Connecticut’s Right to Read Law: Will it solve the literacy standstill?
When we think about social justice issues, our mind wanders to voting rights, health care, hunger and food insecurity, racial injustice, and sexuality and gender equality. However, each year, over one million 4th-grade students are added to the list of nonreaders in our country. In Connecticut, approximately 20,000 third graders over the 2022-2023 (roughly 54% of third graders statewide) could not read at grade level. Even in Connecticut’s highest-performing districts, about 25% of students are behind benchmarks.
Connecticut is one of 32 states that have passed laws regarding getting evidence-based reading instruction into schools. The Connecticut “Right to Read'' law, enacted with the June 2021 budget bill, created a new office within the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), the Center for Literacy Research and Reading Success. This office was tasked with implementing a new approach to literacy instruction, informed by the science of reading for Kindergarten through third-grade students. The new center identified seven reading curriculum programs (now expanded to 19 programs, models, and compendiums). These approved programs must be evidence-based and scientifically based and include oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, rapid automatic naming or letter naming fluency, and reading comprehension. The CSDE has provided no data to prove the chosen programs' efficacy or explain their selection. Nowhere on the center’s website can a parent or educator find an explanation of what phonics approach, curriculum, or instructional methodology will fix the state’s literacy crisis.
Districts must select from the approved programs and implement their new reading programs by July 1, 2025. However, they may request a waiver. The waiver applications allow districts to demonstrate whether their reading program meets the criteria outlined in the Right to Read legislation. Districts can submit evidence to establish that their reading curriculum models or programs are viable alternatives to the approved programs. Superintendents have complained that the waiver process must be more straightforward and manageable.
As of January 2024, 85 districts and charter schools have applied for a waiver, claiming their existing curriculum complies with state standards. Only 17 of the 85 waivers were approved. It is rather startling that many well-resourced, upper-income communities (with some of the highest reading scores in the state) like New Canaan, Greenwich, and Westport are among those that have been denied approval of a waiver. Many districts have claimed their programs meet the law’s requirements. Upon close inspection, it appears that these districts have attempted to sprinkle in phonics or phonemic awareness, like salt on a meal, with other classroom methodologies. These blended practices (hotly debated since the 1990s) have not improved literacy rates.
The “Right to Read” law received bipartisan support, but some educators raised concerns about requiring districts to implement reading programs approved by the literacy center. They claim that certain reading instruction may not be appropriate and work for individual students. Many teachers, superintendents, and citizens thus view the law as overreaching and usurping the ability to meet the needs of children enrolled in their schools.
In addition to questions about literacy curriculum and programming, the Right to Read law has raised assessment questions. For almost a decade, the Connecticut State Department of Education has promoted the legal requirement that school districts in Connecticut use one of the state-approved literacy screening measures to identify kindergarten through third-grade students at risk for reading failure. However, during the Right to Read initiative, that requirement was disregarded.
Universal literacy screening and valid and reliable assessments are essential to identifying students at risk for reading failure. With this, there is a chance of a lack of detection and the false impression that poor reading programs are working. During the Right to Read waiver process, districts were invited to submit K-3 screening data from any measure they chose, even if those measures were unapproved or previously determined inappropriate by the CSDE.
We are facing a literacy crisis. Poor reading skills impact academic achievement and are associated with an increased risk of school dropout, incarceration, attempted suicide, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Adults who cannot read are less able to provide for their families, support the economy, pay taxes, and are fearful of using the healthcare system because they are unable to follow written prescriptions. Making sure all children learn to read is an issue of not only social justice but also economics. Teachers must be supported with resources aligned with the science of reading and receive professional learning and development to ensure they can implement those resources.
While Connecticut is making a valiant attempt to address this issue, there needs to be more clarity and less controversy about the efficacy and soundness of the Right to Read legislation and universal literacy assessment. Reading is a right for all.
