I am pleased to see that Delaware is continuing to recognize the needs to improve literacy for all students in our state and that the “D word” (dyslexia) is being discussed.

I am concerned about how this legislation (requiring testing re: literacy 3x/year) will lead to more testing and more lost learning time without having a significant impact on improving literacy.

In the past, there have been challenges of legislation being passed followed by DOE’s own interpretation (leading to regulations and red tape) which was then followed by each district’s interpretation. The end result was more testing, overlapping testing, and less valuable learning time.

For example, elementary students experience

• NWEA 3x a year
• Dibels 8th ed. 3x a year
• Progress monitoring for ELA and math T3 and T2 students every 2 to 3 weeks respectively
• Curriculum progress monitoring (2 per unit)
• Math universal screening 3x a year
• Smarter Balanced testing (grades 3-5): in spring but also mid-year in 4th, 5th (social studies)
• FIAB/IABs throughout the year (related to Smarter Balanced)

That’s a lot of assessments and time!

I sincerely hope that there have been discussions about what testing and resulting data is MOST MEANINGFUL to inform instruction.

We don’t need to spend a lot of money on researching the best options, buying a pre-packaged curricula, recreating the wheel, etc.

Work Smarter Not Harder

Instead, we need to look into what other states (Mississippi, for example) have done to increase reading skills dramatically.  We need to seek out the advice of professionals — educators, specialists (literacy coaches, dyslexia tutors, Orton Gillingham tutors, etc.), and parents.

We need to evaluate ALL assessment-related legislation and DOE regulations to reconfigure the assessment process instead of taking a patchwork-quilt approach.

We also need to find a balance between “college ready and career ready” education.  Too much focus on what it means to be “college ready” as defined by attending a 4-year liberal arts institution.  My thoughts on this matter will need to wait for another day.