Superintendents sign letter to address reading curriculum

PALMER — A group of school district superintendents have signed an initiative supporting literacy, including the leaders of the two largest school districts in the state, two rural district leaders and two former commissioners of education.

“We, the undersigned superintendents of Alaska School Districts, declare Alaska’s students are presently in a reading achievement crisis,” reads the letter. “While there are great examples of successes, the failure of a large number of students to read successfully is a story that must have a new ending.”

Alaska has scored lowest in the country during the last two testing periods for the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). NAEP tests are given randomly every other year and represents both urban and rural school districts.

“This is an issue that all Alaskans need to own, it’s not a rural issue,” said Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Dr. Monica Goyette.

Goyette said that reading by the third grade is a critical indicator for student achievement, graduation probability, income potential and even incarceration likelihood. A total of 22% of MSBSD fourth graders are currently enrolled in reading intervention courses.

“All of these things that are in legislation in other states are systems of support that we already have in place in the Mat-Su and that many of the superintendents that endorse this letter also have in place and we’d like to see that grow across the state,” said Goyette.

Mississippi and Florida have passed similar legislation issuing a call to the 31st Alaska Legislature (set to gavel into session in late January) to continue the work begun by Education Commissioner Michael Johnson to pass a bill to hold Alaska schools and other stakeholders accountable for critical, evidence-based teaching and learning of the five components of reading. The five listed components are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

The six superintendent signatories of the letter include former MSBSD superintendent and current Anchorage School District Superintendent Deena Bishop. Between Goyette and Bishop, the two largest school districts in the state are represented in the letter. Former Commissioner of Education and current Kodiak Island Borough School District Superintendent Larry LeDoux as well as former Commissioner of Education and current Aleutian Region District and Chugach School District Superintendent Michael Hanley also signed the letter alongside two rural school district leaders, Bernard Grieve of Kuspuk School District and Andrew ‘Hannibal’ Anderson of the Lower Yukon School district. The letter issued a call for a no-fail mission of literacy, rallying to support essential learning of reading competency across Alaska.

“All students in our state deserve high quality curriculum and instruction based on the science of reading,” reads the letter. “The time is now for our state to come together as a whole to ensure the children of Alaska learn to read with fluency. Our children have waited to long for the adults to act on their behalf.”

Goyette mentioned Sen. Shelley Hughes as one of the most invested legislators in making laws surrounding reading competency. The letter does not mention any additional revenue provided to Alaska schools to supply students with specific tools to ensure reading competency, but reorganizing curriculum based around evidence-based teaching.

“Reading by third grade is one of the most critical things that we get done. People talk about unfunded mandates in education all the time,” said Goyette. “Certainly it is a prioritization of funding that you have and that reading should be the foundation of what we do and should be a priority in how we use our funds, so in our letter we did not talk about additional revenue attached to this. We talked about the fundamentals of a system of support to ensure that all kids learn how to read.”

Goyette mentioned that Johnson and Gov. Mike Dunleavy are very invested in passing such legislation.