What these provisions do:

1. …exactly what some critics of this legislation cite as most effective: ensures a broader approach to reading that recognizes the different learning styles and reading abilities of children. It addresses the critical need for teachers to have a variety of the very best tools in their tool belt when it comes to working with struggling readers.

2. …focuses on the five strands, or five big ideas, that the National Reading Panel concluded in 2000 were the most effective reading strategies for struggling readers. In Minnesota, State Statute122A.06 already recognizes these strategies and SS 122A.18 requires they be taught in our teacher colleges.

3. …will address the concerns we have heard that too many young teachers felt they were not prepared and did not have the skills to identify and teach the over 30% of children in their classrooms who are struggling to read. School districts find they must send new teachers to basic literacy workshops before they even enter the classroom. Of the five strands, teachers have told us that they felt the least prepared to teach phonemic awareness and phonics.

4. .… calls for the Board of Teaching to adopt a reading assessment to ensure teachers graduating from teacher colleges are competent in the comprehensive, research-based reading strategies that are already in statute. On the current PRAXIS test required for licensure in Minnesota, only ten of the 120 questions assess reading instruction skills of new teachers. A candidate could miss all of these questions, still pass and be licensed to teach. Please also note that college classes in the teaching of reading make up only 5% of undergraduate coursework for pre-service teachers.

What these provisions do NOT do:

1. …does not limit, restrict, replace, exclude, narrow or put less emphasis on current best practices in reading instruction or mandate certain instructional strategies must be used with all or some children. That language is nowhere in our legislation. Nowhere in our bill does it state or endorse "one-right way of teaching reading." There is a great misperception that this bill focuses solely on the teaching of phonemic awareness and phonics and that is incorrect.

Please note Minnesota Statute 120B.12 allows each school district to select the intervention methods or programs to be used with students who are at risk of not being able to read by the end of second grade. This legislation will not cause school districts to change their curriculum. I

2. …will not require teachers who are already licensed to take a new reading assessment for relicensure. However, the authors do support ongoing staff development that ensures teachers have ongoing opportunities to improve reading instruction.

3. …will not require teacher licensure candidates to take and/or pay for another test. The legislation specifically states that the Board of Teaching may incorporate the requirements of the new reading assessment into other teacher licensure examinations.

4. The legislation does not undermine, stop, ignore, or challenge the important work being done by the Board of Teaching Reading Standards Task Force. The authors have attended meetings of this task force and also have received updates on its work to develop reading standards for our teachers. The group has spent over a year trying to come to consensus regarding the standards and competencies required of teachers, both general education teachers and reading specialists, who teach reading.