Courier Journal partners in film screening

Speed Art Museum to show ‘Right to Read’

The Courier Journal has partnered with the Kentucky Academy of Science to spread awareness of the need to improve reading abilities among the state’s youngest residents.

A free showing of “The Right to Read” documentary will occur at the Speed Art Museum at 3 p.m. Sunday. A panel discussion will follow, with these speakers:

● State Rep. Tina Bojanowski

● Erin Hogan, assistant professor at the University of Louisville

● Krista Johnson, Courier Journal education reporter

● Micki Ray, chief academic officer for the Kentucky Department of Education

● LaToya Whitlock, executive director of the Decode Project

The documentary shares the stories of an activist, a teacher and two families “who fight to provide our youngest generation with the most foundational indicator of life-long success: the ability to read,” the museum’s website states.

The documentary, which is just over an hour long, was described in The Hollywood Reporter as “A powerful and eye-opening challenge to much of the way America’s literacy crisis has historically been perceived and addressed.”

The panel discussion also comes after the Courier Journal’s publication of “Between the Lines,” a yearlong investigation that found JCPS and schools across Kentucky were using an outdated method of reading instruction.

The outdated method was known as balanced literacy instruction, which has been criticized across the nation as potentially harmful to kids’ long-term reading abilities. It does not align with the Science of Reading, an umbrella term used to describe research about how the brain learns to read.

At the end of the 2023 legislative session in March, Kentucky lawmakers changed some of the language in the state Read to Succeed Act to follow the findings of Between the Lines and mandate structured literacy (Science of Reading) for all public K-3 reading classes.

The Courier Journal also reported in August that a National Council on Teacher Quality study found aspiring educators aren’t getting the tools needed to effectively teach how to read while earning degrees at Kentucky’s colleges and universities.