Healey seeks big outlay for reading training

Plan would include new curriculum, teacher education

Governor Maura Healey proposed Wednesday night a five-year plan to bolster early literacy efforts with an initial $30 million investment — a figure nearly six times the state’s current annual commitment.

If state lawmakers go along with

Healey’s request and funding continues at that level over the full five years, the state’s additional spending on high quality reading curriculums and teacher training would total $150 million. That would put Massachusetts roughly on par with several other states that recently have made early literacy a top priority.

“Massachusetts, we’re home to the first public school, first college, and first library, and I want us to be first in literacy,” Healey said in her State of the Commonwealth address.

“Every child in this state needs to be able to read and read well — and we’re going to work together to give them the tools to do just that.”

Healey’s announcement follows a four-part investigation by the Globe’s Great Divide education team — a series that revealed the negative impact of poor teacher training, shoddy curriculum, and limited state intervention on children’s reading levels across the state.

Despite the state’s reputation for academic excellence, Massachusetts’ scores on a national fourth grade reading test were on the decline even before the pandemic interrupted student learning, and fewer than half of third-graders met expectations in English Language Arts on last year’s MCAS exam. Data released late last year showed nearly 30 percent of K-3 students were at high risk of reading failure.

In her speech, Healey said such data “reflects social inequities.”

“It also reflects the fact that many districts are using out-of-date, disproven methods to teach reading,” she said. “Children are paying the price. Some are struggling for years to catch up — if they even can. So we’re changing that.”

As the Globe reported, Massachusetts has been investing just $5.3 million annually in state funding for early literacy initiatives, relying largely on federal funding, including a $20 million investment since 2020, to support programs to boost reading scores. With a potential $150 million investment, Massachusetts’ funding commitment would be on similar footing with states such as North Carolina, while outpacing peers with lesser investments, including New York’s recent $10 million pledge.

Healey didn’t commit to any dollar amount in future years, though, and making a real difference statewide will likely cost far more than her initial proposed $30 million for 2025. Reading Public Schools alone spent some $2 million on a recent literacy upgrade, officials there said, and tiny Mohawk spent about $500,000.

Still, literacy advocates lauded Healey’s proposal.

“Frankly, this is the leadership we really need to see on this issue in Massachusetts,” said Keri Rodrigues, founder of the advocacy group Massachusetts Parents United. “We can’t continue to bury our heads in the sand.”

Michael Moriarty, a Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member and literacy advocate, called the announcement a “big, big deal.” Compared to New York’s funding, Moriarty said, “this is a much deeper, much more targeted, and more intentional plan, and that’s exactly what the data calls for.”

This is not the first time Massachusetts has attempted to tackle struggles among young readers. State lawmakers in 2012 passed a law targeting third grade reading proficiency, but little came of it. That law had no funding or curriculum requirements attached to it.

The state’s renewed focus on early readers follows a swell of attention to the “Science of Reading,” a compendium of research on how the brain learns to read. That research shows most kids need explicit instruction in phonics and vocabulary to become proficient readers. Too often, however, Massachusetts students have been deprived of that instruction, the Globe investigation found.

The administration plans to pay for the new investment with revenue from the higher earners tax, passed by voters in 2022. It placed an additional 4 percent surtax on annual net income over $1 million. The state has already used some of the new revenue — estimated to total $1.5 billion in fiscal 2024 — to fund other education initiatives, including free school lunch.

Clinton Elementary School Principal Meghan Silvio said state support for literacy can be “life changing.” Her school has used state funding to implement a new reading curriculum, including teacher training and coaching. Teachers have felt “really supported . . . to have someone reassuring them,” Silvio said.

Healey also proposed $38.7 million to guarantee affordable preschool for all 4-year-olds in Gateway cities, a move that could help narrow reading achievement gaps.

Healey’s proposed five-year early literacy plan, dubbed “Literacy Launch,” would be executed by the Executive Office of Education and would target children “age 3 through grade three,” according to a state spokeswoman. Funding would be split, in the first year of implementation, among three policy priorities: getting high-quality curriculum into more schools; training more teachers in science-backed reading instruction; and quickening the rate of change at the state’s teacher preparation programs, which have largely failed to prepare new educators to effectively teach children to read.

The takeaway for families, Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said, is the state is committing to “making sure that every single student, regardless of ZIP code or circumstance, is reading by Grade 3.”

The plan would not, however, resolve another major reason, besides funding, the state has struggled to improve reading instruction: local control.

Because Massachusetts leaves curriculum decisions up to local districts, the state department of education has relied on guidance and incentives — not mandates — to encourage the use of high-quality materials. Those efforts, though, haven’t swayed a number of districts that are holding fast to curriculums with faulty instructional practices, such as teaching students to guess at unfamiliar words, rather than sounding them out. Under the new plan, the state is effectively expanding the reach of its incentives.

One proposed fix is legislation. Where states also pass reading reform laws, student achievement improves, Michigan State University researchers found last year. Bills currently filed in the House and Senate would require districts to use state-approved reading curriculums.

Senator Sal DiDomenico, one of the bills’ sponsors, called Healey’s proposal “encouraging.”

”Everyone notices we can do better,” he said.

Those bills, though, are facing stiff opposition from critics, including the state’s largest teachers union. Massachusetts Teachers Association president Max Page previously called the legislation “a flawed, one-size-fits-all approach to a complex task.”

On Wednesday, Page praised Healey’s funding announcement as “terrific.”

School leaders will welcome funding to help improve reading proficiency, said Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, though many administrators believe their instruction is solid.

“Some districts are going to require a shift in terms of materials and training and that’s going to be costly,” Scott said.