Legislature(2017 - 2018)BUTROVICH 205
02/05/2018 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB64 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 64 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
HB 64-READING PROFICIENCY TASK FORCE; DYSLEXIA
8:01:16 AM
CHAIR STEVENS announced the consideration of HB 64. [CSHB 64
(EDC) was before the committee.]
8:01:53 AM
PATRICK FITZGERALD, Staff, Representative Harriet Drummond,
Alaska State Legislature, presented information on HB 64 on
behalf of the sponsor. HB 64 is designed to assemble a task
force with members from each body of the legislature and members
of the public and nonprofits to strengthen reading proficiency
and find the best methods possible for teaching students with
dyslexia. The goals are to
• to evaluate reading instruction practices for all
public-school students in the state,
• diagnose treatment and education for children
affected by dyslexia,
• examine how current statutes and regulations
affect reading proficiency outcomes,
• and identify evidence-based, multi-sensory,
direct, explicit structured and sequential
approaches to the instruction of students
affected by dyslexia.
8:03:14 AM
SENATOR GIESSEL moved SCS CSHB 64, version 30-LS0345\N, as the
working document.
8:03:37 AM
CHAIR STEVENS objected for purposes of discussion.
8:03:45 AM
TIM LAMKIN, Staff, Senator Gary Stevens, Alaska State
Legislature, explained the Senate Committee Substitute. He noted
that he had worked with Senator Stevens on a number of task
forces and he changed the bill to improve the mechanics for a
task force. One of the overall changes was to shorten the bill,
starting with the title, and the bill now calls for only one
report instead of two.
8:04:53 AM
MR. LAMKIN reviewed the changes from Version J to N in detail
[(words added and struck)]:
A. Page 1, Lines 1-2:
The name of the Task Force (TF) was changed from
"the Task Force on Reading Proficiency and Reading
Instruction for All Students and On the Effects of
Dyslexia on Some Students" to simply "the
Legislative Task Force on Reading Proficiency and
Dyslexia."
B. Page 1, Line 7:
The number of Alaskan students reported as failing
to meet Alaska's English Language Arts standards
was updated to the latest figure of approximately
47,000 43,300.
C. Page 1, Lines 11-12:
The statement "results on student assessments
demonstrate that the state can improve reading
instruction for students" was edited to read
"results on student assessments indicate reading
instruction and reading proficiency for students in
the state should be improved
8:05:55 AM
D. Page 2, Line 5, INSERT:
A new subsection (5) was added to read: "parents
and other caregivers are responsible for ensuring
that their children learn to read through the
public school system or other means of
instruction
8:06:29 AM
E. Page 2, Lines 5-9:
(6) the residents of this state also hold the
legislature, the governor, and the state Board of
Education and Early Development accountable for
student reading proficiency outcomes because the
legislature, the governor, and the state Board of
Education and Early Development are responsible for
developing and implementing strongly justified
education budget proposals and for leading reforms
of the state's public education system.
8:06:56 AM
F. Page 2, Lines 16-31, through Page 3, Line 12:
The "purpose" and duties of the TF were
consolidated and rearranged to be more concise and
are otherwise kept intact from version J of the
bill.
8:07:22 AM
G. Page 3, Lines 13-18:
The TF will have one final report over the course
of about one year, as opposed to both an interim
report and a final report over the course of about
two years. The deadline for the report was updated
to March 29, 2019.
8:07:47 AM
H. Page 3, Lines 19-31 through Page 4, Lines 1-15:
The task force was reduced to 12 members (from 15
members), detailed as follows:
Six legislators (3 Senate / 3 House)
One K-3 teacher
One School Board Representative
One Administrator (Superintendent or Principal)
One Non-Profit Representative
One Parent
One Student Leader
These changes reflect removing the Commissioner
of Education & Early Development, the University
of Alaska, and two Non-Profits from the TF. A
Student Leader representative was added.
8:11:05 AM
I. Page 4, Lines 16-28:
These subsections were redrafted as follows:
1. (Line 16) to establish this "legislative task
force" as being led by the legislature, and
provide for the chair being a legislator who is
jointly appointed by the house speaker and the
senate president. Version J called for a chair
being elected from amongst the TF's 15 members.
2. (Lines 17-18) Language specifying the frequency
of TF meetings, as well as referring to
member(s) potential conflicts of interest and
calling on other expert consultants (to
presumably settle related disputes or offer
alternative testimony on a subject) was struck
from the bill.
8:12:46 AM
3. (Lines 25-26) The new version specifies the
staff member of the chair of the TF as being the
administrative support for the TF, as opposed to
version J which identified potentially multiple
staff of the "legislative members" fulfilling
that role.
4. (Lines 27-28) The new version further clarifies
that members are not entitled to per diem or
travel expenses, and provides that the TF "may,"
as opposed to "shall," meet telephonically.
8:13:58 AM
J. Page 4, Line 29:
The sunset of the TF was updated to June 30, 2019.
8:14:29 AM
SENATOR GIESSEL said the improvements in the bill would help to
ensure that the task force could produce a product.
8:15:00 AM
SENATOR BEGICH asked whether the staffing change noted in I.3
(Lines 25-26) would add a cost to the bill.
8:15:22 AM
MR. LAMKIN said that it clarifies that it would be the duty of
someone already on legislative staff.
8:15:44 AM
SENATOR BEGICH asked for clarification that the bill does
reference legislative staff, not a new position that would need
to be paid for.
8:16:09 AM
MR. LAMKIN said it would be one single legislative staff member
of the chair of the task force.
8:16:40 AM
SENATOR BEGICH thanked him for the clarification and for putting
that on the record. He asked whether the sponsor supports the
changes.
8:16:57 AM
MR. FITZGERALD said yes.
8:17:05 AM
CHAIR STEVENS recognized the presence of Senator Coghill.
8:17:09 AM
SENATOR HUGHES said she wondered whether one year instead of two
was enough. She asked why the report deadline is March 29
instead of a later date.
8:18:06 AM
MR. LAMKIN said that in his experience, the deadline is a goal,
not a binding date.
8:19:05 AM
SENATOR HUGHES asked if the task force could issue preliminary
and supplementary reports.
8:19:16 AM
MR. LAMKIN said yes.
8:19:23 AM
CHAIR STEVENS opened public testimony.
8:19:42 AM
POSIE BOGGS, Member, Alaska Reading Coalition, supported HB 64.
She said the legislative task force should result in a consensus
for a long-term, statewide reading plan, individualized at many
levels--districts, schools, classrooms, and teachers.
Legislators on the task force need to become experts on the
reading brain. Alaskans cannot afford the cost of low reading
proficiency. In 2017, the Education Consumers Foundation
projected the cost of low, third-grade reading proficiency for
four of Alaska's largest school districts to be over $98
million. This is a hidden tax that accumulates over decades of
reading failure in Alaska. This can be reduced by enhancing the
knowledge of educators. Educators are not being prepared for the
science of reading as undergraduates and are not getting enough
professional development.
8:23:02 AM
MS. BOGGS related a story of how a team brought a student from a
kindergarten reading level to a second-grade level in eight
months. The state can achieve reading proficiency for all
students.
8:23:53 AM
SENATOR HUGHES asked if Ms. Boggs had any concerns about the
condensed time frame and report date.
8:24:20 AM
MS. BOGGS said they had no concerns about condensed timelines.
HB 64, which is the first step, can be short so other steps can
happen. Consensus building, educating people, and going forward
can be achieved in that time frame.
8:25:05 AM
SENATOR HUGHES asked how the task force's findings might be
beneficial to kids not in traditional classes, such as
homeschoolers. She also asked whether anything connected to the
Common Core standards was behind the bill.
8:26:11 AM
MS. BOGGS said many parents across the nation are choosing to
homeschool because their children not learning to read. She
hopes outcomes of the bill will be context-rich, so all can
benefit. The knowledge base is the same. This needs to be shared
across the whole of Alaska. They are not happy with the Common
Core with early reading instruction. It fails kids who are
struggling to read. She said she would share an article that
explicitly talks about how the Common Core lacks enough
foundational information and has no strategies for kids who are
struggling.
8:27:53 AM
MS. BOGGS said the bill came about because a fifth-grade student
of hers went to [former] Senator Dunleavy's office and said that
he had calculated that he had been in public school for 6,000
hours and that he could only read on a kindergarten level. After
100 hours with a reading specialist, he was independently
reading on grade level. He asked what the state would do to help
other kids.
8:29:07 AM
SERENA ELFTMAN-MOLLENKOPF, Member, Alaska Reading Coalition,
supported HB 64. She said the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) finds that only 30 percent of kids in Alaska are
reading proficiently. When she volunteered in a classroom, she
saw a mother's pain about her child's difficulty learning to
read. The teacher had excellent classroom management but did not
know how to help kids with difficulty reading. Ms. Elftman-
Mollenkopf said she got a master's in reading science to learn
how to teach reading.
8:31:35 AM
MS. ELFTMAN-MOLLENKOPF said teachers are not taught enough about
how to teach reading. HB 64 must ensure teachers are supported
in the science of teaching reading
8:32:34 AM
MARY CLAIRE KRETZSCHMAR, Member, Alaska Reading Coalition,
supported HB 64. She said she is a mother of a ninth grader who
in first grade had reading difficulties. Interventions did not
help. She was diagnosed with dyslexia in third grade, but the
school would not acknowledge dyslexia. Special ed did not teach
her how to read. No one could show research to support the
special ed intervention. She wanted her daughter to be taught
how to read. Her daughter was falling further behind and then
she was expected to read to learn. She paid for private tutoring
for her daughter. The process of learning to read is science-
based, but higher ed is resistant to the process of learning to
read.
8:35:23 AM
MS. KRETZSCHMAR asked who the advocates are of other students in
the state with reading difficulties, either because of dyslexia,
poverty, trauma, or being English-learners. Reading is a
fundamental expectation of an education. Reading proficiency
levels the playing field for all. Those who cannot read will be
doomed to struggle for jobs.
8:36:08 AM
SENATOR HUGHES asked whether districts acknowledge dyslexia now
and of the 43,000 students who are not reading proficiently,
what is the estimate of the rate of dyslexia.
8:36:32 AM
MS. KRETZSCHMAR said to her knowledge the Anchorage School
District does not acknowledge dyslexia or use the word. Her
"guessestimate" of the percentage of school-age students who are
not reading proficiently with dyslexia is 70 percent.
8:38:01 AM
TARA KEIN, Representing self, supported HB 64. She said her 12-
year-old son is dyslexic. The school never tested her son for
dyslexia. She had him independently tested at a language clinic
in Anchorage. The school is trying to help but does not
understand dyslexia and does not have teaching tools
specifically for dyslexia. She tutors her son at home and he has
made progress. The state needs to help other struggling readers.
8:39:58 AM
ERIN MCKAY, Member, Alaska Reading Coalition, supported HB 64.
She said she has a similar story to the other parents. Her
daughter is dyslexic, and the Anchorage School District still
does not acknowledge the existence of dyslexia.
8:40:51 AM
JENNIFER HALL JONES, Member, Alaska Reading Coalition, supported
HB 64. She said the leadership needs to better understand the
depth and scope of the problem so that an effective plan can be
devised to help raising reading proficiency. Well-meaning
teachers are unable to deliver the needed instruction. With
outside help, her son would not have graduated. The state has
some of the highest levels of nonproficient readers in the
nation. The educational infrastructure is complex and ingrained.
Legislative and regulatory approaches can solve this problem,
just as in other states. The state should support teachers with
evidence-based instructional strategies. Good reading
instruction changes outcomes.
8:43:05 AM
SENATOR HUGHES wondered whether it is hereditary when children
struggle to read. Perhaps this effort could help parents who are
struggling to read. She wondered if that is a hidden need.
8:44:22 AM
CHAIR STEVENS agreed that many people cover up reading
difficulties.
8:44:40 AM
MS. BOGGS said there is a genetic component to reading
difficulties. If one parent struggled with reading, each child
has a 50 percent chance of having reading difficulties. When
each parent struggled, each child has an 87 percent chance.
8:45:21 AM
SENATOR BEGICH noted that the task force fits right into the
Department of Education and Early Development's Alaska Education
Challenge work.
8:45:51 AM
CHAIR STEVENS closed public testimony. [The assumption is that
he removed his objection.]
8:46:11 AM
SENATOR COGHILL moved to report SCS CSHB 64(EDC), N version,
from committee with individual recommendations and zero fiscal
note. There being no objection, it was so ordered.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB064_ReadingTaskForce_Explanation of Changes_Version J to N.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2018 8:00:00 AM |
HB 64 |
| HB064_ReadingTaskForce_BillText_VersionN.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2018 8:00:00 AM |
HB 64 |