Over half of Ohio’s lowest-performing districts in reading proficiency of 3rd graders will need to change their curriculum to come in line with new state standards on the science of reading, according to an analysis by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
In the 2022-23 school year, 34 of those 60 districts used curricula either not aligned or only partially aligned with the state’s latest literacy reforms.
In May, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce approved instructional materials aligned with the updated standards approved last year. The new materials are to be implemented by the 2024-25 school year.
For this upcoming year, the districts and charter schools using unaligned curriculum received more state funds for new materials, according to Fordham, a nonprofit education policy think tank.
In fact, most of the state’s $64 million designated for instructional materials went to districts needing to make major curriculum changes in reading. Districts that were using nonaligned materials in 2022-23 received an average of $121 in state funds per pre-K-5 student. Meanwhile, districts already using approved curriculum got $37 per student.
With two out of every five Ohio 3rd graders unable to read proficiently, schools in the state are now required to follow the science of reading by the 2024-25 school year per Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget plan approved by legislators in July 2023.
To help Ohio schools make the transition, lawmakers allocated $169 million to implement the literacy approach, which focuses on phonics to help students decode words and learn vocabulary content for better reading comprehension. Those state funds were budgeted for instructional materials, professional development and literacy coaching.
The state plan also banned curriculum promoting three-cueing, which prompts students to guess words using three types of cues rather than sounding them out.
One-third of traditional Ohio districts are already following the new state requirements, Fordham said. Urban school districts were the most likely to do so, at 42%, while suburban districts and charters were the least likely, at 23% and 28%, respectively.
“Ohio has wisely kept notoriously weak ELA [English language arts] curricula off of its state-approved list,” the Fordham report said.
As of May, the approved list by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce included programs such as “Core Knowledge Language Arts,” “EL Education,” and “Wit & Wisdom,” Fordham found. The state agency also excluded programs dubbed less effective by Fordham that promoted three-cueing, like Fountas & Pinnell’s “Classroom” and Lucy Calkins’ “Units of Study.”
Ohio’s literacy curriculum reform comes as other states are leaning into investing more in scientifically based reading instruction as well.
Oregon, for instance, has invested millions of dollars into adjusting curriculum to better align with the science of reading. More than 250 schools throughout the state are using a total of $90 million in state grants for this effort.
As of January, 12 states including Florida, Virginia and Colorado had strong policies for building teacher capacity to implement the science of reading, according to a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality. On the flip side, NCTQ said 19 states lacked strong policies to support effective reading lessons.
