Here's how statewide reading reform is impacting the Wausau School District
WAUSAU − Last summer, the Wisconsin State Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers reached a compromise on sweeping literacy reform for Wisconsin students.
The reform, known as The Right to Read Act or 2023 Wisconsin Act 20, requires “science-based early reading instruction in both universal and intervention settings” and specifically prohibits reading instruction using “three-cueing instruction,” according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction website.
Wisconsin has ranked at or below average among other states in student reading performance measures since the 2000s, a large shift from its top 10 status in the 1990s.
Wisconsin is one of over three dozen states to enact similar reading reform bills in recent years. Here’s what readers need to know about the changes and how the Wausau School District is working to implement a new reading curriculum.
What is 'science-based' reading instruction?
DPI defines science-based reading instruction as “systematic and explicit and consists of all the following: phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, building background knowledge, oral language development, vocabulary building, instruction in writing, instruction in comprehension, and reading fluency.”
"In a science of reading framework, teachers start by teaching beginning readers the foundations of language in a structured progression − like how individual letters represent sounds, and how those sounds combine to make words," Sarah Schwartz of EdWeek wrote in 2022. "At the same time, teachers are helping students build their vocabulary and their knowledge about the world through read-alouds and conversations. Eventually, teachers help students weave these skills together like strands in a rope, allowing them to read more and more complex texts."
What is 'three-cueing instruction' and why is it prohibited?
DPI defines three-cueing as “any model, including the model referred to as meaning, structure, and visual cues, or MSV, of teaching a pupil to read based on meaning, structure and syntax, and visual cues or memory.”
This model of instruction rose to popularity, despite scientific pushback, over the last several decades for a range of political, economic and social reasons. American Public Media reporter Emily Hanford explores this history in detail on the Edward R. Murrow award-winning podcast, Sold a Story.
The DPI website clarifies that the “prohibition applies when the instructional goal is for the learner to solve unknown words.”
Reform creates Office of Literacy and adds literacy coaches
Besides adopting new curriculum standards and prohibiting a misguided method for early reading instruction, the legislation also creates an Office of Literacy within DPI, mandates new teacher and administration training, provides grants to districts that need to choose a new curriculum, creates new reading assessments for students and establishes 64 full-time literacy coaches to help carry out the reforms across the state.
The Office of Literacy and the literacy coaches are set to expire on July 1, 2028.
How is the Wausau School District impacted?
Wausau School District’s current early reading curriculum resource, Superkids Reading Program, did not score high enough in an initial state-level screening to be further considered as a recommended resource. A review of the Wisconsin Department of Instruction screening shows Superkids likely scored low as it is a K-2 program whereas the new standards consider “early literacy” as K-3.
A case study published by Superkids’ publisher, Zaner-Bloser, said Wausau School District leaders began considering alternatives to its “balanced literacy” approach to reading, an approach which commonly includes “three-cueing,” in 2013. Superkids was implemented in the 2015-16 school year.
Discussions in a district English Language Arts leadership team have had a “resounding” point to choose a new reading curriculum resource that covers K-5, according to Sandy Lewens, district literacy coordinator, in an April 8 presentation to the School Board. This leadership team is in the process of considering the four resources approved by the legislature's Joint Finance Committee in March.
“They really want an explicit and a systematic scope and sequence of skills and having some of that universal language, not only between K-5, but also aligning to the Wisconsin DPI’s framework for literacy instruction,” Lewens said.
Another key aspect of Act 20 that district staff highlighted is the required teacher, staff and administrative training. Beginning in July, district leaders, including principles, will begin a six-day reading leadership training. Also in July, teaching staff will begin their new training program through Cox Campus.
“We’re really excited about the alignment for our teacher training as well as our leadership training,” Melanie Hansen, another district literacy coordinator, said in the April presentation. “We feel like it’s been maybe some time that our district principals and leaders have had a chance to calibrate and get some of this research-based and evidence-based strategies for them to help guide conversations in their buildings in front of their teachers.”
The presentation also included annual district-level data on reading.
“As you can kinda tell, we’re having really stable trends. We’re not having any huge spikes, we’re not really having any huge decreases either in terms of where our students are at,” Lewens said. “(The data) solidifies that fact that we need to intensify and improve our universal instruction in order to really be able to ensure we’re reaching all of those students.”
How have Wausau School District students fared on reading assessments?
In 2022, the National Assessment of Education Progress test found about a third of Wisconsin’s fourth and eighth graders are proficient in reading. Wisconsin's two other main measures of student literacy are the annual Forward exams, given in grades 3-8, and the ACT exam, typically taken by students in 11th grade. Forward exam data only goes back to 2018-19.
In the 2022-23 school year, 39.2% of Wisconsin students and 41.2% of Wausau students in grades 3-8 scored proficient or advanced on the Wisconsin Forward Exam for English Language Arts. In the 2018-19 school year, these numbers were 40.9% and 44.3%, respectively.
In 2018-19, 43.3% of fourth-graders statewide scored proficient or advanced compared to 44.8% in 2022-23. In Wausau these numbers were 43.4% and 45.7%, respectively.
In 2018-19, 36.5% of eighth-graders statewide scored proficient or advanced compared to 36.2% in 2022-23. In Wausau these numbers were 41.6% and 38.4%, respectively.
In 2022-23, 37.7% of Wisconsin students in grade 11 scored proficient or advanced, while 25.9% scored below basic on the ACT exam for English Language Arts. In Wausau those numbers are 44.4% and 18.6%, respectively.
In 2018-19, 36.8% of Wisconsin students scored proficient or advanced in English Language Arts on the ACT while 39.9% of Wausau students scored at the same level.
More local education news: Wausau School Board considers fall referendum to help address $3.5M deficit
More local news: Kids in Crisis is coming to Wausau for a discussion on youth mental health and suicide prevention
Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA-TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Reach him at epfantz@gannett.com or connect with him on X (formerly Twitter) @ErikPfantz.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Statewide reading reform is impacting the Wausau School District
