(A)(1) The department, with approval by the State Board of Education, shall develop, implement, evaluate, and continuously refine a comprehensive state plan to improve reading achievement in public schools. The State Reading Proficiency Plan must be approved by the board by February 1, 2015, and must include, but not be limited to, sections addressing the following components:
(a) reading process;
(b) professional development to increase teacher reading expertise;
(c) professional development to increase reading expertise and literacy leadership of principals and assistant principals;
(d) reading instruction;
(e) reading assessment;
(f) discipline-specific literacy;
(g) writing;
(h) support for struggling readers;
(i) early childhood interventions;
(j) family support of literacy development;
(k) district guidance and support for reading proficiency;
(l) state guidance and support for reading proficiency;
(m) accountability; and
(n) urgency to improve reading proficiency.
(2) The state plan must be based on reading research and proven-effective practices, applied to the conditions prevailing in reading-literacy education in this State, with special emphasis on addressing instructional and institutional deficiencies that can be remedied through faithful implementation of research-based practices. The plan must provide standards, format, and guidance for districts to use to develop and annually update their plans, as well as to present and explain the research-based rationale for state-level actions to be taken. The plan must be updated annually and must incorporate a state reading proficiency progress report.
(3) The state plan must include specific details and explanations for all substantial uses of state, local, and federal funds promoting reading-literacy and best judgment estimates of the cost of research-supported, thoroughly analyzed proposals for initiation, expansion, or modification of major funding programs addressing reading and writing. Analyses of funding requirements must be prepared by the department for incorporation into the plan.
(B)(1) Beginning in Fiscal Year 2015-2016, each district must prepare a comprehensive annual reading proficiency plan for prekindergarten through twelfth grade consistent with the plan by responding to questions and presenting specific information and data in a format specified by the Read to Succeed Office. Each district's PK-12 reading proficiency plan must present the rationale and details of its blueprint for action and support at the district, school, and classroom levels. Each district shall develop a comprehensive plan for supporting the progress of students as readers and writers, monitoring the impact of its plan, and using data to make improvements and to inform its plan for the subsequent years. The district plan piloted in school districts in Fiscal Year 2013-2014 and revised based on the input of districts shall be used as the initial district reading plan framework in Fiscal Year 2014-2015 to provide interventions for struggling readers and fully implemented in Fiscal Year 2015-2016 to align with the state plan.
(2) Each district PK-12 reading proficiency plan shall:
(a) document the reading and writing assessment and instruction planned for all PK-12 students and the interventions in prekindergarten through twelfth grade to be provided to all struggling readers who are not able to comprehend grade-level texts. Supplemental instruction shall be provided by teachers who have a literacy teacher add-on endorsement and offered during the school day and, as appropriate, before or after school in book clubs, through a summer reading camp, or both;
(b) include a system for helping parents understand how they can support the student as a reader at home;
(c) provide for the monitoring of reading achievement and growth at the classroom, school, and district levels with decisions about intervention based on all available data;
(d) ensure that students are provided with wide selections of texts over a wide range of genres and written on a wide range of reading levels to match the reading levels of students;
(e) provide teacher training in reading and writing instruction; and
(f) include strategically planned and developed partnerships with county libraries, state and local arts organizations, volunteers, social service organizations, and school media specialists to promote reading.
(3)(a) The Read to Succeed Office shall develop the format for the plan and the deadline for districts to submit their plans to the office for its approval. A school district that does not submit a plan or whose plan is not approved shall not receive any state funds for reading until it submits a plan that is approved. All district reading plans must be reviewed and approved by the Read to Succeed Office. The office shall provide written comments to each district on its plan and to all districts on common issues raised in prior or newly submitted district reading plans.
(b) The Read to Succeed Office shall monitor the district and school plans and use their findings to inform the training and support the office provides to districts and schools.
(c) The department may direct a district that is persistently unable to prepare an acceptable PK-12 reading proficiency plan or to help all students comprehend grade-level texts to enter into a multidistrict or contractual arrangement to develop an effective intervention plan.
(C) Each school must prepare an implementation plan aligned with the district reading proficiency plan to enable the district to monitor and support implementation at the school level. The school plan must be a component of the school's strategic plan required by Section 59-18-1310. A school implementation plan shall be sufficiently detailed to provide practical guidance for classroom teachers. Proposed strategies for assessment, instruction, and other activities specified in the school plan must be sufficient to provide to classroom teachers and other instructional staff helpful guidance that can be related to the critical reading and writing needs of students in the school. In consultation with the School Improvement Council, each school must include in its implementation plan the training and support that will be provided to parents as needed to maximize their promotion of reading and writing by students at home and in the community.
HISTORY: 2014 Act No. 284 (S.516), Section 1, eff June 11, 2014.