Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who took office last week, has announced her choice to oversee New Jersey’s public schools: Lily Laux, known for her role in a push to adopt the “science of reading” in Texas.
That’s one of the big reforms in America right now. It’s an effort to align the way children are being taught in classrooms with decades of research on how the human brain actually learns to read. Sounding out words, it turns out, can help kids tremendously.
In Laux’s previous position as the second highest-ranking education official in Texas, she led one of the nation’s largest implementations of these reforms, training more than 150,000 teachers in the new techniques and ensuring more than 600 districts were using curricula aligned with the latest research.
To get a better sense of that overhaul in Texas and what it might mean for New Jersey, NJ Spotlight News spoke to a prominent researcher and professor in literacy at Texas A&M University, Emily Binks-Cantrell. Below is a transcript, which has been lightly edited.
NJ Spotlight News: Let’s start by understanding the scope of the problem: How many fourth graders in America can’t read on grade level, and why is that such an important benchmark?
Credit: Image courtesy of Emily Binks-CantrellEmily Binks-Cantrell: About one third of 4th graders and 8th graders can’t read at a basic level, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes referred to as the nation’s report card.
A number of factors are highly correlated with students’ success or lack thereof: The number of books they have at home, their parents’ educational level, socioeconomic status, etc. But we also know through research that the most influential factor, ultimately, is the quality of the reading instruction they receive.
Fourth grade in particular is an important stage. The focus is no longer on developing the skill of reading, a.k.a “learning to read.” All students are now expected to be proficient readers and learn new things from their reading, or “reading to learn.” And for the many students who are not reading proficiently by fourth grade, we see a dramatic drop in their achievement, sometimes referred to as the “fourth grade slump.”
NJSN: What are the stakes for students who struggle to read?
EBC: Of the about 15% of students who drop out of school each year, more than 75% report or have reported literacy difficulties. And we know there are strong correlations between substance abuse, criminal involvement and literacy rates.
NJSN: What have we learned about teaching children to read? What works and what doesn’t?
EBC: About 60% of people overall will eventually learn how to read and write, as long as they get some sort of instruction. That leaves 40% who will always struggle with this if they do not get explicit and systematic instruction in the structure of the language.
While that kind of instruction is critical for those 40%, it is also beneficial for all. Unfortunately, in the past, a number of popular literacy curriculum programs and teacher prep programs have heavily promoted reading strategies that simply are not supported by research. One popular but unsupported strategy is over-emphasis on whole word memorization. Instead, students should be taught the skills necessary to sound out words accurately and quickly.
NJSN: What do you think is the most important factor in a child’s success?
EBC: While there are other factors that definitely affect a child’s literacy development, through empirical research, we know the most influential factor is the quality of instruction they get. That’s dependent on two things: Having a knowledgeable and skilled teacher who’s well prepared and well supported, and having a curriculum program that is aligned with evidence-based practices.
NJSN: You say brain imaging studies have shown that evidence-based reading instruction works. How so?
EBC: We can see changes in the way the brain functions, not through medicine or surgery, but through quality reading instruction. Brain imaging studies have shown that people who struggle with reading underutilize the left hemisphere of their brains and compensate by using areas in the right hemisphere. In doing that, it makes the process of reading much less efficient, much more laborious, and leads to more errors.
But once those same people receive this type of explicit, systematic instruction in the structure of the language, when we scan their brains again while reading, they start utilizing those areas in the left hemisphere of their brain that are associated with typical reading. So, we can observe these changes in both their outward behavior and what’s happening inside the brain. They’re reading more quickly, more accurately and are able to understand what they’re reading, which is pretty powerful to see.
NJSN: Can you explain what Texas did on the science of reading? It mandated literacy screening of children from grades k-2, I understand, but districts could choose how they did that screening. Right?
EBC: Yes. No matter what type of assessment you’re using, the teacher or whoever is doing that assessment really needs to understand what dyslexia is and is not. Or what the red flags are for reading difficulties and reading disabilities. So that was, I think, the missing part.
NJSN: Teachers in Texas are now required to be trained in these techniques, but this varied in quality based on factors like whether it was done in-person. Right?
EBC: Correct. The content of those reading academies for teachers was good overall, but again, how it was implemented sometimes could be problematic, including whether there was follow-up coaching. Texas also mandated that all teachers who were being certified in pre-k-6th grade and some 4th-8th grade, from that time forward, take a rigorous “science of teaching reading” exam.
NJSN: Did Texas also require districts to use curriculum based on the science of reading?
EBC: Yes. Texas created a list of approved programs that should align with the science of reading, and if a district chose to use a curriculum program that was not on that list, then they didn’t receive a certain amount of funding.
NJSN: I assume a lot of vendors are now slapping “science of reading” stickers on their curricula even if it doesn’t align with research. Could that make this difficult for districts to navigate without very clear mandates?
EBC: Yes. If I were to do this, probably what I would do at the state level is something similar to what Texas did: Review a wide array of programs, utilize experts to assess whether they align with the science, and then from there, let districts choose from that list. But I think I would include more than just, say, three programs on that list. There are more out there.
NJSN: One criticism I’ve heard from advocates is that New Jersey’s new literacy law is not prescriptive enough on curricula, which could be confusing to districts being swamped by vendors. Any other lessons for New Jersey officials in what Texas did?
EBC: I work closely with teachers throughout the state and believe one of the biggest factors is creating buy-in with them and with administrators, and helping them all understand why this is happening and why they’re doing this.
Just getting a curriculum program by itself is not enough. There are common myths about the science of reading – that it’s just another fad, or some sort of personal philosophy. It’s not. It’s based on decades of empirical research.
The reading academies in Texas often were being added to the already-overflowing plates of teachers with nothing taken off and no extra compensation. So, a lot of times they became just about checking off a box, and getting through it as quickly as we can without really buying into it.
NJSN: Finally, it seems fairly unusual to choose an education chief from out of state who may not be personally familiar with the quirks of our school funding formula, for instance. Are there benefits to prioritizing an expert in curriculum?
EBC: It is a huge, driving factor in what happens in schools and the day-to-day teaching and lessons. That’s the heart of what happens in schools. So I see benefits, certainly.
NJSN: We have some districts where very few kids can read on grade level. What do you hope this new education commissioner from Texas might bring to New Jersey?
EBC: I certainly hope she can take some of the work that she’s led in Texas, having learned from what worked well and what didn’t, and improve upon that and implement it in New Jersey – getting that quality reading instruction into the classroom by both building up teachers’ knowledge and finding good curriculum programs. And hopefully you’ll see those districts start to improve.
