Assemblymember Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) and 13 co-authors have proposed a bill that would update the state鈥檚 English curriculum with the science of reading 鈥� research that has found the best way to teach reading is through phonics, phonemic awareness, oral reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

The bill calls for more instructional materials and curriculum for classrooms to align with the science of reading. It also emphasizes the need for increased professional development for teachers and more progress monitoring for students struggling with reading. 

鈥淎ll English language arts, English language development, and reading textbooks and instructional materials for transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and any of grades 1 to 8, inclusive, shall adhere to the science of reading,鈥� reads the bill which was submitted to the Assembly鈥檚 education and higher education committee in February.

Schools would require a waiver if educators wanted to use instructional materials that aren鈥檛 aligned with the science of reading. It is supported by 12 Democrats and two Republicans in the state assembly.

 A December 2023 by , and found 60% of California students aren鈥檛 reading at grade level skills by the time they reach third grade. 

鈥淎s an educator, I have firsthand knowledge of the struggles instructors face to ensure their students know how to read,鈥� Rubio said in a statement. 鈥淐alifornia teachers work tirelessly to better the success of each student. However, California is failing its students, especially diverse students from low-income families.鈥�

In the 2022-2023 school year, 31% of third-graders in low-income families were reading on grade level. For students not considered low-income, 63% were reading on grade level.

That trend has been steady for nearly a decade, with low-income students underperforming in reading tests every year since at least 2014.

鈥淗istorically, we鈥檝e seen low performance in literacy in California,鈥� said Eugenia Mora-Flores, a professor and an assistant dean at USC鈥檚 Rossier School of Education. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not surprising, actually. We鈥檝e definitely seen low literacy performance in large districts like L.A. Unified and others where we have students that are not performing at grade level.鈥�

To address low scores, legislators want teachers to use the science of reading. Some schools across the state already use this method when teaching students. Others use 鈥渨hole language,鈥� which focuses on the meanings of words instead of breaking them down into pieces.

That鈥檚 different from the science of reading, which relies on phonics and encourages students to learn how letter combinations sound out loud to decode words based on their spellings.

鈥淸The science of reading] is an acknowledgment that kids will learn to read if they can learn the letters, sound them out and gradually pick up on fluency over time,鈥� said Pedro Noguera, dean of USC鈥檚 education school. 鈥淚f you don’t read at proficiency by third grade, then you’re in trouble because everything in school is literacy-based. After learning to read, then you read to learn, right? If you can’t read a math problem, you can’t do the math.鈥�

Noguera said a mandate alone won鈥檛 solve California鈥檚 literacy problem without looking at the bigger picture when it comes to teaching kids to read.

鈥淚f we just focus on the science of reading, on phonics, we鈥檙e also missing the point, right?鈥� Noguera said. 鈥淚f we want kids to be good readers, phonics is not going to take them there. They need good books. They need a comprehensive approach to literacy.鈥� 

鈥淎ll English language arts, English language development, and reading textbooks and instructional materials for transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and any of grades 1 to 8, inclusive, shall adhere to the science of reading,鈥� the bill reads.

Dozens of states across the country have already implemented laws enforcing the science of reading.

Last year, Indiana mandated that schools must use the science of reading by fall 2024. So have legislators in Michigan, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas, among others. 

In a state with one of the in the country, Mora-Flores said it will come down to how well the mandate is implemented across California.

鈥淚n some ways, [the bill] can be seen as a good thing because it’s saying, at minimum, we all need to make sure kids are getting something, and you’re going to be held accountable to it because now it’s policy,鈥� Mora-Flores said. 鈥淥n the other side of that, it’s really going to come down to the quality of translation and implementation.鈥�

This article is part of a collaboration between 社区黑料 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

New standardized test scores for Rhode Island students in grades 3 through 8 made public Wednesday show modest gains in reversing pandemic declines for math and English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency last year.

But improvement at the elementary and middle school levels on the 2023 Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) was tempered by PSAT and SAT results for grades 10 and 11 respectively. Nearly half of students taking the SAT last spring met expectations for high school ELA, but slightly more than 25% demonstrated proficiency in math.

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That said, Education Commissioner Ang茅lica Infante-Green still saw cause for celebration in shrinking the gap between the lagging test scores of Rhode Island students with their counterparts in Massachusetts 鈥� which leads the nation in math and reading. Since 2018, the performance gap has shrunk from 21% in math to 11% and from 17% to 9% in ELA, according to the new data from the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE).

鈥淭his is the closest we have ever been as a state. That鈥檚 pretty amazing,鈥� Infante-Green said during a virtual presentation to share results with reporters Tuesday morning after holding sessions earlier and the previous day with groups of school superintendents.

The data was reviewed by Gov. Dan McKee last Friday. In a statement, McKee said the 2023 RICAS results show Rhode Island schools moving in the right direction to meet his goal of meeting or surpassing Massachusetts鈥� performance by the year 2030.

鈥淥ur students can perform at high levels, and we must stay the course and make sure our school communities have the support and resources to thrive,鈥� McKee said.

A 2022 analysis by the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment suggested it would take three to five years of accelerated learning for student achievement to return to what it was pre-pandemic. To at least match Massachusetts on test scores, McKee has launched his , which has distributed nearly $3.8 million to communities that signed compacts committing to  creating out-of-school learning opportunities. RIDE was scheduled to hold sessions with city and town officials to review test scores on Wednesday.

The state saw a second year of significant growth in math proficiency with an approximate 2.7 percentage point increase this year, and an increase in English Language Arts (ELA) of approximately 2%.

Among all grades taking the RICAS, fourth graders saw the highest increase in proficiency in both math (from 30.2% to 36.0%) and ELA ( 29.0% to 33.3%)

Fifth grade math proficiency went from 25.9% to 30.0%. Math scores dropped for third graders by half a percentage point to 34.5%

Seventh graders saw a 0.2% drop in ELA proficiency to 29.0%.

Across all racial and ethnic groups, ELA scores increased over last year. In math, all but one racial and ethnic subgroup performed higher. The exception was the Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders subgroup which dropped one percentage point, a small demographic of only 93 students, of 0.16% of the 59,272 third through eighth graders tested, Infante-Green said.

Increasing the number of students taking the PSAT and the SAT every April is considered the first step toward ensuring more students are college and career ready.

A total of 9,430 11th graders across the state took the SAT for mathematics, or 94.1%, up from 91.9% in 2022. The lowest rates of participation were at Providence鈥檚 Mount Pleasant (81.9%) and Central (82.1%) high schools and Woonsocket High School (82.5%)

The percentage of high school students meeting or exceeding expectations in math on the SAT remained flat statewide at 25.3% while those not meeting expectations increased 1% to 38.5%. In 2022, 30.8% of 11th graders did not meet expectations for math.

A total of 9,384 high school juniors, representing 94.4% of the state鈥檚 11th graders, took the SAT for ELA/Literacy, up from 92.3% in 2022. The new results show 49.1% met or exceeded expectations, up from 47.1%, while 29.1% of students did not meet expectations, down from 30.8% in 2022.

The percentage of high school sophomores taking the PSAT increased over the past year from 90.5% to 92.4% in math and 91.1% to 92.9% in ELA. Statewide math scores dropped from 29.2% proficient in 2022 to 27.2% proficient this year. Statewide ELA results show 55.3% of students met or exceeded expectations, a drop from 59.2% proficient in 2022.

鈥淭hose were our kids that were in 8th grade when the pandemic started and we鈥檙e seeing that impact,鈥� Infante Green said of high schoolers who had to struggle with the effects of lockdowns and social distancing during a pivotal year in their education and development. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty consistent across the nation.鈥�

Results showed a drop in the percentage of students in foster care taking the SAT, from 75.9% in 2022 to 71.8% in 2023, and from 80% to 76.4% who were homeless. The state saw a significant increase in American Indian and Alaskan Islander students taking the SAT, from 83.3% to 88.6%. More students with disabilities also took the SAT from 83.4% to 85.8%.

Multilingual learners

There was a 0.5% increase in multilingual students taking the ACCESS assessment, which tests students in four language domains: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Student results are categorized in six levels: Entering, Emerging, Developing, Expanding, Bridging and Reaching. The percentage of students scoring at the Expanding and Bridging levels rose 0.3%.

Bright spots

Tiverton saw ELA proficiency rise significantly districtwide, a 10% increase to 47.3%. In Coventry, students proficient in ELA rose 5.2% to 39.2%.Significant gains in ELA proficiency were made at Providence鈥檚 Leviton Dual Language School, from 12.3% in 2022 to 29.6% this year; Richmond Elementary School from 49.4% to 66.5%; and Wyman Elementary School in Warwick, 24.7% to 41.7%.Math proficiency increased the most at West Kingston Elementary School in South Kingstown (20.7% to 47.3%); Norwood School in Warwick (18.0% to 38.5%) and Woodridge School in Cranston (31.9% to 48.9%).

RIDE will offer families Personalized Individual Student Reports that include individualized informational  videos accessible through a QR code. The videos are available in 10 languages and help provide insight for comparisons to school, district, and state performance. Examples of the student report videos that families will be able to access and additional informational resources for assessments can be found on .