An Act Relative to Third Grade Reading Proficiency (S.188/H.1853, Filed 2011-2012)

On January 21, 2011, Representative Marty Walz (D-Boston) and Senator Katherine Clark (D-Melrose) filed An Act Relative to Third Grade Reading Proficiency in the Massachusetts Legislature. The bill would implement several key recommendations in Strategies for Children’s 2010 research report "Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success" [PDF] by Nonie Lesaux, a nationally recognized literacy expert at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The legislation would establish the Early Literacy Expert Panel to advise the commonwealth’s education departments on statewide strategies to promote language and literacy development in children from birth to third grade. The council would make recommendations for the alignment, coordination, and implementation of five critical areas:

	Comprehensive curricula anchored in rich content, using a wide variety of texts, emphasizing oral language, and balancing meaning- and code-based skills.
	Effective instructional practices, including tiered instructional strategies and materials.
	Professional development and training, both pre-service and in-service, on language and literacy development and the effective use of screening and assessments.
	Assessment that is comprehensive, developmentally appropriate and used to inform practice and report on children’s progress toward meeting benchmarks in language and literacy development.
	Family partnership strategies for improving the quality of home-school interactions to support children’s language and literacy development.

An Act Relative to Third Grade Reading Proficiency was given a favorable report by the Joint Committee on Education on March 20, 2012, and is awaiting further action in the Legislature. Contact your legislators today and ask for their support. To get involved or learn more, contact Titus DosRemedios at tdosremedios@strategiesforchildren.org, or 617-330-7387.

Read a fact sheet.  |  Read the bill.  |  See the co-sponsors.

Learn more about reading proficiency.  |  Learn more about the research.

Find out about third grade reading proficiency in your community

(Learn about An Act Relative to Early Education and Care.)