SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Illinois lawmakers passed a plan this spring to create a statewide literacy plan to help young people become proficient readers. That proposal arrived on Gov. JB Pritzker's desk last week, but the State Board of Education had a head start and released the first draft of the comprehensive plan Wednesday.

Almost 40% of fourth graders in Illinois read below their grade level, according to the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition. ISBE has also acknowledged that some students are disproportionately impacted by the current standards.

Lawmakers and advocates hope the 54-page plan can get students back on track. Many believe the new literacy plan should consider core instruction practices and guidance for intervention with at-risk students.

"The literacy plan, I would say, is an incredibly overwhelming feat to encapsulate everything that we want to happen with schools in the state around improving literacy," said Jessica Handy, Executive Director of Stand for Children Illinois.

ISBE stated that literacy development is not hard-wired into a child's brain and requires purposeful instruction because it is not a natural process. The first draft of this plan provides a framework for teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension from birth through high school. 

"Teachers are increasingly frustrated because they weren't taught this in their teacher prep programs and they are having to then go pay out-of-pocket for additional training if they want to help these students," said Kellyn Sirach, a reading content specialist with the Illinois Specific Learning Disability Support Project. "Everybody says that teachers have big huge hearts. Yes, but it's not fair to have to pay out of your own pocket and be in a place that, perhaps, your school district administration don't see literacy as the thing that students need to succeed.

Sirach said she has encountered many teachers that want to learn more to help their students. Her organization develops and provides free educational resources to teachers so they can bring those skills back to the classroom.

Teachers and advocates are glad to see ISBE is also emphasizing the importance of high-quality, diverse, and culturally inclusive materials. They stressed that the literacy plan needs to provide support for bilingual students and their families.

"It is really important that we have those five pillars and that we understand, for our multilingual learners, oral language development is going to be really important too," said Kim Tate, a dual language teacher with Champaign Unit 4 schools.

ISBE will be holding a listening tour for people to share their thoughts on the first draft of the plan. Board members will host the first session at their Springfield office next Wednesday from 1-4 p.m. There will also be listening sessions in Chicago, Rockford, and Mt. Vernon before a virtual discussion on July 31.

Staff plan to have a revised literacy plan ready for board members this fall. They will also hold a second round of listening sessions before the plan is finalized in January. 

"It's not going to be heavy-handed or mandated by state law. We're not creating a curricular guidance list. We're not doing those sort of things," Handy explained. "But, let's make sure that this plan really does spell out what literacy instruction should look like. What is the state board's vision for how we are going to improve our literacy outcomes in Illinois?"

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