The Alaska Reads Act - it’s working!
Alaskans took a brave step forward in 2022, implementing the Alaska Reads Act. The results are in, it was not just another run of the mill education initiative. It’s working!
If a child does not learn to read by the third grade, the odds are stacked against them. When children enter the fourth grade without learning to read proficiently, they begin to slide into the high school dropout track. The ability to read by third grade is key to future success in school, life-long earning potential, and their ability to contribute to our state’s economy.
Credit: Renaissance/23% of Third Graders
Too many Alaskan students have fallen through the cracks. With reading proficiency rates commonly less than 50% by third grade across many Alaskan schools, legislators knew they needed to make a change. Unfortunately, not everyone was on board with accountability. Everyone wanted to see improvement in reading proficiency, but in the end, some House legislators too narrowly focused on increasing school funding and voted NO to the final Alaska Reads Act.
YEAS: 21 NAYS: 19 EXCUSED: 0 ABSENT: 0
Yeas: Cronk, Foster, Gillham, Johnson, Kaufman, LeBon, McCabe, McCarty, McKay, Nelson, Patkotak, Prax, Rasmussen, Rauscher, Shaw, Stutes, Tarr, Thompson, Tilton, Tuck, Vance
Nays: Carpenter, Claman, Drummond, Eastman, Edgmon, Fields, Hannan, Hopkins, Josephson, Kreiss-Tomkins, Kurka, Merrick, Ortiz, Schrage, Snyder, Spohnholz, Story, Wool, Zulkosky
Alaska Reads Act HB114 Regulations
This bill was long in the making, and it did not follow a straight line path. Governor Dunleavy and Democratic Senator Tom Begich initially presented the bipartisan Alaska Reads Act concept back in 2020. After two full years of political wrangling over details and funding, HB114 finally emerged and was passed in May of 2022.
While some legislators wanted more dedicated education funding, some just wanted to start down the path of accountability. Thankfully the YEAS took it, and the new reading programs began to take shape.
Signed into law by Governor Mike Dunleavy in June 2022, the Alaska Reads Act created four new programs to help our Alaskan students learn to read by the end of third grade.
District Reading Intervention Program
Department Reading Program
Early Education Programs
Alaska Distance Learning Consortium
While some of these programs may look recycled from previous initiatives, the Alaska Reads Act provided a renewed focus on evidence-based reading strategies and accountability. Moving a child up to the next grade level, without meeting the reading proficiency benchmark has unfortunate but not unexpected consequences. Holding schools and parents accountable is working.
At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, only 41% of Alaskan K-3 students met early literacy benchmarks. By the end of the school year, 57% of these students met benchmarks. Among kindergarten students, proficiency rates increased from 24% to 60% throughout the school year.
With an early literacy screener that’s used nation-wide, mCLASS has allowed the State to track Alaskan student progress while ensuring we’re on track nation-wide. Early results are indicative of significant improvements in Alaskan children, not seen in other parts of America.
Alaskan schools have a long way to collectively bring our children up to where they need to be.
It cannot be stressed enough though, grandparents, parents, aunties, uncles, cousins, siblings, please read with the children in your home. Start when they are very small.
The results will be monumental!
