The Minnesota Senate yesterday approved an education bill that will reverse Minnesota’s chronically inadequate literacy scores. The legislation instructs school boards to develop a public, accountable plan that will achieve 90% reading proficiency by third grade; delivers funding to provide all Minnesota teachers with indispensable training in the science of reading instruction; and refocuses Regional Centers of Excellence to prioritize literacy.

The Senate’s focus on improving literacy comes on the heels of historic education bills that have fully funded K-12 schools, including $18.6 billion in total education funding in 2017, 2% annual student formula increases in 2019, and $1.1 billion in funding increases in 2021 – including the largest formula growth in 15 years.

“The fact is that 52% of third graders are not reading at grade-level, and that is evidence that the state and local school districts need to focus funding on correcting this problem immediately,” said Senator Eric Pratt (R-Prior Lake). “Studies have shown that students who were not proficient in reading by the end of third grade were four times more likely to drop out of high school, which makes our state’s literacy shortfalls even more alarming. If we want our kids to be successful, it’s absolutely critical that we focus key funding on literacy programs.”

Minnesota’s third-grade reading proficiency has been flat or declined every year since 2013. Currently only about one-half of students are reading at grade level. The Senate’s education bill instructs each school district and charter school to develop a comprehensive plan with clearly-defined benchmarks to achieve 90% reading proficiency by third grade, and to hold an annual public meeting to review progress and revise as needed.

Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) is a training program with a remarkable track record of success at improving reading scores. States like Mississippi are outperforming Minnesota in reading score increases in large part due to their use of LETRS, which trains teachers on the science of reading and the most effective ways to teach kids to read. The bill also appropriates key funding to provide teachers with LETRS program training by 2026.