{"id":5926,"date":"2023-09-28T22:27:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T22:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5926"},"modified":"2023-09-28T23:10:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T23:10:41","slug":"irg-promises-oversight-on-50-million-in-literacy-efforts-as-dpi-announces-literacy-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5926","title":{"rendered":"IRG Promises Oversight on $50 Million in Literacy Efforts as DPI Announces Literacy Council\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/irg-promises-oversight-on-50-million-in-literacy-efforts-as-dpi-announces-literacy-council\/<\/a><\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/span><\/p>\n

September 28, 2023\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

IRG Promises Oversight on $50 Million in Literacy Efforts as DPI Announces Literacy Council\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Nine members of Literacy Council announced \u2013 will choose new curricula by December 1st<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

DELAFIELD, WI <\/b>\u2013 <\/span>Today, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> a 9-member Council on Early Literacy Curricula. Cooperatively chosen by Speaker Vos, Majority Leader LeMahieu, and Superintendent Underly, the members include four members from district schools, one CESA member, one charter member, one member with a dyslexia background, one member with a tutoring background, and one member with a policy background. All regions of the state are represented. A voucher school employee is not represented on the Council.<\/span><\/p>\n

This summer, Republican lawmakers led a <\/span>$50 million educational investment<\/span><\/a> to help schools transition to the <\/span>\u201cscience of reading,\u201d<\/span><\/a> a phonics-based method that has delivered <\/span>miraculous, sustained results<\/span><\/a> in leading states.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Council\u2019s primary task is to determine which reading curricula qualify for that $50 million investment.<\/span><\/p>\n

WHY DOES IT MATTER?<\/b><\/p>\n

This decision affects every district, charter, and voucher elementary school in the state, as the woeful <\/span>\u201cbalanced literacy\u201d<\/span><\/a> method practiced in most Wisconsin schools will be banned beginning in the 2024-2025 school year. As federal ESSER III relief runs out, schools will rely on the $50 million to comply.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wisconsin schools rank <\/span>below average<\/span><\/a> nationally in reading, and Black students in <\/span>Wisconsin<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Milwaukee<\/span><\/a> routinely score last in America compared to their Black peers.<\/span><\/p>\n

WHAT IS IRG\u2019S TAKE?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIRG is pleased to see science of reading advocates and charter schools lead Wisconsin\u2019s rise to #1 in reading. We thank Wisconsin\u2019s leadership for including some well-respected names in literacy.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

We invite those chosen to seek input from high-performing voucher schools as well as experts in Spanish and Hmong bilingualism. IRG will work to get those critical voices taken seriously as Wisconsin takes up this transformational upgrade.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

IRG also vows to monitor the successful implementation of Right to Read. IRG already has serious concerns about DPI\u2019s narrow oversight of $50 million in reading transition funds. IRG will help inform the public of necessary-but-narrow ways DPI can be sure schools do what they were funded to do.\u201d \u2013<\/span><\/i> IRG Senior Research Director Quinton Klabon<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

WHAT IS NEXT?<\/b><\/p>\n

The Council has until December 1st to approve curricula.<\/span><\/p>\n

IRG will provide information to the public about how to guide DPI through 2024\u2019s literacy inflection points. Among other dangers, IRG has <\/span>identified<\/span><\/a> that DPI will not track whether teachers required by law to retrain in the Council\u2019s new curricula do so, a <\/span>key component<\/span><\/a> of successful state reforms. It is also unclear whether DPI will confirm that schools transition to a Council-approved curriculum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without these safeguards, Wisconsin will waste <\/span>millions of dollars<\/span><\/a> on <\/span>reforms<\/span><\/a> due to <\/span>lack<\/span><\/a> of<\/span><\/a> oversight<\/span><\/a> as Colorado did, extending the reading wars for many more years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have questions? <\/i><\/b>Reach out to IRG\u2019s Quinton Klabon at <\/span><\/i>[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/a>. Support Wisconsin\u2019s students.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

###<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Institute for Reforming Government is a Wisconsin-based 501(c)3 non-profit think tank that supports free markets, effective government, and high-quality schools. Learn more about the Institute for Reforming Government <\/span><\/i>here<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/irg-promises-oversight-on-50-million-in-literacy-efforts-as-dpi-announces-literacy-council\/ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 28, 2023\u00a0 IRG Promises Oversight…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":3264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-institute-for-reforming-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5927,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5926\/revisions\/5927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}