Tennessee reading initiative aims higher

NASHVILLE — Tennessee will head into its second year of a major early-grade reading initiative having built a foundation to get 75 percent of all third-grade students statewide reading on grade level by 2025, the state’s top educator said Thursday.

The state saw the number of classrooms focused on reading comprehension almost double — from 37 percent to 67 percent — and more classrooms focus on aligning their teachings to state grade-level standards, state Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said during a Thursday presentation to kick off the second year of the Read to be Ready program.

The Tennessee Department of Education initiative was created last year to help improve literacy rates statewide. So far it has focused on how to teach teachers the proper way to instruct literacy.

The initiative was started in response to data that showed only 43 percent of Tennessee students read on grade level when they leave

“The gains we want to make are not going to happen overnight.”

– CANDICE MCQUEEN

third grade, with numbers lower for students that are black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged.

“We have made a multi-year, multi-strategy commitment,” McQueen said. “The gains we want to make are not going to happen overnight.”

McQueen said the first year’s work will serve as a foundation for teachers to expand the state’s efforts, and new goals around reading ask teachers to go even deeper into instructing students as the state switches to new English and language arts standards in the 2018-19 school year. The more aggressive goals will also come with more resources.

Gov. Bill Haslam has proposed $4.4 million for the initiative in his current budget proposal. The Tennessee Department of Human Services also has promised to invest $30 million to fund the initiative’s summer reading camp grants. The first camps were meant to be incubators of innovation to help combat summer reading loss in students and future grants will be modeled off the first year’s lessons.

The money will also help fuel the coaching and professional development opportunities for teachers across the state, she said. The switch to the new reading standards next school year will serve as a new baseline in learning for students, McQueen said, but the ongoing training on reading will help guide teachers during and after the switch.

“This has to be ongoing. That is how we are going to get a depth of change,” McQueen said.

The initiative has drawn mostly praise from educators throughout the state, and next year’s efforts were viewed optimistically by a panel of district administrators from across the state.

The group noted there have been challenges in focusing more on reading.

Michael Ramsey, a Grainger County Schools instructional coach, said the initiative and instruction from the state on how to better teach literacy has been a challenge for teachers. Sometimes the textbooks they have aren’t as challenging as they initially presumed, he said. That realization then shows the need for more funds, he said.

“The teachers, they sometimes have to go out to find those resources,” Ramsey said, adding that many teachers have to purchase those resources out-of-pocket.

There also have been many more positives, the panel said. The statewide message that reading is the priority has helped a lot of teachers maintain direction, said Shannon Jackson, Knox County Schools director of curriculum and instruction.

“Our teachers are hearing the coherence of strategies and are able to focus to get students to the level they need to be to read,” she said.

The clear message and resource of supports from the state, such as the coaching networks for teachers and grants for summer programs, have also boosted morale, she said. Overall, she said the initiative has done an excellent job in its first year getting everyone on the same page and giving teachers a similar knowledge base.

“We are getting the foundation right, and we will see students do amazing things,” Jackson said.