Here's how statewide reading reform is impacting Stevens Point Area Public Schools

STEVENS POINT − 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 Stevens Point Area Public 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 Stevens Point Area Public School District impacted?

Assistant Superintendent Chris Nyman said the school district will begin the new mandated training with staff and administrators with the 2024-25 school year and proceed through the 2025-26 school year. New reading curriculum resources will go through a process of evaluation with an intention of choosing new materials by February 2025 to be implemented in the 2025-26 school year. Four reading curriculum resources were chosen in March by the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee to be eligible for up to 50% reimbursement from the state for purchase costs.

The Stevens Point school district has a seven-year curriculum evaluation cycle and it has been about 15 years since the district has selected new reading curriculum resources.

Nyman said the district’s current curriculum can be characterized as a “balanced reading” approach but that it also includes aspects in line with the state’s new standards. He said less science-backed teaching strategies of the current curriculum, which may include “three-cueing” in certain circumstances, will be phased out before the new curriculum resources are implemented.

The district currently utilizes resources called Core Ready and from a company called Fountas & Pinnell, which is featured prominently in the Sold a Story podcast. It also utilizes a common small-group format, according to Nyman, which matches students with similar reading levels into groups of three to five to receive specific teaching for their current needs.

The district sent a message to families a few weeks ago providing a broad overview of Act 20 provisions and a notice for potential schedule changes to accommodate 60 hours of required staff training over the next two school years.

“We recognize that change can be challenging, but we are excited about the potential that Act 20 holds for our students’ literacy and overall academic journey. By enhancing our educators’ skills in early literacy instruction, we are investing in our children’s future success,” Sarah O’Donnell, director of communications with the school district, wrote in a message to a Journal reporter. “We ask for your support and understanding as we navigate these changes together, always with our students’ best interests at heart.”

How have SPAPSD 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 39.6% of Stevens Point 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 44.4%, respectively.
• In 2018-19, 43.3% of fourth-graders statewide scored proficient or advanced compared to 44.8% in 2022-23. In Stevens Point, these numbers were 43.3% and 47.0%, respectively.
• In 2018-19, 36.5% of eighth-graders statewide scored proficient or advanced compared to 36.2% in 2022-23. In Stevens Point, these numbers were 43.5% and 30.4%, 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 Stevens Point, those numbers were 29.5% and 30.3%, respectively.
• In 2018-19, 36.8% of Wisconsin students in grade 11 scored proficient or advanced in English Language Arts on the ACT while 41.6% of Stevens Point students scored at the same level.

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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.