Governor Parson discussed in his state of the state address the importance of serving our future generations with educational policies. With only thirty percent of Missouri fourth graders scoring proficient in reading, it’s clear that Missouri needs to do better.
Thankfully, Senate Bill (SB) 681 was passed last year in part to help target foundational reading for students K-3. The bill required comprehension reading examinations to begin in kindergarten instead of third grade in order to more quickly identify children who are struggling, and also provides training for teachers in “evidence-based reading,” or phonics. Additionally, the bill requires that schools provide any student diagnosed or at risk for dyslexia with evidence-based reading instruction.
The program used to train teachers is called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). LETRS builds off of recent literature illustrating the importance of phonics in reading. Experts in linguistics, neurology, and psychology have highlighted the differences in a child’s ability to learn to speak and to learn to read. A child naturally learns how to speak, as human brains are hardwired to be able to learn a language at a young age. However, the same does not translate to reading. Think of history: literacy rates were around 12 percent worldwide in 1820; in modern times it has flipped, with illiteracy rates around 14 percent.
LETRS is designed to connect sound recognition with visual components (letters in words) and capitalizes on the ability of phonetic instruction to pair a child’s natural, hardwired skill of speaking with a complex and unnatural skill of reading (phonemic awareness).
The KIPP Victory Academy in St. Louis had started emphasizing phonics prior to the passage of SB 681 with the goal of boosting reading. According to a recent report from the St. Louis University Prime Center, KIPP enjoyed the highest ELA growth scores in the state between 2018 and 2021.
Given the evidence in the literature and the promising results from schools such as KIPP, one question lingers: why are we not placing even greater emphasis on the issue? Any K-5 teacher is eligible to undertake the LETRS training program, and the state has allocated funding for 15,000 Missouri teachers. Yet, only 9,000 teachers have begun training—and we don’t know how many of those 9,000 actually completed the training. There are an estimated 23,000 K-5 teachers in Missouri. I acknowledge that many teachers may already employ similar strategies and do not want to waste 160 hours completing the LETRS program. I also acknowledge that the rewards for completing 160 hours of training may seem a bit meager to some—you can earn up to $2,000 for completing the entire program, which comes out to $12.50 per hour of training.
From a budget standpoint, if you gave all 15,000 teachers the maximum $2,000 reward for completing the LETRS training program, it would cost $3 million. Conversely, if most of the recommendations from the recent blue ribbon commission were implemented—raising teacher salaries to $38,000, funding the career ladder program, and tuition assistance—the cost would be $91.5 million. Why are we not talking about investing more in a program that we know helps kids learn how to read instead of talking about spending nearly $100 million on unproven wish-list items that are not directly tied to better outcomes for Missouri students?
