Maryland education leaders are ushering in a new literacy plan meant to boost student success as part of the statewide shift to the science of reading.
At a board meeting Tuesday, 11 members voted in favor of adopting the fourth version of the policy, with only one member opposing the measure. In June, the original draft faced heavy criticism because of a section requiring schools to hold back struggling third-graders for a repeated school year.
After receiving over one thousand public comments, state leaders softened the measure in August – now giving parents the final say. Instead of a repeated school year, called “retention,” caregivers can opt for extra tutoring or summer learning programs after being contacted multiple times by school leaders about their students’ needs.
But board member Xiomara Medina, the only opposition vote, said she’s still concerned that the most disadvantaged students will suffer.
“If the caregiver does not engage or respond, the default result would be the retention,” she said Tuesday.
Local districts are already struggling with family engagement, Medina added.
“I think what's needed is a clearly-defined plan with strategies that [local districts] can follow to increase that engagement in order for this parent choice piece to be implemented with fidelity,” she said. “Otherwise, I fear that this default option will negatively impact our neediest students.”
The goal of the new literacy plan is to have every student on-track to achieve reading proficiency by the end of third grade. In the 2023-2024 school year, over half of Maryland third-graders didn’t hit that mark on the state standardized assessment, with even lower rates of success for Black and Hispanic students and those with disabilities.
Under the newly-adopted policy, schools will start testing student reading progress three times a year starting in fall 2026. Those identified as falling behind will receive an individualized reading support plan to give their skills a boost.
But at Tuesday’s meeting, local advocates pointed out that the policy doesn’t require drafting new intervention plans for students with disabilities. Instead, it relies on their existing individualized education plans (IEPs) to carry the load.
Liz Zogby, a Maryland advocate for students with disabilities, said IEPs often only include one or two reading goals – not a “comprehensive set of interventions and supports that target all areas of reading deficits.”
“Students with IEPs will easily be excluded if they are not intentionally included,” she said.
State literacy nonprofit Maryland READS praised the new policy in an emailed statement Tuesday, applauding the state board and Superintendent Carey Wright “for taking swift and decisive action to address the reading crisis in Maryland.”
But the group also called the policy “imperfect,” and urged state leaders to establish a monthly task force to “fine-tune the policy and its rollout.”