BOSTON — A panel of state educators, legislators, and a national education expert shared perspectives and answered questions raised by parents and teachers about the Right to Read Act at a State House roundtable last week.
The discussion, hosted by Educators for Excellence, included Boston Public School principal Antonelli Mejia, state Sen. Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett), and Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. The bill, which seeks to reform early literacy instruction, advanced in the House in October and in the Senate in January.
Addressing critics of the bill who are opposed to a state-mandated list of approved curricula, Mejia said that time is the “most critical resource” that impedes local autonomy. He argued that developing curricula takes valuable time, which could otherwise be spent analyzing teaching methods and educating children.
“If there were a list of already vetted materials that are considered high-quality, that are research based, then we can focus our energy on what really matters,” said Mejia, “which is, how do we compact the curriculum, and how can we be critical consumers of the material before we put it in front of our babies?’”
Peske said that state-mandated curricula are “not a one size fits all approach. There’s a robust list. Districts will always have a choice of curriculum that they want to use. We just want to ensure that the choices are the best choices and that they don’t contain a bunch of defunct methods.”
The panel also addressed opposition to the bill from the Massachusetts Teachers Union. The union in January stated that it is concerned that “any mandated curriculum will inevitably leave behind some students who are struggling with reading.” The union also wrote that the waiver process, which grants education licenses, “is not structured to support proven results but instead is focused on bending school districts toward compliance with theoretical approaches.”
“I historically have been on their (the union’s) side on many, many issues,” said Sen. DiDomenico. “But this is where we took a sharp break. I told them, ‘I’m not pro MTA, I’m pro kids.’ And that’s where the divide was put down.”
“It was telling and disappointing, quite frankly, to hear some detractors who were at the higher level of the union saying one thing, representing teachers, when most of the teachers were saying, ‘we need something different.’”
Educators stressed that a change was necessary as over 60% of fourth-graders in Massachusetts are reading at a below-third grade level.
“The status quo isn’t working for over half the children in our state that are in third grade,” DiDomenico said. “If we don’t address it in a meaningful way through legislation, then we are failing our kids.”
“We don’t have time to wait. Our kids don’t have time. They’re in third grade, they’re in second grade, they’re in first grade only for a finite amount of time. And if we let them go beyond those grade levels and not get what they need, then we’re just making them get into a cycle of more pain and suffering.”
DiDomenico is part of the conference committee that will draft a final version of the bill, approved by the House and the Senate.
“I will make sure we pack all the good things that we put in our bill and add some good things the House did as well,” he said. “We are going to start that process in the next couple of weeks, and then we should have a bill to the governor’s desk shortly after.”
James Noyes writes for the Gazette from the Boston University Statehouse Program.