AB 321

Early Literacy Instruction

Office of Literacy and literacy coaches

This bill establishes the Office of Literacy in the Department of Public

Instruction, to be led by a director who is appointed by the state superintendent of

public instruction after consultation with the Council on Early Literacy Curricula

and subject to the advice and consent of the senate and who serves at the pleasure

of the state superintendent. Under the bill, the Office of Literacy must establish and

supervise a literacy coaching program to improve literacy outcomes in this state.

Specifically, the Office of Literacy, in consultation with cooperative educational

service agencies, must contract for up to 64 full-time equivalent literacy coaches.

Literacy coaches must demonstrate knowledge and expertise in science-based early

literacy instruction and instructional practices and have instructional experience in

grades kindergarten to 12. In addition, the Office of Literacy must provide ongoing

training on science-based early literacy instruction and instructional practices and

supervision to literacy coaches and must prohibit literacy coaches from using

three-cueing.

The bill requires the Office of Literacy to assign one-half of the literacy coaches

to schools based on pupil scores on the third grade reading assessment and one-half

of the literacy coaches to schools that request early literacy support. The latter half

of the literacy coaches must be dispersed evenly among cooperative educational

service agency regions. However, the bill prohibits assigning more than a total of 10

literacy coaches to a first class city school district and more than a total of four

literacy coaches to a school district that is not a first class city school district and

requires that no fewer than three literacy coaches be assigned to each cooperative

educational service agency region. Additionally, the Office of Literacy must ensure

that a school to which a literacy coach is assigned does not request or require that

the literacy coach perform duties outside the individual's role as a literacy coach, as

described in the bill.

Under the bill, the Office of Literacy must submit an annual report to the Joint

Committee on Finance on various aspects of the literacy coaching program during

the previous school year, including the number of literacy coaches, the number of

schools that were assigned a literacy coach, pupil scores on reading readiness

assessments and the third grade reading assessment in those schools, and

information on the training provided to the literacy coaches.

Finally, under the bill, the Office of Literacy and the literacy coaching program

sunset on July 1, 2028.

Council on Early Literacy Curricula; recommended curricula and

instructional materials

The bill creates the Council on Early Literacy Curricula in DPI to recommend

literacy curricula and instructional materials for use in grades kindergarten to