Title: An act relating to reading readiness.

Brief Description: Creating the "ready to read" community assistance program.

Sponsors: Representatives Talcott, McDermott, Shabro, Haigh, Anderson, Flannigan, Tom, Kenney, Kagi and Santos.

Brief History:

Education: 2/24/05, 3/1/05 [DPS].

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Majority Report: The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass. Signed by 11 members: Representatives Quall, Chair; P. Sullivan, Vice Chair; Talcott, Ranking Minority Member; Anderson, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Curtis, Haigh, Hunter, McDermott, Santos, Shabro and Tom.

Staff: Susan Morrissey (786-7111).

Background:

In 1995, the Kennewick School District adopted a goal of having 90 percent of the district's students reading at or above grade level by the end of the third grade by 1999. The district's goal preceeded the academic goals adopted in the federal "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001." Under the federal goals, almost all students must meet or exceed state standards in reading, writing, mathematics, and science by 2014.

The district is making progress toward its goals and the goals of the federal law. In 1995, 57 percent of the district's elementary students were reading at or above grade level. In 2004, 88 percent of its elementary school students were reading at or above the state standards. The district attributes these gains to many factors, including leadership, excellent instruction, data systems, diagnostic testing, focused teaching to address skill gaps, and retesting. It has also partnered with parents and community organizations, including the National Children's Reading Foundation, to help children come to kindergarten prepared to read.

Summary of Substitute Bill:

The Ready to Read Community Assistance Program is established in the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The purpose of the program is to encourage local public-private partnerships that enhance preliteracy and reading readiness efforts and respect other cultures.

The program will prepare and distribute one or more models to stimulate community support for preliteracy foundations. It will also stimulate efforts both to introduce parents and other significant adults in a child's life to the importance of reading and other preliteracy activities and educate them about child development and literacy.

Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:

The language is refined to acknowledge the important role that caring and other significant adults play in a young child's life. The program will support efforts in which respect is shown for other cultures.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Available.

Effective Date of Substitute Bill: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For: (In support of original bill) Children come to school with wide variations in their readiness to learn to read. The gaps between these children often continue as achievement gaps throughout school and beyond. In order to address these achievement gaps, the Kennewick School District has created a research-based early literacy model that puts parents first. The model is powerful, effective, and replicable. One of its components is a nonprofit reading foundation that has been replicated in the South Sound area. Through the foundations, the parents of newborns receive books and baby book bags. The parents are encouraged and supported to read to their children for at least 20 minutes a day. They are also provided with activities that help children learn while they're having fun. The foundations are based on public-private partnerships that support and sustain these early literacy efforts. This legislation would have the state make a modest investment by providing a coordinator who could support local efforts to replicate the reading foundations throughout the state.

Testimony Against: None.

Persons Testifying: (In support of original bill) Representative Talcott, prime sponsor; Courtney Schrieve, South Sound Reading Foundation; Rainer Houser, Association of Washington School Principals; and Christie Perkins, Washington State Special Education Coalition..

Persons Signed In To Testify But Not Testifying: None.