do just that,' DiDomenico said. According to a 2024 EdTrust study, 123 or 47% of Massachusetts public school districts that reported their literacy curriculum to the state, reported using low-quality curriculum'. In fact, districts are not required to report the curriculum they are using. 'More than 40 states at this point have passed legislation or policies that supports research and evidence-based instruction. Massachusetts is one of the few that hasn't,' Tamer said. The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) says the state should continue to focus on educators rather than a 'boxed curriculum.' MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy told 25 Investigates in a statement: 'Thanks to funds from the Fair Share Amendment, the Commonwealth was able to make substantial investments in literacy education last year, wisely focusing on educators rather than on a boxed curriculum. Massachusetts has in place a process that allows our expert educators and other stakeholders to design reading programs that best meet the needs of their students. With federal Title I grants in jeopardy, Massachusetts needs to be prepared to protect the vital reading support that those federal funds have made available to students in low-income districts. Now, with so many districts facing a fiscal crisis and possible additional losses in federal funds, it is even more harmful to introduce new state-mandated spending that local districts can't control on limited curriculum packages. The MTA advocates for continued recruitment and retention of a diverse teaching force with literacy-education training. Legislating narrow curriculum from the state is a deeply flawed approach to addressing the literacy needs of students and could hamper educators' ability to best serve students.' It also calls for dese to ensure districts have what they need to train teachers on evidence-based reading instruction, including online training modules available and free to all teachers.' The Mass Reads Coalition reports literacy rates among students in Grades 3-8 in Massachusetts, only 39% were meeting grade-level expectations in 2024, down from 57% in 2014. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Boston Globe
11-02-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Debate rages on over how to teach kids to read
Advertisement Hackett leads the school system in Lexington, one of the wealthiest towns in the state, Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up To date, Mary Tamer Executive director MassPotential Jill Norton Facilitator Mass Reads Coalition Boston Kids need structured phonics Could it be that Lesley University doesn't want to give up the power that it's had over the teaching of reading in Massachusetts? Why not just accept that most kids, especially those who don't live in a wealthy community, need structured phonics? The authors of 'The fallacy of settled science in literacy' complain that the new 'science of reading' methods require teachers to follow a script. But when I was trained in Advertisement Rather than a swinging pendulum or reading wars, why not evolution? The teaching of reading is evolving, and schools and students are benefiting. The authors could learn from others and be open to the fact that structured phonics is essential and helpful to many students. Eileen Sharkey Milton The writer is a retired literacy specialist who taught in North Andover. Address all the elements of literacy with phonics as building block In their op-ed, Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Julie Hackett write that debate over the best methods of teaching reading has gone on since the 19th century. It's true that arguments have gone back and forth — should it be introductory phonics or whole-word reading? Of course it isn't as simple as that. Phonics is the basis for all reading that leads to putting all the sounds together so quickly that it results in a completed word. Once this basic approach is instilled in the reader's mind, the art of reading fluently has begun. Even students who come into school reading fluently have already mastered this instinctively. Yet teaching children phonemic awareness is only the beginning. It must be followed up by reading instruction that includes all the elements of literacy, including vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing. As far back as the 1920s when Dr. Samuel T. Orton recognized that children who were unable to read were not lacking in intelligence but, rather, just needed a systematic approach to become successful readers, he worked with psychologist Anna Gillingham to develop the Advertisement The op-ed maintains that 'young readers get better by reading.' However, how is that possible if they have not been taught how to read? Joyce Gillis Lexington The writer is the retired director of the Children's Dyslexia Center – Boston North. A good teacher finds a way to give individual students what they need I do feel that phonics is a helpful part of sounding out new words, but — and this is key — not everyone can hear the sounds of letters. A good teacher knows that. So, that teacher must find a way to help new readers, be it phonetic, through sight recognition of words, or by other means. Mary Sullivan Medway The writer is a retired second-grade teacher from the Medway Public Schools. Keep classrooms overflowing with storybooks Re 'The fallacy of settled science in literacy': I am dumbfounded that any literacy curriculum purporting to be based on any scientific research would be combined with 'attempts to remove storybooks from classrooms.' In 1972, my husband was in fourth grade in a school in Dorchester so overcrowded that his classroom met in the library. His desk was next to the shelves. He remembers reading biographies about pioneers of aviation: Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), Eddie Rickenbacker, and Amelia Earhart. He even read a grade-appropriate picture book of 'Beowulf.' This should not have to be spelled out: All classroom shelves should be overflowing with all sorts of books. Claire Fitzmaurice Quincy
