MMSD Takes Important Steps for Student Literacy
MMSD Takes Important Steps for Student Literacy
By Barbie Jackson and Shel Gross, Racial Justice for All Children Task Force (RJAC) Education Advocacy Group
The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD)’s proposed budget for 2024-’25 contains a very significant statement:
In MMSD, we believe reading is a moral imperative for all students. Rooted in our commitment to ensuring all students graduate ready for college, careers, and the community, all students in MMSD will receive high-quality, grade-level accelerated instruction. Therefore, we are being very intentional about our commitment to early literacy and providing experiences that engage, challenge, and support all learners. This is THE priority work of our district moving forward.
The budget backs up this commitment with an investment of almost $2 million to provide 20 teachers at the K-1 level to reduce class sizes. With smaller class sizes, students will be able to engage at higher rates with grade-level rigorous standards-based learning and will receive direct and targeted skill instruction in small groups more often.
Because MMSD has already made a commitment to implementing the Science of Reading, which has an emphasis on phonics, the above statement aligns MMSD with RJAC’s issue proposal on addressing dyslexia. Indeed, in a recent conversation with Gabriela Bell Jiménez, Ph.Dl, the MMSD director of K-5 literacy, we learned that the district is moving ahead with a number of the requirements laid out in last year’s Act 20, and in some cases it is going beyond them.
- While the state Department of Public Instruction has not yet identified a universal screener for literacy, MMSD continues to use FastBridge to screen its students.
- The required diagnostic assessment (as opposed to the universal screening) is embedded in the curriculum that the district has purchased to implement the Science of Reading, so it is already in place.
- While implementation of personalized reading plans is required by January under Act 20, MMSD will be prepared to start in the fall. Also, Act 20 requires this only for English-only students, but MMSD will do it for bilingual students as well.
- MMSD is working on materials for informing parents and the community.
- A lawsuit between the governor and the legislature that is holding up the funding associated with Act 20 will not directly impact MMSD, because it will not need curriculum money until next year and doesn’t need literacy coaches. Each MMSD elementary school already has a full-time coach.
Dr. Bell Jiménez assured us that the new superintendent, Joe Gothard, is on board with all this.
RJAC’s Education Advocacy Group will be reaching out to partners to discuss strategies for advocating on behalf of the district’s literacy efforts.