Reading Achievement

There are serious problems with reading achievement in Brevard County Public Schools. The third-grade language arts exam is considered a "gatekeeper" state-mandated test because it is a deciding factor regarding whether students can move on to the fourth grade. Last year, 44% of children could not pass this important state reading test, and over 2,000 third graders were at risk of being held back. This is up from 42% just the year before!

This is an alarming problem because children who cannot read by third grade face significant hardships in their education. They are four times less likely to graduate high school. For children living in poverty, the long term impact of lower reading achievement is even worse. Low-income children not reading by third grade are 13 times less likely to graduate from high school. Our kids deserve a better, brighter future!

Since BRIGHT began studying reading achievement in 2022, we have learned that reading is a skill that has to be taught. However, this is not a teacher problem. Our teachers are dedicated, hardworking, and committed.

BRIGHT’s education committee has met with public school officials and national experts in this field to better understand how people learn to read, why some have difficulty, and how we can more effectively assess and teach reading. In this process, BRIGHT learned about the science of reading, a growing body of research spanning over five decades which determines methods that best help children learn to read.

Our education committee began to look at Brevard’s own reading instruction curriculum and found that it does not fully align with the science of reading. Some reading curriculum is based on the “3 Cueing Strategy” and utilizes balanced literacy. The science of reading has widely debunked the 3 cueing strategy showing it to be less effective in teaching children to read. Evidence-based instruction that utilizes the science of reading has been proven to be more effective.

One example of the success of this kind of curriculum comes from the state of Mississippi. Called the “Mississippi Miracle”, a Mississippi statewide initiative has been in place over the past ten years that has significantly raised reading achievement. The “Mississippi Miracle” organized the entire education department to focus on implementing literacy standards backed by the science of reading. Holly Korbey, a reading researcher and journalist, examined this initiative and found that Mississippi’s statewide fourth-grade reading scores rose by ten points. Between 2013 and 2019, the state showed more growth in reading than any other state, and Mississippi was one of the few states whose reading scores bounced back in 2022 after prolonged Covid school closures. The same success is possible in Brevard County!

At our 2023 Nehemiah Action Assembly, we won commitments from three school board members to hire a School Superintendent who supports science of reading backed curriculum and to meet with BRIGHT regularly to ensure we are making progress on this issue. We still need more people power to win on this issue and implement a curriculum that helps every Brevard County student learn to read - so don’t miss the 2024 Nehemiah Action Assembly on April 15th at 7:00pm at Suntree United Methodist Church!