Now comes the hard part.
Translating the new Early Literacy Success Initiative from a bill that Gov. Tina Kotek will soon sign into a statewide shift in reading and writing instruction will likely be a slow, painstaking process. Improvements in the state’s dismal reading test scores, in which nearly 60 percent percent of third graders aren’t proficient readers could still be several years away.
And parents expecting to see a blanket shift this fall to a “science of reading” model— a research-backed method that places an emphasis on teaching kids to sound out words — should temper their hopes.
While $45 million in literacy grants must go out to schools before the end of the 2023-2024 school year, it will likely take six months for most school districts to pull together grant proposals for how they’ll use the money, literacy advocates who’ve closely followed the issue’s progress in Salem said. Marc Siegel, spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Education, said funds could be available to districts by March, though he said work could get underway before then, depending on the district.
“The Oregon Department of Education has some work to do to figure out how they will get these dollars out the door,” said Rep. Jason Kropf, D- Bend, chief sponsor of House Bill 3198.
“I am hoping school districts are prepared to get their grant proposals in and have a vision about how they will use these dollars now,” Kropf said. “My guess is that the large districts are further ahead and it will be easier to formulate how they take what they are already doing and accelerate it.”
Under the terms of the bill, districts can use the money only for a limited range of programs: training and coaching for teachers, purchasing new curriculum materials, summer school reading programs or providing regular, small-group tutoring sessions for students who are the furthest behind.
It will fall to the Oregon Department of Education to sort through all of the grant proposals, combing through to make sure that districts are following the guidelines laid out in the state’s newly released Early Literacy Framework and meeting the legislation’s intent. That includes a last-minute insertion that district plans should prioritize funneling training and aid to schools with the highest concentrations of students who are struggling readers.
Once the bill is signed into law, Siegel said, the agency will start hiring staff and start the rule-making process at the State Board of Education, which he said will “further define and establish rules and timelines for implementation.”
Every school district in the state is eligible for a share of the money, since the grants are non-competitive — a similar structure to the way the state has funded a broad expansion of career-technical programs in high schools that’s been widely credited with boosting graduation rates.
But that program started off with more funding than the literacy initiative, which was whittled down from an ambitious early ask of $300 million per biennium to just under half that amount for at-home, preschool, summer learning and in-school initiatives.
One big unknown is whether every district in the state will apply for the grant money, given that they aren’t required to do so and that they have to come up with 25 percent in matching funds. In committee discussions on the bill, Republican Sen. Fred Girod, R- Stayton, said he was voting no on the proposal in part out of concern that the requirement for matching funds was unfair to small districts.
Small districts are being encouraged to apply as a part of a group or with an education service district, Siegel said.
“Governor Kotek has also been very clear that she will follow up directly with school districts who have not submitted applications for this funding,” he said.
Not applying means leaving money on the table. Sarah Pope, executive director of Stand for Children, the education-focused nonprofit that pushed for the literacy overhaul, said a district with 1,000 students would get $214,000 over two years, enough to pay for a half-time instructional coach and five days of training for its kindergarten through third grade teachers. A district with 6,000 students would be in line for $1.3 million, enough to replace all their early literacy curriculum.
And for a district with 40,000 students, about the size of Beaverton, it’s about $8.6 million, enough to pay for 10 instructional coaches, five days of training for educators and tutoring for 5 percent of students, Pope said.
By the 2024-2025 school year, districts will have to begin reporting in earnest on how they’ve spent the literacy money to the state education agency, which in turn must summarize the findings for the legislature.
Kropf said he plans to champion the issue again and again, as long as he remains in office, though he expects it will take time for results to emerge.
“I believe this is the beginning of a long-term commitment to making sure that districts are teaching reading in a science of reading aligned way,” he said. “There is a groundswell for this type of work. It is not going away.”
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