Educators know firsthand how crucial reading and literacy skills are to student success in the classroom and that strong instruction is both complex and adaptive. We have been clear that what we need is more time, funding and flexibility to analyze student needs and respond appropriately. It is critical that local school districts are adequately funded and staffed and that they are not restricted from implementing effective instructional practices. For these reasons, it is essential that the Legislature work to address the larger funding crisis in public education.

By contrast, efforts that focus on mandating the use of specific curriculum in school districts in the Commonwealth miss the mark on how high-quality literacy instruction happens in our classrooms and ignore what educators are asking for to most effectively support their students. That is why the MTA strongly opposes S.338, An Act promoting high-quality comprehensive literacy instruction in all Massachusetts schools and H.698, An Act to promote high-quality early literacy instruction and improve student outcomes.

This legislation creates a statutory definition of evidence-based literacy instruction that misrepresents the components of reading instruction as if they are exhaustive and universally applicable to all students. Students need much more to become proficient, engaged readers than what this flawed definition would allow for in our classrooms. Legislating in a specific manner how educators must teach and how students must learn is deeply problematic given that education is not static, and in this instance, doing so could deny many students access to the literacy instruction that could most effectively help them. In addition, this bill does nothing to provide more funding to public schools or to hire more literacy and reading specialists, librarians or other classroom educators who can support student learning

We need your help in urging legislators to listen to educators on literacy by continuing to invest in our public schools and opposing mandated, one-size-fits-all approaches to literacy curriculum and instruction. Please email your senator and representative right away and urge them to listen to public school educators, the experts on literacy. Please also consider calling your legislators to follow up on your email. You can find their phone numbers by clicking here.