click to enlarge - File: Daria Bishop
- Melissa Haggett teaching reading to first graders at Vergennes Union Elementary School
Vermont's teachers' union is pushing back against a proposed bill that would require schools to screen young children for dyslexia and other reading deficits.
S.204 would require public and independent schools to use universal reading screeners — short, easy-to-administer assessments that flag students who may be at risk for reading difficulties — for students in kindergarten through third grade. Forty-one states have similar laws that require schools to screen young children for dyslexia.
The bill — which was introduced
by Senate Education Committee vice chair Martine Gulick (D-Chittenden-Central), Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden-Central) and eight other senators — also requires schools to provide reading interventions for students who show substantial deficits and to notify families about them.
The proposed legislation comes amid a national discussion about the best ways to teach kids how to read amid declining reading test scores in Vermont, a topic
Seven Days detailed in an
October
cover story.
In
testimony in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday,
Vermont-NEA executive director Jeff Fannon, a lawyer, said the union had “significant concerns” about the bill.
His feedback did not address specific details of the bill. Rather, he discussed more broadly the union's objection to efforts to dictate or restrict what — and how — educators teach.
The draft bill states that programs designed to help struggling readers should not include "the three-cueing system," an approach in which students are taught to look at pictures or think about what makes sense when they come to a word they don't know. Research has shown that the approach is harmful to struggling readers because it discourages them from paying attention to the letters in words.
Fannon argued that research about how to most effectively teach reading is “ever evolving” and that the state should not “become beholden to one particular instructional practice because it happens to be politically popular or touted by the press.”
“What teachers say they need most to teach all readers is flexibility,” Fannon said. “Every student is different and different learners require different pathways to reading proficiency.”
Fannon noted that Vermont-NEA has long held the position that legislative action should not dictate school curriculum.
In questioning following the testimony, Gulick pressed Fannon on some of his criticism. Gulick said her bill was not aimed at revamping reading instruction in Vermont but was a “targeted approach” to identify early elementary students who need more literacy support.
Vermont students have experienced a gradual decline in standardized reading test scores in recent years. Today, only about half of Vermont third graders read proficiently. Results are far worse for children of color and those with disabilities or living in poverty.
“At what point do you draw a line in the sand and say, ‘This is a crisis. We need to do something different'?” Gulick asked. “Is there room for change? Is there room for some behavior that might require some evolution?”
Fannon said his members believe that the state is “making great strides” when it comes to literacy. Some of the Agency of Education's initiatives to improve literacy in the state, he said, such as the rollout of a virtual course for teachers about the science of reading, “are really just getting going.”
Gulick asked Fannon how long he would give the current system to start showing results.
“I don’t know," Fannon said. “We should be doing data collection so that we have a better understanding of … where the kids are… We won’t know until some point [in] the future.”
In a written statement on Friday in response to questions from
Seven Days, Fannon tempered his criticism of the bill. He said Vermont-NEA does not
oppose S.204 but instead has “made suggestions to the bill to improve it, which is part of the legislative process.” Fannon said his testimony was shaped by Vermont-NEA’s 21-member board, which is composed of educators.
“Their input and real-world classroom experiences were critical to my written testimony, including the suggestions to improve the bill,” Fannon said.
But local advocates for scientifically based reading instruction said Fannon’s testimony differed from their own experiences.
Laurie Quinn is president of the
Stern Center for Language and Learning , a nonprofit that works with hundreds of teachers in dozens of school districts across the state to implement evidence-based reading instruction and provides private tutoring to struggling readers. Quinn said many students who come to the Stern Center for help have reading issues that have been minimized or misunderstood in the past. Requiring a reading screening in the early grades “could be a very powerful way to ensure that intervention comes earlier,” she said, and would save numerous families the heartache that comes with struggling to read.
Dorinne Dorfman, a reading specialist and board member of the
International Dyslexia Association’s Northern New England chapter, was present for Fannon's testimony. Dorfman said Fannon's account did not represent “the views of teachers who are using scientifically based methods … and seeing big gains in their students.”
Dorfman also took issue with a statement Fannon made about Vermont’s eighth graders doing “really well” on the
National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national standardized test.
Data show that only 34 percent of Vermont eighth grade students tested proficient or above on the NAEP reading test in 2022. The number of eighth graders who tested
"below basic" increased from 18 percent in 2002 to 27 percent in 2022.
The Agency of Education has also provided
extensive feedback on S.204. Gulick said she hopes that the Senate Education Committee will discuss how to integrate that feedback into the bill next week and vote the measure out of committee by week’s end.
Several other literacy-related bills are under consideration this session, including
S.281. That bill, introduced by Senate Education Committee chair Brian Campion (D-Bennington), would require teachers to complete the online literacy course offered through the Agency of Education. It also directs the agency to conduct a review of Vermont's educator preparation programs.
Vermont's lagging reading scores have also gained Gov. Phil Scott's attention. In his budget address last month, Scott said the state intends to take action to strengthen literacy skills among Vermont's students.
"National and state tests show less than half of our third and fourth graders are reading at grade level," he said. "So we’re proposing new strategies and more tools to improve reading levels, strengthen training, and refocus on proven techniques to help teachers and students."