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EAG Creates Literacy Justice Coalition Wisconsin

by | Aug 27, 2025 | Advocacy, RJAC Racial Justice for All Children, Schools, Youth, Schools, Education

EAG Creates Literacy Justice Coalition Wisconsin 

By Judy Fitzgerald, Tracy Frank, and Shel Gross

For the past few years, the Education Advocacy Group (EAG) of the Racial Justice for All Children Task Force (RJAC) has focused on early literacy education and identifying students with dyslexia as high priority ways to narrow the school-to-prison pipeline. For decades, many children have not been taught with practices supported by what scientists have learned from the neuropsychological research on reading. Children not reading at grade level fall further and further behind as the material becomes more complex, and this can result in behavior issues, withdrawal, and/or emotional turmoil. A substantial portion of juvenile detainees are functionally  illiterate, as are about 75% of incarcerated individuals, making it harder for them to take part in employment opportunities or civil society. 

With this knowledge, MOSES took an official position in favor of Act 20, also known as the Right-to-Read Bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Evers on July 19, 2023. The position’s first two sentences have been the guideposts for the EAG’s work:

  • MOSES treasures the education and well-being of all our citizens, but most especially our treasured children.
  • MOSES believes that schools should be held accountable for teaching children to read.

Act 20 changed the way that Wisconsin children are taught to read, to align with reading science. It also changed the way that teachers are trained, requiring them to have completed an approved course in the linguistic foundations of reading. Literacy coaches are prescribed for the lowest performing districts. Screening tests are required three times a year for grades K5-3, and the results are to be communicated to the parents or guardians. If a student scores in the lowest 25%, a diagnostic assessment must be performed and a personalized reading plan (PRP) provided to the parents or guardians. An Early Literacy Curriculum Council (ELCC) was formed to choose the most effective curricula for districts to adopt, so that they could receive up to 50% reimbursement for their cost outlay. Importantly, the new law also requires districts to screen for dyslexia, if requested by a parent, guardian, or teacher. 

Due to a legal dispute between the governor and the legislature, the roughly $50 million allotted for implementation of Act 20 was not released until July 2025. But now the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) will be able to hire literacy coaches, reimburse districts for curriculum purchases, and support teacher training. 

The delay did not keep RJAC from advocating for the local adoption of Act 20 measures over the past two years. We met with school board members, administrators, and DPI staff to learn about implementation and to hold all parties accountable for it.

When several members of RJAC provided in-person testimony in the summer of 2023 in support of Act 20, seeds for important relationships with other state literacy advocates and organizations were planted. The EAG recognized that though these groups share an interest in improving early literacy education and preservice teacher training, they might not be familiar with each other’s work. While organizations need to focus on their own core missions, MOSES understands that “organized people” are key to developing our power to impact policy. This understanding led Tracy Frank to create a listserv of literacy advocates and organizations devoted to raising literacy rates in Wisconsin. 

Tracy led the first virtual meeting of the Literacy Justice Coalition Wisconsin on July 17, 2025, to learn what everyone was already doing and to plot future direction. Early childhood education, increasing the supply of tutors, and monitoring implementation of Act 20 were identified as crucial parts of the equation. Several coalition members want to hold an event in the fall to raise public awareness of the literacy crisis. When future legislation or funding is needed, the Literacy Justice Coalition Wisconsin is now in place to communicate and coordinate advocacy. If you would like to be added to the listserve or to work on the fall event, email Tracy Frank at jtracyfrank@me.com. 

 This fall, as every year, there are multiple reasons why many children enter the new school year already behind. Though teachers now are better trained in more effective methods, they still have the stress of teaching students with a variety of reading levels and resources in one classroom. Trained volunteer literacy tutors lessen a teacher’s load by working one-on-one with the students in the bottom half who do not qualify for the services of the reading interventionist or special education teacher. An effective, trained volunteer literacy tutor can help change the trajectory of a young person’s life, away from the illiteracy-to-prison pipeline. 

While MOSES is primarily an advocacy organization, we know many members of MOSES member congregations are moved to provide direct service in a variety of ways. If that is you, check the sidebar and consider one of the many volunteer literacy tutor training opportunities in Madison.

Literacy Tutoring Opportunities

The following organizations provide training and placement for literacy tutors. We do not know the current status of training slots at each organization. If you would like to talk about tutoring in general please feel free to contact Judy Fitzgerald, judithfitzgerald@fsm.northwestern.edu or Tracy Frank, jtracyfrank@me.com.

Goodman Center – START Literacy Initiative

Iris Patterson: (608) 204-8014; ipatterson@goodmancenter.org

https://www.goodmancenter.org/children-teens/start-literacy

Children’s Dyslexia Center

Director Kelly Kuenzi: (608) 252-4922

https://www.childrensdyslexiacenters.org/services/

One City Schools: (608) 531-2128

Volunteer information here.

Note: Even though in-person tutor training took place in August, there are other ways to get involved if you are interested. 

Schools of Hope: Madison

https://schoolsofhope.org/tutor/schools-of-hope-in-madison/

Schools of Hope provides tutors for: 

Thoreau School – Madison

Fluency Tutor Program

(608) 204-6940

 

Lowell School – Madison

Literacy Tutor Program

(608) 204-6600

Update on the Right to Read Bill (ACT 20)

by | Oct 30, 2024 | Advocacy, Information, RJAC Racial Justice for All Children, Schools

Update on the Right to Read Bill (ACT 20)

By Shel Gross and Tracy Frank

The Racial Justice for All Children committee (RJAC), and specifically the Education Advocacy Group (EAG), has been learning that advocacy work requires time, long-term commitment, nuanced inspection, and connections. Over the past few years, a lot has happened in the state and in our local community in the area of reading. In Wisconsin, fewer than 40% of students are proficient in reading by the end of third grade, and Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) has been hovering around that 40% as well.

In the summer of 2023, EAG worked to support the adoption of legislation that is now called ACT 20. This article traces a bit of the progress, and also the lack of progress, related to ACT 20, which is otherwise known as the Right to Read bill. RJAC lead Shel Gross, a longtime registered lobbyist in Wisconsin, knew that while the signing of that bill on July 19, 2023, was significant, it was not the end of our advocacy work. The good news was that the MMSD was ahead of the law and had adopted a science of reading-based curriculum that met the requirements of ACT 20 a couple of years earlier. Other area districts, including Sun Prairie Area School District (SPASD), had not made the required changes, so work there had to be done quickly. 

EAG was eager to do advocacy work to help implement the bill. This included advising on the hiring of a new UW-Madison School of Education dean, who will support the training required for new educators. It also involved connecting with Barb Novak, the new Department of Public Instruction (DPI) literacy director. 

EAG has been in communication with both MMSD and SPASD to help ensure that they are following Act 20’s requirements for keeping parents informed and for developing personal reading plans for students who are not yet proficient in reading. 

We kept a close eye on the work of the Early Literacy Curriculum Council (ELCC), which was charged with identifying literacy curriculum that would be eligible for state financial support, and we recognized their final approval of four comprehensive, knowledge-based curricula. However, while reviewing one of those curricula, Amplify CKLA, which was chosen by SPASD, EAG lead Tracy Frank and others living in the Sun Prairie community, as well as statewide Indigenous organizations, found serious concerns: that the knowledge-based components of the curriculum center history from a white male European perspective. When we asked the ELCC why this curriculum was approved, given these concerns, the ELCC reported that its criteria for approval did not include reviewing the content of the required knowledge components. 

In response to the Sun Prairie community’s concerns, the district created a committee to review and modify the newly purchased curriculum. This work was deeper and more costly than expected, and many outside consultants were involved. In the past few years, SPASD has been in the news for concerns about curriculum violence (i.e., when the curriculum used causes harm) and discipline decisions that are harmful to Black and brown students. As a result, EAG has met with district leaders and voiced concerns in multiple position statements to the district.

Now, EAG, with support from MOSES, has gone back to DPI and the ELCC with concerns that the CKLA curriculum does not meet another law, ACT 31. This law relates to American Indian education and also states that school districts must provide adequate instructional materials which reflect the cultural diversity and pluralistic nature of American society. While we are not yet assured that the review of curricula will have increased standards, there may be a trailer bill in the next budget cycle that EAG can engage in. The concern about the knowledge-based components of the curriculum was not on our radar as this process began, but it is well within the scope of MOSES’s work, because it impacts students’ sense of belonging: Do they see themselves in the content of their studies?

In addition, since the approval of ACT 20, the $50 million promised for reading coaches and reimbursement to districts purchasing curricula from the ELCC list has been held up in lawsuits and politics. The Joint Finance Committee has not released the money to date, which is also a big area of concern. 

At this time, EAG is eager to connect with parents in the community to help ensure that they are aware of the new expectations for personalized reading plans if their child is struggling. We are continuing our connection with the above school districts and all the statewide entities involved, as well as increasing our connections with other advocacy groups, so that we are prepared for future advocacy opportunities. 

We are optimistic for improved reading proficiency in our state, while we also know that there is much work to be done. We are currently looking for more people to join MOSES’s Education Advocacy Group, so that we can continue engaging in immediate advocacy as well as be ready to have a larger impact as opportunities arise. 

We encourage all within MOSES to know that while advocacy work is slow and the nuances can be very frustrating and confusing, there is good reason to stay strong, work together, and continue to press ahead with what will have the biggest impact. RJAC’s goal is to eradicate the school-to-prison pipeline, and we know that reading scores have a large impact on a student’s willingness to engage positively in the school environment. Keeping kids in the classroom and learning will help to keep them out of our prison system, and with that mission in mind, we march on together to a brighter future.