S.B. 241 Early Literacy: transcript

Thank you very much. Um, appreciate the opportunity to be here. Um, as many of you know, I started this journey on literacy several years ago. Wanna make sure all of our third graders are reading at third grade. By third, the end of third grade. They're reading at the end at third grade level. That's the time that it moves from learning to read, to reading, to learn everything else. That's extremely important. Um, and I wanna make sure that each one of them has the opportunity. Um, the purpose of this bill is to really make sure we have ongoing assessment and screening of students starting in kindergarten. So it would happen three times a year, kindergarten through third grade. At each point along the way, there will be, um, if a student is below benchmark or, or, um, much below benchmark, then they would get a reading plan. Uh, the teacher could sit down, talk to the parent about what can the parent do to support the student, what can the teacher, uh, do and the school do in order to make sure we're helping that student learn to read. Um, it does say if, um, the school really needs to develop, um, reading plans for students that are working well below benchmark. And that's the goal of this, um, particular piece of, of, um, policy here. It's about intervention. It's about helping support students. It's about giving a number of ways for that to happen. Um, so the school and the parent and the teacher can determine what's the best way, um, as oppo as a way of supporting that effort. Uh, we've asked for money for paraprofessionals, trained paraprofessionals. So we would train them. Um, and not the full letters training, but a shortened, uh, training that would be appropriate for being able to do tutoring during class time, after class time, or maybe in special, um, satter of summer programs. Uh, we're trying to leave it really flexible for each of the districts to determine what's the best intervention for that student and, uh, what works best for that district. Trying not to be prescriptive about that, but saying, we want every child to read and we wanna provide the interventions, and we wanna have the ongoing conversation to make sure that that that happens. Um, we, uh, have asked for money, uh, that it looks like is funded for a paraprofessionals, uh, that support our school districts. We've said, if you're below, uh, some of you may know about the TSSA funds, but they're fairly flexible funds that districts have, uh, in schools. If you've got a school that's, um, performing below, uh, the goal, uh, if you've got students that are lots of students below 50, 60%, then you need to put your, that prioritize that money for literacy support in your elementary schools where that is happening. Um, as well as trying to provide money for ongoing training for teachers and, uh, support with coaches. Um, everything that we can do to help kids be successful in this process and the, um, there is and suggestions for, uh, retention earlier the better. Um, but that's up to schools working towards that. Um, at third grade, you'll notice that we do say if you're below well below Mitch Mark, um, we need to re and haven't done certain things. Um, we need to retain those students, but we also provide an appeal process for parents. And we have a number of good cause exceptions. Um, all the things that people have brought around English language learners, uh, around, uh, special education students, dyslexic students, um, just any number of good cause. And even allowing them, maybe a child just doesn't do well on the Acadian screener, we can use a different test that as long as it's norm reference test, use a different test, um, to demonstrate that that child really is reading on third grade level just doesn't happen to do well on that particular Acadian test. So it'll allow, try to make that extremely flexible. I guess I just want to end with the goal here is to help every child read, um, it, it's so fundamental to their success. We know they're more likely to graduate from high school. We know that they are, um, less likely to end up in the social welfare system or in, uh, the criminal justice system if they can read, um, that allows, opens up opportunity for everything else. And with that, I'd like to close, uh, with Brandy Webster is online, she's a principal at Mona Elementary, and I had the opportunity to hear her at the Governor's Literacy Summit. And I think her message, um, here is a small rural school district, um, and they have embraced, um, trying to make sure that every child can read. And I think it's an important story. So I'd like to turn some time over to Brandy Webster. Is she on mine? Yes. Brandy, uh, please, you please, uh, tell us your name, who you represent, and, uh, where you reside. Thank you.

Yes. Hello. Thank you. Senator Millner. Uh, my name is Brandy Webster. Uh, like Senator Millner said, I'm principal at Mona Elementary and just grateful to share our story of the most magical place in the state of Utah. And that's Mona. So, um, a few years ago, five years ago, I became principal at our school. And, um, after looking at the data, our teachers were working so, so hard. But we were stagnant. We were sitting around 50% of our students being able to read proficiently. And I saw how hard teachers were working. They were staying after school, doing tons of different things, but the data wasn't moving and we couldn't figure out why. Well, that's when we started the Science of Reading and Letters training, which made a huge impact in our story. Um, our biggest thing is we love kids, right? That's what we do. We want nothing more than to help them succeed and become readers. So we participated in the letters training and we realized that our curriculum didn't match the science of reading. And many of the things that we were doing didn't match that. So we adjusted, we found, um, new ways to, to teach kids how to read and really embraced our professional development. Um, reading is a science and it's not easy and it's not easy to teach, but we learned so much and we put our, our learning into practice. Um, one thing that I think made the biggest difference at Mona Elementary is, um, the state has the goal of 70% and 70% just doesn't seem okay to me. Um, we put all the kids' pictures up on the board and we were like, which ones are we going to leave behind? And so we adjusted our mindset and we said, we want 100% of our students reading proficiently 'cause we believe that they all can. So we created individualized reading plans for every single student. We also trained our paraprofessionals and did a mini letters training for them because they teach a lot of our small groups. We also made sure that our scheduling included intervention, um, every single day, 30 minutes every single day. Um, kindergarten, an hour, every day of specific intervention according to their skill and what they needed in reading. Um, we also, uh, partnered with parents. Parents. We got them on board and we trained them and, and taught them, um, how they can help us as well. 'cause knowledge is power. We also know the importance of goals. And we taught our students how to set goals according to acadis, what NWF meant, what dwarf means, what accuracy means. And so they were working towards their own goals on their pathways, and that made a tremendous success too. We also created Formative Fridays where every teacher met one-on-one with the students to track their progress and did progress monitoring to see if the kids met their goal or if we needed to adjust. So, um, we're super excited with the results that we have seen, and we did hit that 70%. We are not at a hundred percent yet. So we are going to continue to, to believe in our kids and that collective efficacy, we're all working towards 100% of our students' learning. So thank you Senator Millner. Um, I love some of the things that, that you stated today and we believe in them and we believe in our kids, and yeah, that's our, our story. So thank you.

Um, just, I, uh, I am, I'm open for questions. Alright, very good.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator. Good to see you here. Good to see you. Um, I just, uh, and I appreciate, I know you and Representative Peterson have worked a lot on this bill, and I also believe in the power of reading, and I think that third grade is a critical time. So I am, I know that you guys have worked hard on this and I just wanna make sure I'm understanding the concept and what we're trying to achieve here as we're, it looks like, you know, discussing assessments and benchmarks. And if, let's say, uh, let's say a school already has a great system in place. Let's say they're off the chart. They're one of our top schools in terms of reading, does this bill disrupt maybe the good that's already happening? How would this bill interact intersect with someone who is already above benchmark numbers?

So, um, if you're above benchmark, then your child that's reading and that's not an issue. And one of the things we've done here is to, we started letters in 2022. Yeah. Um, and we put letters in place and we put the Acadian screener in place. We haven't changed any of that. Okay. Okay. So, and what I felt really strongly about is, uh, we can't use something like Rise where they don't get that result of that test till fourth grade. And then we're going to, you know, what are we gonna do? I mean, tell 'em they're gonna go back to third grade. None of that makes sense. So Acadian Willie is a screener, but it's what we have and it happens three times a year. So there can be lots of ongoing conversation between, uh, for the child that does need help and support, there can be lots of ongoing conversation with that child. Okay? And that parent, and we're making sure we're focused on the interventions that will help because some child, some children are gonna need additional tutoring. Some cases we wanna talk with parents and, and say, if you could, if you could do this with home, like Brandi was talking about, she's, you know, they're trying to educate their parents. One of the things they did was have a parent's night and say, here are things that you can do with your child. And so it's really trying to build on what we already have and not change any of that. But one of the things I did find is different people were using different numbers. And so teachers would look at acas and their benchmarks. People would talk about rise and that benchmark, others would talk about NAP and those benchmarks. And so what we said, for purposes of this, we're gonna use acas screening because that's what we're, we can have those ongoing conversations with parents starting in kindergarten because actually kindergarten and first grade are really, really critical. Yeah. In terms of helping, helping them learn. So it's just building on the base of that. Um, and kind of says if you're doing well, which we have districts that are, or schools. Yeah. I mean, even in a district, you can have different schools performing at different levels. Um, if it's working and you're, you've got high performers, good. Um, but even if you have, I, I want to go back to Brandy's statement a little bit. Um, even if 80% of your kids are reading on third grade level, let's try to help the other 20% as much as we can. Let's don't let, let, let's lean into that. Now we all know that not every child is going to get there for various reasons, but let's not, that's not, not happen because we didn't give it our best try.

Thank you. And thank you for that clarification. One last question. Mr. Chair would just be, is there anything in this that forces or requires that they change or adopt a certain software or vendor or anything like that in this. Okay. I just wanna make sure we're still aligned for that autonomy. And I, I knew you would navigate that, so thank you.

Well, it does say it, it's the science. It has to be evidence based in the science reading, uhhuh, but there's a whole list of Okay. Things that are evidence based in the science reading, but it does have to be that.

Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Oh, thank you Mr. Chair. And thank you for all the work and a special shout out to the principal Webster and the program that she's, uh, done such a great, an inspiring story. It is. Um, I, um, I'm gonna tell you my opinion about something and ask you, uh, why you picked third grade, but quite a few years ago, one of my colleagues had a similar bill and about retention at third grade, and that failed. Um, but my concern is that by third grade there, the kids' socialization, um, is more intense. And I think there's going to be stigma. I'm glad to see you have exceptions. There's, it is gonna stigmatize kids, and particularly you pointed out English language learners might get exceptions. Um, why not have it earlier? Because with full day kindergarten, a lot of kids are reading in kindergarten, one of my kids Uintah private kindergarten, and they learned to read in kindergarten. Why not first grade when they're younger and they aren't making those social bonds, but they still, you know, could get that additional help. That's my first question.

So, um, the reality, if you look, um, one of the things that says is consider if they're, particularly if they're reading well below benchmark or they're not making typical progress that you consider holding them back in kindergarten, that you consider holding them back in first grade, that you consider holding them back in second grade. So we put that in to say, that should be one of the considerations. I will tell you a number of, uh, superintendents said we try to hold them back in kindergarten or first grade. And for the very reason that you're talking about, um, we'll sit down and talk to the parent. Um, I think this provides some direction, but at the end of the day, it also says, why third grade? Because we know that at third grade, you're moving from learning to read to reading to learn. But the goal of this, I think, is to encourage it earlier. If that looks like you've tried all the interventions and you just think that child needs more time, I cannot tell you how many stories have people have come up to me and said, uh, who are professionals that you all know who said, you know, they held me back in first grade and that was the best thing they ever did, or in kindergarten or whatever. And I, and I do think that's important.

Thank you. I like that flexibility. And my other, um, question concerns the enormous amount of money that's gonna be spent on pair of professionals, and I've run legislation in the past just to simply lower class sizes, um, in those grades. Um, because the teachers have the pedagogical skills, and yes, you can train paraprofessionals, but you know, they, to have additional people. I mean, grandmothers could, like me, could go in and listen to kids read, and I understand having that addition, but why not have more money, some of that money on teachers and lower the class size because they have those, those training skills in the other and not so many paraprofessionals. Um, in order to lower class size by one in the state of Utah, it would take about $75 million to lower it by one. Oh, thank you for that. Um, and, and I will say that what I have heard from when I'm with teachers and talk to them, what they say is another adult in the room, uh, that can work with kids would really help me a lot. Um, so I think teachers are really open, but the volunteer who comes in sporadically doesn't help them. It, it, it's hard because they're not trained. Um, they'll decide, I can come this week, but I'm gonna be gone for the next two weeks. And then, you know, so managing volunteers is really, really hard for them. Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for being here. Um, I, I applaud the goals of this bill. I'm really excited for it. Um, I think my question, I feel like I don't quite know how to phrase it in words that make sense yet, so I'm gonna do my very best and hopefully you understand what I'm saying. Um, but I, I would say 90% of the external dialogue going on around this bill is purely about retention. And I keep hearing about retention, and that's all that it seems. That's all that the, you know, external world outside of this room seems to think that this bill is about. So I'm wondering if you can speak to that. Like if nine, if they're presenting it as 90%, like what's the actual percentage of this bill that you, or the effort that you think will be retention versus all of the other efforts in this. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. Okay. I mean, for me, this is all about intervention, but what it does is focus us. Okay. Um, if we know that here's a time that we're gonna make a decision, um, I don't, I think parents need to know where their children are. I, what this bill says is we're gonna stay in communication with parents. If a child is below benchmark, um, we're gonna sit down with that parent. We're gonna use parent teacher conferences and other things to have conversations. We're gonna try to help parents see the things they can do. We will be able to have, um, paraprofessionals that can support them in tutoring, whether that's during class time, they can be pulled out, or whether it might be after school or it could be summer programs. Um, really trying to make it flexible to everybody. But this bill is about intervention first and foremost. But it does help us focus on that. Um, the fact that, uh, saying this is really important. Um, so try to standardize the score stand, I mean, the benchmark that we're looking at. So there's no confusion as there has been, um, that we are asking for individual reading plans. And these aren't like IEPs. These are much more, you know, flexible, here's two or three things we can do. Here's something a parent could do, et cetera. Um, but to be able to make sure we're giving these kids the attention that they need to be able to succeed. So it was actually a pretty good dt. Um, and the Deseret News was pretty good at, uh, uh, editorial that said this is about intervention, not retention, and it truly is about intervention.

Fantastic. May I have a follow up, Mr. Chair?

Thank you. Um, I think I, I'm very excited about this, like I said, um, and I imagine, and this might be just very redundant, but it has a big, thick fiscal note. And so I imagine that is to make sure that they're the, um, personnel and teachers to ensure that this can happen. 'cause I, I might imagine that this would already be happening if they had the resources available.

Right. Um, that was, as I sat down, I worked with a number of superintendents to put this together and they, um, kind of, they need trained paraprofessionals and then the opportunity for more training for their teachers and coaches. And, um, unless this bill is funded, then it shouldn't go forward. 'cause it's not meant to be a mandate without funding. Um, they need that support.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I do have a couple of questions, um, with some of the definitions here. He uses, um, right at the beginning, uh, benchmark reading assessment, um, and ties that to reading on grade level. Um, and then a definition of what the benchmark reading assessment means. Is that tied to a particular existing, uh, program that we use right now for determining that in schools? Yes.

It's, it's tied to aca, um, to Acadians, Acadians nationally Norm reference. That's the test that we're using with three times a year, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade. We didn't wanna have like multiple ones out there. So really tried to say, this is what we're gonna use for helping to make sure we're communicating with parents that we're, that we are, uh, supporting the interventions that need to be there to support our kids.

So do all currently districts use Acadians as their primary tool for that right now? Yes. Okay. Yep. And then, um, just to follow up on that, so currently in the Acadian system, does it, does it give you a percentage base or is it more of a pass fail right now?

How does that work? It's A, it's a color coded system. So, um, there is, um, well above benchmark, um, which is blue and there's above benchmark, which is green. There's below Benchmark, which I think is yellow, and there is well below benchmark, which is red. They're, they're, they're, those are nationally normed benchmarks that are used all across the country, uh, for ACADIS testing. So everyone really does understand. And if you wanna go back into the technical details, I think Rich Ni is here. He's the statistician in the group. But

Thank you. And, and Mr. Chair, I do have a couple of more questions. I'll try to be quick if that's okay. So, um, there's online 74, there's this adjustment to the strenuous statewide goal from 70% to 80%. Um, and I'm, I guess my question there is, is that, uh, from what I understand, our current standards are well below 40 or or 70% right now. So why increasing the, the benchmark at the SA

or the, the, the goal at the same time? Well, There was a lot of confusion about what the benchmark was, which is one of the reasons to say we're gonna, this is the bench and put it in code. I would probably not normally do that, but we're putting in, in code so it's clear all across all our schools, et cetera. And it's something that teachers know, um, that's the goal of this. And when you do that, actually, um, depending on what measure you're using, uh, we'll probably we're gonna see a bump, uh, in our scores automatically. Um, so this is really saying we can get to this 80% goal using this, this particular, um, benchmark.

So, um, just to clarify then. So if our current standards are our, our, our current, um, reading levels are, I think in the forties right now, percentage wise. And the, the statewide standard right now is 70. We're not meeting it. I'm not sure how raising it to 80 helps get there. Can You I, our superintendent walk do that.

Our superintendents, were really comfortable with that. If, um, in terms of the, this is long range goal, remember, we're not gonna have, we're not gonna even do retention until 2030. So the kindergarten kids aren't even in kindergarten yet. Um, so we have, you know, well over four years. Um, but it's saying we wanna have a stretch goal, uh, for our kids because it's hard to think about, you think about the kids in your neighborhood, do you wanna go pick out 20% of 'em that aren't gonna read at grade third grade level? I, I believe, um, my passion around this is, this is the most important thing we do is to help kids read. Because from there they can read to learn, and we need to get this right and we need to stretch to do that.

My, my only real concern, I guess, comes from how this may disproportionately affect certain schools and areas when we're, we already have a standard we're not meeting, and now we're gonna set the bar even higher and then even tie it to some of these programs. It, it, it, it seems like it might be punitive in certain areas.

It, well, that's why we're trying to provide support, um, because those schools do need support. So being able, uh, to get coaching and training out there, to be able to get paraprofessionals out there, um, I wouldn't do this without support. Um, because that, you know, that would just be an unfunded mandate and I would not believe in that. I do think we need to invest in this. I think it's important and just, it's the most important skill that our students need to have to start with. I mean, we can talk about all the other things, but if you can't read, you're gonna have a hard time ever doing history and civics and, um, science and even math. 'cause you've got math word problems, et cetera. So you just think about how fundamental that is, um, to everything that we do. Let's make that kind of goal number one, and then everything else will be easier to, to help those kids learn.

And, and Mr. Chair, last question. That's okay. So by tying these current, um, the way that we currently measure our on grade level reading and making these adjustments to, um, tie it to benchmark, does that by default automatically improve our current measurement? We're changing kind of the rulers, so to speak.

Well, and we're gonna get an improvement without necessarily and seeing an improvement in the actual skills In acas. It will, um, but it's not, I mean, but then we'll go out and still have NAP scores and other things, so we're gonna have other benchmarks out there that we can look at. There will also be, although it's a very different test, the RISE test, uh, that's given at the end of third grade. So, uh, we're just trying to give. But, but if you're only, I mean, the NAPPE test only gets given to a few students, not all students. So that's, that wasn't a good tool for us to use. The rise, uh, is given at the end of third grade. Well, I don't wanna be telling a parent at the end of third grade, sorry, your child didn't get there when we haven't been working with them and trying to provide as many interventions as we could to help them get there.

Microphones? No, I'll move,

Thank you. Aaron Longacre. I am on the wonderful state school board, but I am speaking on behalf of myself. It's an honor to be here and speak in favor of SB 2 41. I'm excited for a very specific reason. In line 3 0 4 and 3 0 7, it addresses USB's number one funding request and one of Governor Cox's education initiatives, which is having paraprofessionals in the classroom. We know that a child's growth and education during K through three is most important, and it will set them up for success for their, for their later years. These are the years that need the most funding and the most attention. This bill is a step in the right direction. As board members visit schools and sit down with teachers, they always say, we need help in the classroom. It's my hope that LEAs will be able to utilize these paraprofessionals even outside of the scope of literacy. In short, this bill tells teachers, we hear you need help, and we're sending it. This bill in short, tells parents, we know your child may need extra help in the classroom, and we are sending it. Please support this bill. Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication.

Yes. My name is Janet Norden and I reside in Kearns, and I'm representing myself and the children in my neighborhood. Um, I've had the privilege of teaching struggling readers to read for the past 20 years. As a result, I've seen firsthand how early literacy significantly changes the trajectory of lives. I support the goal of SB 2 41, but I'm concerned this Bill as written, may not achieve the intended results. And as a side note, the kids in my neighborhood are reading at 21.3% literacy right now, which, and it's not the teachers and the principal's fault, but funding's for in this bill, funding for parents is limited. And these positions do not pay a living wage, ma making it difficult to hire and retain qualified staff. Furthermore, I did some math, and this will only cover one pair. Everybody won't even get one pair per school. This required plan in the meet the, the required plan in the meetings raise concern, especially for schools where most students fall below benchmark. This unfunded mandate reduces instruction time and opens districts to litigation. Our students need intervention more than meetings. I urge you to refine this bill so it is sustainable, practical, and effective. Thank you for your time and your commitment to the Children of Utah.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Lexi Cunningham, representing U-S-S-A-U-S-B-A. We are in support of this bill. We feel that it establishes a reachable goal. It, um, discusses the assessments to be used and what different cut cut scores will be. It continues to focus on educator prep programs, ensuring that our future educators are coming out prepared to teach the science of reading. It allows for different, um, different options for coaching and funding For that, we are excited about the parapro opportunity and being able to support our, our parapros. The individual reading plans will involve teachers, students, families, um, and school community so that we can help all of our students. Our goal is to focus on the interventions, not retention, and ensure that all students are reading at grade level by the end of third grade. Please support this bill. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. I'm Mary Catherine Perry. I'm Executive Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs for the Utah Chamber. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Madam Vice chair, members of the committee. We're here to thank Senator Millner, Senator Millner, and Representative Peterson, and offer support for SB 2 41. I think it's important for you to understand that the Utah Chamber and the business community is very supportive of this bill. We care deeply about third grade literacy because it is one of the earliest signals we have of whether a child is on a path towards long-term success. For us, our participation and support has arisen from our Utah Rising Initiative and also our Chambers Foundation, the Utah Community Builders. We realize the fiscal commitment involved in this bill, and we are here to offer our support as a business community and with our employers. We are anxious to be a partner in this at the Chamber. We are preparing every day to support this effort to support our schools and our students. And we're grateful for your support of this bill. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Rich and I, senior advisor, uh, to Governor Cox. As you know, governor Cox has prioritized literacy's initiative, uh, across our state and the symposium and the state of the state. And, uh, for that reason, as we look at, uh, this, this piece of legislation, we're in support of what it's looking to accomplish. Um, reasons being, as have been stated. Uh, one, this identifies, uh, through policy what is or recognizes what is a statewide issue. Uh, it sets in motion, again, through policy, what some specific action steps are, uh, with a very intended, uh, goal, uh, for our state. And I'm happy to get into the numbers as as to, um, how we navigate some of that. Um, but, and lastly, uh, really appreciate this Bill's sole focus on improving student outcomes, their academic outcomes, and under your support. Thank you.

Uh, good evening. Hello friends, uh, Royce Van Tassel, Utah Association of Public Charter Schools. Um, there are a few things that, uh, has been said. There are a few things more important than making sure we, uh, teach our kids to read. Uh, my dad, uh, my parents paid me and my siblings 10 bucks for each of the Harvard classics that we would read. Uh, as a kid, we told us we would get 500 of 'em if we read the whole set, which none of us came close. There's a lot more than 50 books in that. Um, But it's opened us up to a lifetime of happiness. It, frankly, has made the life that each of you enjoy possible. And, um, I guess I, I'm just thrilled that we are so committed to making that happen. Now, there are a few people up here that dislike restrictions on the use of funds as much as I do. Um, I, I am not a fan of restricted funding, and yet, if we get this wrong, little else that we do right matters. So, while I am not a fan of restrictions on the use of our funding, we need to make sure that our kids can read. And I think that this is the right path to be going down. So please support the bill. Thanks.

Alright. I recommend, um, that we favor, or I motion that we favorably recommend first substitute SB 2 41.

Um, I'll waive. Alright, uh, to the members

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, I just wanna take the opportunity, um, to thank, um, Senator Millner for her, um, tremendous work on early literacy over the years, and just express my appreciation for that. Um, I fully support this bill today and, uh, would encourage my colleagues to do the same. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I, I'm going to be opposed to this motion, um, but I just wanna explain briefly, I think there's a lot of good things that are being accomplished here, but I'm concerned about, um, the shifting goalposts. I think, uh, 15 years ago we folks started focusing on graduation rates, and those rates improved from 80, mid low to eight, mid eighties, up to quite a bit higher now into the nineties. Um, but we did not see any increase. In fact, we saw lags in many cases on proficiencies. Um, my concern here is that under some of these new definitions that literacy rates in the state of Utah will go from, in the mid forties, potentially up to the sixties or seventies overnight, just based on changing the definitions and the goalposts. Um, and I, I don't want to pursue a policy that produces just purely political wins or wins that aren't backed up by the actual outcomes we're trying to seek. Um, I I do think there's a lot of good here, and I, I, I hope that this passes outta committee, but I am concerned about that. And for that reason, I'm gonna be a no

So, um, one of the things I'm, I, I, I understand what you're saying, um, but we have to have a consistent, uh, goalpost. And if we don't have a consistent goalpost, um, we're not gonna be able to measure this success over time. Um, and when you have multiple ones, that, that doesn't work. So, um, what I wanna say is what's most important here is that our kids learn to read. Um, and, uh, as I got into this and sat down with a, a superintendent working group and said, how do we get there? Um, we had to work through some issues that were not focused on necessarily the interventions, but how do we make sure we have clear communication and clear goalposts that work for our students and work for our teachers because people were seeing it in different ways. And this way we have the entire system that will be focused on a very clear, on clear goalposts that everyone understands and that they can get that information every year, three times a year from kindergarten to third grade, so that everybody understands that. So that's part of that clarification that was just necessary. I understand it's not perfect. I'm not. Um, but I do think what's more important than anything else is clarification for our parents and our students and our teachers, and that we all are focused on the same thing. Um, and then I just wanna say, you know, one of the things Governor Cox says was said was he realized that, um, liter, I mean, having children read at third grade level is a policy issue. It's a policy issue about what kind of policy we put in place. Um, I would say Excel and ed, um, and other organizations that have really been diving into this over the years, um, have made a difference through policy. Other states have already done this. Um, this is, we're not, we are not plowing new ground here. Other states have done this. And if there's a state that should be focused on kids reading, it should be Utah. We care about our kids, we care about our families. That's really important. And we should give them the best chance we can at future opportunity. And that's what reading skills bring. With that, I'll close.

Yes. Thank you. Senator Millner Millner for all your work on this bill. Um, and for all you're doing for children's literacy. I appreciate it.

Thank you very much. I appreciate all your time. I know that's late Friday afternoon.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Are you ready?

Um, so many of you know that, um, in 2022, we passed an early reading bill. The goal of that was to get more of our third grade reading at third grade level. By the end of third grade. Um, we have made some progress in this, but, uh, it's probably time for us to move to phase two, um, to make sure we have the opportunity to accelerate that progress. Progress. The real, um, kind of focus of this bill is on providing student intervention to be able to support our students, um, being able to get to grade level. And that needs to start in kindergarten and first grade, second grade, and third grade. So we, in this bill, what you'll see is we'll continue to do the testing that we do, is screener testing with acas. Um, we will monitor those children, um, for children that are below benchmark or well below Benchmark. Um, what the bill says is that parents, um, that teachers will work with parents. They will develop individual reading plans with, uh, and for each of the students. But as a part of inter having that conversations will engage parents in the process. It'll be part of parent teacher conferences. And our goal is to help every student reach that benchmark of third grade reading. Uh, at the end of third grade, uh, the series of benchmarks, um, with, uh, Acadis, there's benchmarks. There's what's something that's called Below Benchmark, and then something that's called well Below Benchmark. And our goal is to get them all to benchmark. As I started kind of working on this bill and working with superintendents and others, um, I discovered there was a lots of confusion around, um, what, um, how we were measuring it and how we were measuring performance and lots of confusion that was created for districts, for students, for, um, for parents and others. So, what this bill attempts to do is to say, the one thing that we are doing consistently from K through three is we are doing third grade. I mean, we're doing, uh, testing with Acadis right now. That means we can keep parents informed all along the way about the process and, and then be able to, as early as kindergarten if it's necessary, to begin to put together individual reading plans. Our goal is every, as I said, every child, to succeed at that. The second thing that we, I learned through this process of trying to work with superintendents and others was we needed to make sure that our training, uh, continued to be robust. When we first, um, started this, we were training everybody. Um, but what happens is we now have teachers who move around. They might be in fifth grade, and now they go to second grade and they haven't had letters training. They might come in from out of state, uh, to teach here, and they haven't had letters training. So we need to have the opportunity for more training, uh, at each of our, uh, each of our LEAs so they can make sure that every teacher is prepared, the principals also have the support they need. And then third, in terms of providing those interventions, we need to make sure we're providing support for students. Um, and that's gonna take paraprofessionals that are trained. So we need to be able to provide the training. We need to be able to provide the support of paraprofessionals. And so what this bill does is to say, we'll develop these individual reading plans. Um, it gives a whole long list of potential interventions that can be used, because that should be determined by the particular school and the teacher and the parent, and maybe the, the reading specialist in the school, if there is one. But, um, really just developing individualized plans. And then the goal of that, once we have those plans, um, for every student, is to make sure that we can deliver on that. It might be high dosage tutoring. It might be tutoring during the day, it might be tutoring after school. Um, uh, some schools are doing things like putting on parent education day and, uh, evenings and writing parents in and saying, here's things that you can do that will help your child learn to read. Um, there's some schools who say, we'd like to do a kind of a, either a late summer program or an early summer program because there's so much reading loss that goes on during the summer. If we could do a two week program, uh, for our kids so they could just really focus on reading, that would be helpful. So it's not meant to be prescriptive, and it's meant to be flexible based on the circumstances of the school and the child, um, in that school. Um, in addition to that, um, we, so we would take the funding that we have had at the state board level, move it out to the school districts. The second thing we would do is we're asking for $15 million for paraprofessionals. The goal of that is to, uh, make sure that they can provide the support and that the teacher has some trained paraprofessionals that can support them as they support students, uh, in the schools. Uh, the third element of trying to support those interventions is to say they get everybody gets TSSA money. If you're not at benchmark in your school, if 80% of your kids aren't reading at third grade level, uh, then you'll use half of your TSSA money. You'll prioritize that for reading intervention. So we can bring more resources to that without asking for additional resources. It's just prioritizing it, um, so that our children learn to read. Um, we all know that learning to read is something that happens between the basics of it, between kindergarten and third grade, and even earlier, actually, sometimes with parents are working with children at home, but after third grade, they're reading to learn. And if we want our kids to be able to be successful, we have to support them in that process and know that that really is opening the door to everything else. 'cause you think about reading to learn, um, that means it's history and it's math and it's science, and uh, it's civics. It's all of those things, um, that really build on those foundational reading skills that we have to make sure, um, children gain. So, um, this, then the last piece of this, it does, 'cause you're gonna hear about this, is it says We're included in teacher evaluation, um, for K through three. So principals and, and teachers. That's part of the evaluation process for them. And then the retention piece, uh, what I wanna say about the retention piece is our goal is not to retain any student at the end of third grade. Our goal is to have interventions and support for every child so that by the end of third grade, they are up to benchmark. Actually, it encourages people to think about maybe if they need to hold a student back, they do it in kindergarten or first grade before it becomes, um, as much of a kind of social issue. Uh, first students, I've had more than one person tell me about my sister or my child, or I got held back and it was the best thing that happened to me, but it happened in kindergarten, um, because I just wasn't ready. And I think if we can help parents get good information, we can help teachers sit down and work with them. Um, if that child really is not making progress, maybe they could make that decision earlier in the process in conjunction, doesn't mandate it, but make it one of the potential options that's there. Um, and then on finally on third grade retention, there's also a list of, as you will see, of uh, good cause reasons that we would still allow the student to move, uh, to fourth grade. Um, so that gives the opportunity for, um, there are lots of different circumstances that that becomes important. And we wanna make sure that, um, the school working with parents and the teacher, um, has the ability to make good decisions about that student and whether they move forward or not. And then there's finally an appeal process. Um, we're asking the schools to put together an appeal process for the students. Um, and, uh, what I would like to do is I have, um, Brandy Webster, uh, is on, she is from Mona Elementary. Uh, she is the principal there. And, um, Brandy and her teachers have been doing remarkable work on their own, um, just because they believe in this, uh, about how important this is for kids. And I've asked her to take two or three minutes just to share a little bit about the, their journey as a school and helping students read. Thank you, Brandy.

You're welcome. Can you all hear me?

Okay. My name is Brandi Webster. And thank you Senator Millner for inviting me here tonight. And thank you for your words, everything she just stated. I truly believe in Mona Elementary. We're a small rural community that takes in Rocky Ridge and Mona. We have about 285 students. Um, what we started five years ago was a lot of things that Senator Millner just stated. What we noticed is our data was stagnant. Our students, our teachers were working so hard, and so were our students. But our data was not moving. We were hovering around the 50 percentile mark for reading proficiency. And I wasn't quite sure why. I didn't know what else to do. So then is when we were all trained in letters, and we really learned the science of reading. And I would like to thank you for funding that, because it's truly made a difference at our school. Knowledge is power and reading is, is definitely a science. So one thing that made a big impact at Mona Elementary is every student has a story. And 70% the state goal wasn't good enough for me. Like, if I put ever all of your children's pictures on the board, let's say there's 10 of them, which, which ones are you going to not worry about or leave behind? So our goal at Mona Elementary is 100% of our students will read proficiently. And therefore, we really strategically tracked their data with Acadians, um, made intervention plans. We also trained every single teacher, not just our K three teachers, um, and really worked vertically. We also trained our I instructional assistants, our paraprofessionals, because they are crucial to this work, and they needed to be trained too. Um, we also created, one of the most powerful things that we did is every student has a story. And every student is different. And every student needs different things. They all have a different recipe. And so we were able to really track them and over the year and see their growth and really intentionally, um, help them with the skills that they need. And another thing is we started educating parents. We had to be very vulnerable with our data. And we invited parents in and taught them, help their student and help their child succeed. So it took all of us together collectively. And it's been a lot of work. We're still not to our a hundred percent, but we did hit 70% in third grade, which we are cheering for. And, and so grateful and the power that, that comes from the things that Senator Millner discussed work. So thank you. Thank you for supporting literacy and students reading is crucial to our future success. Right. Literacy is. So thank you.

Thank you very much, Brandy. I really Appreciate. Yeah, thank you. I, I, I enjoyed your presentation at the Reading Summit too. Yes. Um, that it's an amazing story, what that school has done. Um, and what we wanna do, try to do is to help provide that support for all of our children across the state, um, to be able to get that kind of individualized support and help so that they are reading at third grade level. At the end of third grade. And with that, I'm open to questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate this Bill. I really think it's important that we really, really, really, really, I'm tired, uh, that we focus on our third grade and our K through pre-K through third. Some of my concerns are the retention. I really hope that we are retaining our students or working hard not to retain our students. Uh, thinking about a bulging third grade would be kind of a, a weird spot to be in. Have like, you know, six third grade classes, and then one fourth and one second. Um, one fifth. Um, I'm concerned about the retention. Uh, I'm also hopeful that we look at our measurements of success as being on grade level. As someone who's actually administers the DIBELS test and actually has worked through all these reading programs, it's my understanding that we have actually changed what we think is on grade level. And from my understanding, we have a higher on grade level than some of our peers in other states. And so I think it's an inflated number, like a deflated number or an inflated number of how many students actually can read on grade level. And I would like to see that, that, that number be a little bit more equitable. So, uh, that's one of the things that I'd like to maybe address. And then when we think about who's not succeeding, 'cause I just pulled up the data gateway, and you can see the demographics who aren't succeeding. I, I, I hope that we can really focus in on those students that really need those supports. Um, and also when we think about who's not succeeding, we also think of students that are English language learners and speak another language at home. That is something that, uh, I don't think a family should be penalized for. As, uh, English language learners have seven years of language acquisition to be on par, uh, academically. So, um, I really support the flexibility in this. But I just wanted to go on record saying there are some issues with how we look at reading as a whole. I think all of our teachers are doing an amazing job. And then also thinking about our kids on five oh fours and IEPs, will they be held back at a different level, or will that be taken into consideration? Would be my only question. May I answer the questions?

Yes, yes. Uh, first of all, students that are on IEPs, et cetera, they can get an exemption for good cause. Um, you will see an exemption for good cause around some ELL students as well. Um, if a student just moved in, in third grade, et cetera, that's, um, we wanna make sure there's flexibility to, for a good cause reason to let that student move forward. So my goal is that there's no student that's held back, that it builds focus for us, and that that focus is consistent from K through three. Uh, with respect to the scores, I found that problem in that there was multiple different, Acadis has, um, here's their benchmarks. We set a different benchmark, and then we also then started talking about rise. And then when we talk about nap, and everybody was saying, well, on this one, we're here and this one we're here, and this one we're here. What this does is say, we're gonna use Acadis and we're gonna use Acadis benchmarks because they're nationally normed, um, benchmarks. We're gonna use the nationally normed benchmarks for this. And that way we are comparing ourselves easily to other states over time. Also, it doesn't confuse our teachers. 'cause our teachers were getting confused about this. Was this, what Acadian says is the benchmark, but here's what, uh, we're hearing in other places. So this is meant to say we wanna get all in the same place. And then for me, what's extremely important is that that screening test is given every year for every, uh, K 1, 2, 3. There are no surprises. Um, and people have said, well, we should use Rise. Well, am I going to do the RISE test for a third grader, uh, which would be, uh, an English Language Arts? So it's beyond reading. And we don't get those results out till the fall. So they're already in fourth grade. I don't think we're gonna move them from fourth grade back to third grade. And certainly that would cause lots of trauma. So the goal of this is to say, our goal is to improvement and consistency and something that everybody can understand, but it's still nationally normed in terms of being able to say, these are the right benchmarks, and here's how we compare ourselves.

I did. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Um, I appreciate you mentioning DIBELS as being, or Cadence being the test. Um, we went from, um, measuring greens and saying that they were the, and then we Uintah blues, which is above. And so the yellow dots are actually pretty nice too. And for people that have given this test, they know what I'm talking about with the yellow, blue, and green dots. And for the rest of you, we'll explain it later, but, um, I, I do would like to make sure that we're high yellows and greens and not moving into blues, because that isn't, and then also, yeah. And then also we have students that are on ACEs scores where they're having trauma at home. And so, um, the retention really concerns me, but I, I'm glad this bill has lots of flexibility where we can start moving into kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and even pre-K If we know that kids are experiencing, um, trauma or, um, challenges at home, that we can start bringing them at a higher rate and do those, uh, interventions prior to third grade. The retention concerns me greatly. But I appreciate all the work that you've done on this, and thank you for being such a strong advocate for literacy in this state.

Yes. Senator Fillmore here. Just the meeting is scheduled to end in about 15 minutes. Are are you planning on, uh, if you're planning on a time limit, you just let the audience know how long that time limit will be?

Yeah. We're, we're gonna have to limit people to, to about a minute, if that's okay. We've got quite a few that want to speak, so thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Lexi Cunningham. I represent USSA and USBA. And first of all, we would like to thank Senator Millner for allowing us to be a part of this process and working with her on this bill to improve literacy in this state. We are supportive of this bill and are excited to continue the work that started a couple years ago and see what we can do to help our students, um, as they continue on their path to be good readers. We feel this is a bill about interventions, not retentions. We are prepared to work on those interventions and work with our students. And as Senator Millner said, our hope is that through interventions, we will not have any retentions in third grade, but we would encourage the the committee to vote. Yes. Thank you. Thank You.

My name is Dr. Jan Dole. Um, I'm a professor emeritus the University of Utah. I'm currently at the Center for the School of the Future, um, as a research fellow. Um, I really appreciate all Anne has done, uh, for such a long time in reading. And this bill is a wonderful step forward. I especially want to talk to, uh, Senator Riebe in a minute.

I just wanna address a couple of things that you said. Okay. Yeah. And one is, okay, so acas is one. Yeah. See, that's not fair. Acas is one measure. Um, and I, I like the idea of working with Acadians and not these other tests because they're very confusing to teachers. They're confusing to all of us. Um, I wanna just say something that I think you'll understand. I'm not sure if all the audience will, but when we're talking about phonics and beginning reading skills, those skills can be mastered. We have evidence that 95, 90 to 95% of children can master those skills. And that's one good reason for using, using Acadians. The whole idea that, um, of retention is to help kids master those skills. And we know from really considerable research, 95% of kids can get there. If we use green, which is proficient, that's not gonna get kids there. If we use Blue Mastery, that will get kids to master those things. And while comprehension and vocabulary are different, we can't use, we can't go there with them. We can help them master that. And that's the reason for the reason. Yes, yes. Thank you.

Thank you. The reason for going with Blue instead of green, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, Mary Catherine Perry, um, executive Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs for the Utah Chamber. I just wanna thank, um, Senator Millner and truly all of the stakeholders and representatives in the room, um, representing the Utah Chamber. This has truly been a public private partnership, including foundations, philanthropic partners, and as the business community, we're committed to helping this effort because we see this not just as a workforce readiness issue, but just having a civically minded and, and a educated workforce that is ready to succeed and, um, work towards upward mobility. So as a business community, we're here to support our schools and our students, but also our workforces internally and find ways that we can help build literacy in our employees, our workforces and their families. Thank you. Thank

Thank you, Mr. Chair, rich and I, senior advisor in the governor's office. Uh, I appreciate Senator Millner and Representative Peterson, uh, in running this, uh, legislation. And, uh, this bill particularly will, uh, continue to establish, help establish how literacy is a core value across our state, and urge your support. Thank you.

Good afternoon committee. I'm Sarah Jones with the Utah Education Association. We haven't taken a position on this bill, but I do just wanna raise some technical concerns that we have about one section, um, on the educator evaluation piece, which starts on line 8 69. So these technical questions are like, the benchmark assessment is defined as having a beginning, middle year, uh, end of year test. And currently the code prohibits end of year, end of level assessments in educator evaluations. So is there a potential conflict there? Um, if there is an, a student retained in third grade, second grade, and we're tying, uh, benchmark assessments to educator evaluations, does that make them an unsatisfactory on their performance? Um, but maybe the biggest one is that the bill effective date is July 1st. There are some changes being recommended or being required for the evaluation instruments. How will we incorporate new requirements, update the evaluation instruments, train the evaluators, and train the educators on the new evaluation requirements between July 1st and the start of school. Thank, Thank you very much.

Thank you. We've had a chance to talk and I appreciate being able to communicate with Senator Millner.

Go ahead. Parker Fossen, I'm, uh, an Emma Ackles Jones Endowed Chair and Professor of Early Education and Director of the Center for the School of the Future at Utah State University. And I'm, uh, very appreciative of Senator Millner and Representative Peterson and their commitment to the intent of this bill. I support the intent of this bill, recognizing that, uh, 80%, the 80% goal is a great jump from where we are now, and it is achievable. We have the knowledge to, to produce this outcome. Uh, also, I just want to mention that the intent of the third grade retention is not to have 16 year olds driving back to third grade for reading instruction. The intent is to create urgency around the adults within the system of how important this is and, and to improve our skillset on how we produce this outcome. Thank you.

Yes. Uh, superintendent Cody Hughes with the EB School District. I'd like to appreciate, uh, the work on this from multiple levels. We've had a number of conversations as, as far as superintendents go, but personally, as an individual, as a father, and of students that are in our education system, there's no better, uh, focus than literacy. I feel like this Bill does provide a number of resources that give us to be intentional about our efforts in education. And most importantly, I believe also that to answer some of the questions that have been asked, there is a great deal of flexibility providing this team. One thing that was, it was mentioned, but it's a little bit glossed over, is I love the individualized reading plan. It is a partnership with parents, with teachers, and with administrators to, to get students as far as they can. So I urge the committee to support this bill.

Are you hearing me? Yes. Thank you. Awesome. Hi, I am Carolyn Ette with American Prep Schools. I wanna say thank you so much to Senator Millner. Um, her vision has catalyzed more progress in children's learning and reading in Utah than anything I've seen in 23 years as an educator here, I'm so happy about SB 1 27 and now I support this follow on bill. Um, we have two years of great data under SB 1 27 in. And, um, I just wanna point out that for some reason, general charter schools are not included in the Gardner Institute report, although we have 13% of the state's students, and I'd like to see that change in the future. So the charter school, um, results are, um, because we, I think in the top 10, we are at least half, and our school is the largest district that met the goal at 70%. And we have 40% of our kids on, on, um, ELL programs. So I'm super excited about that and I would like to, um, hope that in the future we could look at the ELL population as we get higher to the 80%, which I wanna support that 80%. I think it should happen sooner. I think 2030 is too late. I think we need to get sooner for the urgency that we just heard from, uh, Mr. Fosson. And, um, I also wanna just say I'm a little nervous about the, um, changing of the definition. I, if it isn't changing, I'll find out, but I think it's changing

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to recommend Senate Bill 2 41 out with a favorable recommendation.

So just a couple of comments. One, uh, we, what we do know that when we, uh, a third grader that's not reading at third grade level is less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to end up in the social services system or the criminal justice system. So there are pros and cons, I understand. But what I hope with this bill is that we focus, um, and we focus like the, like Mona Elementary is focusing on helping every child succeed. And when they get to third grade, their reading, now understand there are some children that there are issues with justice she talked about. Um, but there's, uh, lots of good cause uh, exemptions in here that allows a student to be, uh, promoted to fourth grade. But, and it then it says, uh, but let's provide support in fourth grade if we do that. If they're not reading at grade level, but we decide there's a good cause exemption, what we wanna do is make sure we're helping them in fourth grade, uh, to catch up and not just saying, well, you're on your own now. And with that, um, thank you for, um, committee for considering this bill. I just think if we can't, of all the things that we do in school, reading has to be first. Um, and we have to help our children read because it's the door to everything else.

Yes. Thank you so much. I appreciate this bill. I appreciate the flexibility of it, but you know, when we ask parents to sign a waiver or ask for some kind of, um, special dispensation to not be left back, it usually falls upon the least of us that get left back the most. So that's why I'm so concerned about that part. And I, I understand all the ramifications around it, but, uh, that, that still concerns me greatly. I think this is a great bill and it would be wonderful for our students to get those extra resources. Thank you.

and Body Senate bill 2 41 and replace it with first substitute Senate Bill 2 41. Let me tell you what the difference is in the two bills.

Uh, one is the funding distribution where we were thinking about, uh, initially being able to get charters and our and our public, uh, ed school districts working together decided to separate some of the money out for the charter schools so that the charter schools would get money for a paraprofessionals for training and, uh, also for, um, coaching to be used that would go to the charter school board arthritis or so it can be distributed out. And then the other is that, um, and when we first passed this bill, uh, the first version of this bill in 2022, um, we gave some money to higher education, to higher people was, uh, science of reading expertise. We required them to have somebody from the reading panel on, uh, their selection committee because we wanted to have somebody with expertise in that area. Uh, we're not providing any additional money to higher education for faculty. So we're removing that provision, but no, no longer applies. So those are the two changes, um, between Senate Bill 2 41 and first substitute. Now, lemme tell you about Senate bill overall about Senate Bill 2 41. Um, we have about half of our children that are reading at third grade level. At the end of third grade. We know third grade's important because that's the time you move from learning to read to reading, to learn. It's the basis for everything else that you do. And if there's one thing we need to get right, it's that we need to help our kids learn to read so they can learn for life. What this bill does is build on the last bill, um, that was passed in 2022. We are trying to enhance the number of scaled reading interventions that will help kids get to that reading level. So we're using acas, which, uh, we've been using now and is what's we trained everyone in science of reading. We have acas testing across all of our schools. We do it in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade. Therefore, uh, a parent and a student, uh, and a teacher can know how they're performing. If children are performing below benchmark, then we focus with those children on interventions as early as kindergarten to help get them up to reading at first, second, and third grade level by the time they get to third grade. If they get to third grade, um, and they still are reading significantly below benchmark level, then uh, we're asking that, that there be a very definitive decision made about retention. Uh, we have a lot of, uh, uh, good cause exemptions taking care of, uh, things like English language learners, special education kids, et cetera. So, um, we've worked with the superintendents and others to make sure we have a, a good list of, of, um, good cause exemptions. And we have an appeal process for teachers, or excuse me, for parents. So, um, we're trying to get this right. What we hope we'll do is to get focused, um, that everyone will get focused on helping kids read that. Uh, there will be ongoing and every parent teacher conversation, there will be a discussion about how the child's doing, uh, in terms of reading. If they're below benchmark, that there's developed a, uh, individual reading plan that at individual reading plan is discussed with the parent, um, that we are then hiring paraprofessionals that can support them either during the day, um, trained paraprofessionals during the day after school or summer programs, whatever works best for that particular, uh, student and that particular district because they're all different or charter school. So it's some flexibility there. Um, and then we also ask that third grade reading scores. I mean, excuse me, if you're performing well below benchmark in an elementary school, there's money called TSSA money, which you have, they have flexibility in. We're asking that they prioritize 50% of that money for reading enhancement if children are not performing in that, in that school, if they're not performing, uh, at benchmark level. And we set a new goal of having 80% of our children reading at third grade level. At the end of third grade. Uh, with that, I'm open to questions.

Discussion? I think I've talked about the general, um, concepts in the bill. Uh, lots of work. Um, it involves superintendents, uh, across the state, both rural urbans, large, small, um, trying to get this right. But the focus really is to say reading is a high priority for our children and we need to help them be able to read at the end of third grade so they can be successful. Uh, the reality is they're less likely to graduate from high school if they're not reading at third grade level. At the end of third grade, they're more likely to end up in the criminal justice system or the social services system. Um, so let's help and support these kids early.

Thank you, Mr. President. The, the sponsor will surely not be surprised that, uh, the con uh, communication that I get from constituents on this issue, particularly constituents who are teachers, are concerned mostly about the retention provisions in the bill. Um, my question if she'd be willing to yield Mr. President is, I'm familiar with many schools I've worked at, some of them who, um, specifically for reading and mathematics already divide students by ability level. So, you know, a third grade student who is a quite an advanced reader may take, uh, language arts or with fifth grade or even older students, uh, because they're, you know, they're reading, engaging at the same level where some third grade students who maybe are falling behind are taking, uh, reading with a group of, uh, of first graders or second graders. Uh, anyway, the grades are all mixed, is the point because students are already taught at an, at their ability level. The way that I read this bill, it would require a student who is in third grade and is not reading on grade level, but who is already taking, um, you know, a a a reading course at that student's grade level could not be promoted to fourth grade for other subjects, even if that student was still receiving reading and literacy instruction at the level that this child needs. Am I reading that bill correctly?

Um, Senator Millner, there are a Number of good cause exemptions for that. So, um, there's flexibility if a student is very close, but there's a difference between a student that's very close to a benchmark and a student that's well below benchmark and their ability to move forward. So the idea of this is let's help these children read, um, and make sure they're meeting their reading needs before, uh, we move them on. Because once they get to fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, the reality is these children have to be able to read to be successful in history and science and math and social, uh, studies and civics and all of those other subjects. Um, so let's help them get what they need. The intent of this bill is intervention, intervention intervention, so that when we get them to third grade, they are ready to move on. Um, the goal of this is to start in kindergarten and to try to make sure we're doing everything that we can to support that child. Provide individual reading plans and interventions that will help every child get to go from third grade to fourth grade. If for some reason, um, there is a reason to move that child on this says that in fourth grade, we will give them specialized, um, interventions to support them in that process.

Follow up? I don't think so. Mr. President.

Yes, I, I rise in support of this bill. I, you know, when I found out, uh, Senator Millner wasn't running, uh, for reelection, I called her and I said, you know, before, before you leave, could you please get this reading program underway? I think it's one of the, I I think we'll look back and see this as one of the best things we've done, uh, in education in the state. Um, this bill is built around a straightforward principle by the end of third grade, every child in Utah should be able to read. Literacy is not a partisan issue. It is the foundation of opportunity, self-reliance, and upward mobility. If a child cannot read proficiently by third grade, the odds of long-term academic struggle, uh, rise dramatically. SB 2 41 sets a clear statewide goal and aligns our system around accountability and results. It strengthens benchmark assessments, ensures parents are informed early and requires individualized reading plans with targeted interventions when a student falls behind. It grounds instruction in the science of reading, explicit phonics, phone awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension, and rejects inefficient three queing practices that encourage guessing instead of decoding. This does not simply impose mandates. It supports teachers in literacy, coaching, professional development, paraprofessional assistance and coordination with higher education. So new educators are properly trained before they enter the classroom. Retention is never the first option, but social promotion without literacy is not compassionate. It is negligent. This bill treats retention as a structured last resort intervention with good cause, exemptions and parental involvement, high standards early intervention, accountability, parental transparency. That is what this bill delivers. And I respectfully ask everyone for your support.

Mr. President Pro Tim. I, I also rise in support. My, my support isn't near as sophisticated as, uh, Senator Johnson's, but I, you know, when it comes to these issues like this, I, I kind of go to people I trust now. I, I really have great trust in Senator Millner. I also have a close friend that's on the school board in Iron County, who's a former educator. And, and her passion is, uh, reading third grade reading. And so I connected the two of 'em 'cause she had a few questions and she came away and told me, she says, we need to do this. I'm on board. And so when she says that, that means I'm on board. So I would encourage you to Bill.

Yes. The sponsors agreed to yield the questions First. I'm gonna preface this with an apology if you've already covered this material, I apologize, but I, I've, uh, just a question on, do you have an idea of the cohort of, I suppose we have an idea of the benchmark where third graders are currently, what cohort of third graders will be held back?

So the goal of this is, uh, except for good cause reasons that we're not holding any third graders back. Um, so, um, we, first of all, one of the things that came up was we first started arguing about numbers and benchmarks, and we decided that, that what we're doing in testing is acas. We're gonna use acas and it's nationally normed. We'll use Acadian benchmarks for this, which means that we probably have more than 50% of our students right now that are, that are performing at an benchmark. Therefore, we raise the, the level of trying to get to the goal of 80%. Um, so we've agreed on a benchmark, it's in the bill. Um, my goal is that there are very few students that at the end of third grade we're having to hold back because we've been helping them from kindergarten to first grade to second grade to third grade. And you'll notice the retention does not go into effect until the year 2030. So the kindergartners that would be suggest that that would come underneath this policy aren't even in kindergarten yet. They'd be in kindergarten next year, which gives plenty of time for us to work with them all along the way.

Thank you, Mr. President Pro tem to the sponsor. Uh, as we look at this, there's all the indications as we've stated. And as Ben said, I don't wanna read, uh, the third grade reading level is so critical to the development in, in so many ways. You know, frankly, we probably ought to every education be, we ought to say, how's this gonna help third grade reading? How's it gonna help eighth grade math? If we did that, we would be, I think, uh, really going the right direction. But here, here's my concern, my observation, and we'll lead in the question. We have traditional ways of teaching reading in public education, and if you have a skillset or dyslexia or other things or outside that traditional way of teaching, we don't have the mechanism, from my perspective and and experience to address that. We don't have the funding, we don't have the expertise to deal with it. And I know there's some other bills, good Senator Cullimore, our good doctor, Senator Ipson working on, on this issue. But is there anything in here that gives us an opportunity to begin adding, not trying, when oftentimes it's like trying to fit a square peg into a circular hole and we just keep beating more on that square peg, trying to get it to fit that. I'd love the sponsor to share Any thoughts on, on that, That Senator Millner?

Yes. Thank you very much for that. Um, you, you're right, kids can't read for different reasons and they actually need oftentimes individualized reading plans that they can, what we do with one child may not be what's gonna work with another child. So the focus of this is to try to start doing that in kindergarten. Dyslexia in particular is an issue. There is another bill that's being run that, uh, is going to focus on dyslexia screeners and being able to give more assistance to students who have dyslexia right now that would be part of the good cause exemption for a child to move on in, in this bill itself. I'm hopeful that we're gonna be able to help those children that have dyslexia in the future because of the other bill that's being run. But right now, until we establish a firm foundation there, this bill would be a good cause exemption for them.

Question. Just may comment. I think we're going in a positive direction and, you know, the filters and the assessments that we, we, we work down, uh, I appreciate the individual reading plan. I think that's a, a, a good, good direction for that, that to go. And this is a tough, tough area because I think we can really begin to move the bar and move the ball as we recognize that there's, and have then the resources as well available to do what we need to do with these children. So thank you.

Yes, I'm, go ahead. Senator Riebe. Thank you, Mr. President pro tem. Um, my school districts like this bill and I'm going to support it, but I do have some questions that I'd like to ask, uh, similar to what the questions are just asked online. 5 38 when we talk about our individualized reading plan. This, when we look at the science of reading, I mean, when we look at the data across the state, we, we see some patterns of who is not successful in our school districts. And usually it's students on five oh fours, IEPs, and then multi-language learners. So when we think about a, uh, a language learner, we give them a WIDA test and they need to score, um, between I think one in four. And then when they score three, they start to exit out of their WIDA plan. When you are learning to speak English and, uh, interact in English, you actually, uh, take seven years for you to acquire academic English language learning. So as we are thinking about our students that are trying to achieve in their elementary schools, we are actually going, we might actually be doing some unintended harm of keeping kids that are a WIDA score of one or two behind, when really it's just a language acquisition and not, um, an ability to read. It's the ability to read in the language that is just being introduced to them. And I know that we have like a ability to have a waiver, but this is doubly, um, painful for parents and students that are struggling to enter the country, assimilate to our culture. And then once again, navigate a school system when they're trying to acquire the language. This concerns me greatly. Uh, is there, is there some way that we can mitigate that? Students that are on a suite, a level of one and two will not be unintentionally left behind in this retention plan?

So there is a good cause exemption in here for if they have been in our system. Um, it's really trying to address English language learners, uh, and addressing that in the Good cause exemption piece. Uh, we've talked about whether or not they've, they've been in our system two or three years, uh, how that should fall in terms of good cause exemption. But I just wanna say it's really important for us to help these kids as long as we've had them in our schools long enough to work with them to help them if be able to read, if they're gonna be in public schools, it's important for them to be successful, that they're able to read English. And as, as much as we hope that everything is translated, et cetera, um, their success is gonna really be dependent. I'm somebody that believes that English language learners, we need to support, they are part of our at risk funding pool to help provide additional support for English language learners. But we really, really need to say, let's focus on helping them succeed, not focus on helping them not succeed.

Yes, thank you, Mr. President Pro Tem. Uh, my other question is similar lines about the five oh fours and the IEPs. Now, a student that has a processing era, um, processing issue really will never process at the same rate as other students. And a student that has a speech issue will not be as fluent as other students regardless of how much support we give them. And once again, you know, working in Title one schools, working with families in trauma, the families that sometimes fall into these categories really are not at the best level of capacity to receive the waiver of being taken out, of being retention. And I feel like this would almost be more harm to them than good if you're leaving them behind just because of something on a 5 0 4 an IEP. And so I, I just really am concerned that the ability to receive a waiver for a student who is really Not, it's not that they're not capable, it's just that they can't be measured in the same terms as speed and process as a a student that isn't on a 5 0 4 an IEP. And that concerns me greatly. I do believe we need to put more money into literacy, and I do believe we need to put more money into supporting these students that aren't succeeding at the same rate. But when we think about success, success isn't being a fast reader. Success isn't being a awesome reader. Success is being exposed to the language and the curriculum around them. Sometimes when I was in third grade, I was a terrible reader. I am now a much better reader. I read voraciously, but I feel like my twin sister would've been moved ahead and I would've been left behind because that just wasn't my wheelhouse in third grade. So this concerns me greatly. My last question and final question is, when we talk about how we're going to measure at or above grade level, um, you know, as somebody who administers those DIBELS tests, we have little green dots, we have yellow dots, red dots and blue dots. And a couple of years ago we went from green dots to blue dots. And that means we, we kind of left behind a lot of people. So are we measuring with the green dots, which is at level, or are we measuring with the blue dots, which means we are above level because I believe that students should really be measured across the country at the same level. And I think many of our peer states are measuring at the green instead of at the blue. So are we gonna have a measurement that is more in line with the United States, or are we gonna be a little bit above the national average? That is something that came up.

That that is something that also came up as an issue. Uh, the reality is we are gonna be those who are at green and up, meaning green and blue, uh, will be being benchmarked. That will allow us to more effectively compare ourselves to other states. Uh, what we found is we had a different benchmark than other states. So it's hard to compare yourself if you're using a different benchmark. So this is, this is the, this will include both green and blue. Your meeting benchmark. You may not be above benchmark, but your meeting benchmark and it'll be standardized across all of our systems. So our, our parents know, our students know, and our teachers more importantly, know what the benchmark is and know how to compare themselves. Um, and I actually, part of much of the confusion has come around, what are we measuring and it what benchmark? And I think this helps to simplify that. Um, uh, I, Mr. President, may I address another, uh, concern that Senator Riebe raised?

May i, may I address another concern that Senator Riebe raised? Sure. Yes. So in good cause exemptions, I do wanna say we had this discussion about acas is one way of measuring that when we get to third grade, there may be a student that just doesn't read as fast. Um, there are other tests that we can use to measure whether students reading at benchmark and that we would allow if they are not doing well in Acadian. But we think it's really indicative of Acadian as a testing system. There are comparable, uh, tests that we could give for that student to be able to demonstrate that they really are reading at grade level so they can move on. So we've made accommodation for students who, uh, for whatever reason, uh, they can perform well on another, uh, reading achievement tests, but not as well on Acadians.

Yes. Uh, I'd just like to say one more thing in closing. You know, this is $16 million that really we wanna be dedicating towards our students and getting them ahead. And one of the concerns that my teachers brought up is this individualized reading plan. You know, as a teacher, we have the best intentions of, you know, we're gonna make a plan. We're gonna fill out a bunch of paperwork, we're gonna talk to each other. And while we're filling out those pieces of paper and doing those plans, we actually aren't doing what we intended on doing and is spending every one of those dollars on the students that needed it the most. So, uh, a few of my teachers came up to me and they were concerned that they had to come up with a plan. And thinking that how much time and energy would be spent on this plan instead of working with students was something that I heard frequently. So I, I hope that our school districts can be lenient on the plan and more on their proactive actions. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, my, my questions are actually something that Senator Riebe had brought up, but I, what I'd like is, um, to ask the sponsor to, um, address that, that in my district, some of the schools might have 60 to 80% of the kids who would, uh, fall be below, um, the success, um, line. And so when we're talking about the in individual reading plan, um, we are talking about a, a great number of meetings. Um, and so that cost, uh, to student and teachers time, and especially this is, especially if it's during class time, um, needs to be addressed, uh, as well as the cost of hiring subs, um, during the time that the teachers might be in an individual reading plan meeting, um, as well as the logistics of scheduling the meetings. And this is, you know, especially if the child also has an IEP, which we probably would see some overlap there. So my question is whether is if the, um, good sponsor could address these issues and address whether it would be better, the time is better spent on the actual interventions.

So first of all, let me tell you that, um, also in addition to the 16 million for paraprofessionals, part of what happens here is there's money that's been at for training and for, um, coaching, um, that will be distributed out to the, the districts on a formula basis. So they'll be able to decide where they need to put resources for supporting training and supporting, uh, coaching and support for students. The goal of this individual reading plan is not to write up a big reading plan. It's to say, here are two or three things that we can do with this student. We're gonna talk to the parent. Maybe this is something the parent can do at home. Maybe we wanna make sure that this student gets, uh, put into physician tutoring. It's not, this is not an IEP. And I think sometimes people are thinking that this is like an IEP, it's not an IEP, but it is an intentional way of saying, let's help a student who's not reading at grade level. Let's think about what interventions will help them. And let's, let's in parent teacher conference, let's talk with the parent, uh, about what they can do. And then let's talk to them about what we can do. And particularly with paraprofessionals trained paraprofessional support to help them. Thank you Mr. President. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Um, Mr. President, I don't think there's anything more important that we can do in schools than help our kids learn to read. It is foundational for everything else. If you think about your life, you think about what you could or couldn't do if you couldn't read this year, last year. This, I understand. We ask our schools to do a lot. What I'm asking us to do here is to prioritize reading above all and to say, if we're gonna going to do something right, if we're gonna make sure that we give every child the opportunity to succeed, then they need to be able to read. We know that the research is really clear about that. And as the governor said, and he got this from, um, from an article, reading at third grade level is a policy decision. It's a policy decision that we are making as a state. Is it important for us that we help every child that we can succeed at reading at the end of third grade so they can be successful in life? And I think that the answer to that question needs to be yes, we need to prioritize reading. It needs to be first and foremost, particularly for children from K to third grade. And yes, math is important. Yes, lots of other things are important, but if they can't read, it's gonna be very, very hard for them to have opportunity later on. And this, I think, allows us to focus everyone on reading. It's been interesting to me. Some conversations I've had with different staff as we've been working on this. People said, now I know what my kids' Acadian score is. I never knew that before. Um, this provides focus for everyone to say we need to pay attention. Parents need to pay attention, teachers need to pay attention, and elementary schools need to pay attention and we need to provide the intervention and support that's gonna help every child succeed with that. I call the question

Thank you Mr. President. Um, when I explain my vote, I, I appreciate the work put into this bill. Um, and I think I a hundred percent agree that it's, it is a policy piece to have all of our children be able to read that level. We'll also, just because my district, I've been hearing from my district, there is some concerns and, um, some of the pieces have been added on delayed of implementation and, um, you know, starting with the kindergarten group moving forward, I think will help, um, you know, address some of those concerns. At the same time. I, I think you, you know, um, the good senator, uh, from Ogden that's been working for her entire career here on this issue knows I, and and recognizes how, you know, their children may be hungry, children may be hurting medically for other issues, or there may be facing situations at home. So I, recognizing the whole child, I think is important. Having the adequate tools ready to help them so they can address, you know, uh, issues such as dyslexia, which I know they're coming on a different bill and that's exciting. Will help us, um, get closer to that. I will be supporting the bill is moving us in the right direction. And also I think that it will be important to, um, help bring a quality of life for all children in Utah addressing all their concerns. 'cause at the end of the day, whether it's for reading or for food, it is not up to the kiddos. They need the help of the adults and that's why we're here. So I'll be voting. Aye.

President Proti. We had a long discussion about this bill yesterday, um, but I just wanted to share the story of, uh, a principal at Mona Elementary School. Um, her name is Brandi Webster. And what she said is she got her teachers together, they started focusing on how do we help every children, every child learn to read? And she said, we set a goal and we turned around and said to ourselves, how can we leave any child behind? If we look at the children in our schools, how can we do that? Our, our own personal goal is to help every child read at grade level by the end of third grade because we wanna give them the opportunity to succeed in life. And the goal of this bill is to provide intervention, conversation and support for parents and students and teachers to help make that happen for every child. And with that, I'm open to questions.

Senator Vickers, Baldy Lewin Rammer bus Cullimore Escamilla Aye.

Fillmore, Um, Senator Fillmore,

You I I'd like to explain my vote here. Um, you know, in, uh, a week and a few days. We'll, you know, I think we'll take turns standing up and recognizing the great contribution that Senator Millner has made to our body over 12 years. Uh, and this bill is a wonderful example of why. So I'm just gonna give my last night speech tonight for just a second. That there is nobody else in this body, uh, and I dare say in either body in the time that I have been here, who has just the, the confidence, uh, of all parties involved, the skillsets to be able to tackle big issues like this. This has gotta be her third bill on this, that she has had a vision to lay out. How are we going to walk to the point where every third grader in our state is reading at grade level. And I just, uh, I am proud to have known her and to have been, uh, you know, her colleague for for 10 years or so. I am very impressed with the work that she's done on this bill and other education bills and, uh, I don't we'll miss her in the body. And again, this bill is a perfect example of why I vote. Aye.

Senator Vickers. Grover Harper Aye. Hankins Ipson Aye. Johnson Aye. Quan McKay? Aye. Mikel Aye.

Milner,

I wanna explain my vote. Senator Millner, Um, I just wanna say this work doesn't happen. One of the things that I learned very quickly is you're one out of 104. Um, it takes many people and many colleagues here to come together to get anything big done. And I wanna say thank you to my colleagues, uh, for, um, coming along with me and big issues that I think are important for the children of the state. And, but it's also a credit to the entire team of the Senate, so thank you. Aye.

Senator Vickers Musselman Owens Pitcher Plum Rebe Aye. Sandal Stevenson Stratton Aye. Vickers Aye. Weiler Aye. Wilson. Aye.

Thank you. I'd like to move amendment one in my name.

Yes. So this amendment came from some of our school districts who, um, had some questions about how special education students this would be applicable to them. And this is a clar. Um, some clarification on if a student's on an IEP or a 5 0 4, that there are different, uh, ways that we'll think about how, uh, we do their early literacy intervention efforts for those students specifically.

Waive. Thank you. The

Thank you. So, uh, earlier this year, we had a new Kem Gardner report come out, specifically focused on early literacy. And, um, while we have amazing teachers in our state, they're doing incredible work, amazing families and incredible students, it was clear that we can do more. There's more that we can do to ensure that our children read. And if we wanna talk about the role and responsibility of our school system, one of the most important things we can do is create a strong foundation in literacy for our students. And so this bill, um, thinks about what more can we do as a state to ensure, especially our students K through three are reading. We know that also early literacy efforts before students get to kindergarten are also important. And we have some work that we're doing with some private philanthropy to, um, help parents just have tools and resources, um, to get their students ready for school. But once they hit our school doors, um, what can we do to ensure that they are, um, progressing and reading and having growth, uh, in literacy? So this bill does four things. The first is, um, it identifies students who are, who are below benchmarks in K through three. And then it gives us an opportunity to create an individual reading plan for that student. And that team that will create the individualized reading plan will also include their parents. So it'll include parents, it'll include specialists if they have an IEP, any special educations, um, support staff all will come together to say, what is it that this student needs to get them there. This could also include text testing for, or screening for dyslexia. And we passed some important legislation earlier this session that will also give us that opportunity, um, to provide that for our students. Um, the second thing that Bill does is it increases, um, evidence-based instruction by additional, providing additional training to our teachers and our paraprofessionals. It also expands the number of trained professionals in our schools. We know that our, we have large class sizes in our state, we have a lot of students, and this also just puts more personnel in our schools who are trained to help with this, um, reading interventions. And then finally, it works with our teacher preparation programs to ensure that as teachers come through our higher education system, before they even hit our classroom, that they're trained in the most current science on how to teach reading, um, and that they know how to apply that in a classroom. So those are the four important things it does. I just wanna mention one last thing, which is probably the thing you've heard about the most related to this bill, which is around retention. So retention is a tool. It is one tool in our toolbox of ways we can work with students to make sure they can read the bill, um, talks about when retention is appropriate, when it's not, and how parents can engage in that decision and that process. So if you've heard about that, there's a number of good cause exemptions outlined in the bill. Um, and also know that parents are part of this conversation because we're bringing them in early. When we create these plans, they're required to be at the table, they're required to have the conversations with us. Um, but it just is an option. I just spoke with a parent recently who asked, how can I get my child retained in first grade? They are not ready. Um, and so often that is actually the desire of a parent. So if that's the bill, I'm open to. Any questions? Mr. Speaker Pro Tem.

Uh, I'd really appreciate your support on this bill. It's an important piece of legislation and I really think, um, the more we can, uh, invest early in our students, the less we invest later. Um, because they're ready to read and they're ready to learn. Thank you so much.

Motion to Concur. Uh, there are only two small changes. One was expanding the good cause exemption for students with disabilities and a very slight tweak to the budget. Uh, with that I would move that we concur.

Under suspension of the rules, I I would like to reconsider our actions on SB 1 53. Substitute three.

Okay, I, I move that we reconsider our actions on Senate bill 1 53 Substitute four.