Literacy

Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education: Each Child Our Future aims to increase student achievement through improving language and literacy outcomes for all students. A successful language and literacy framework is one built on:

• educator capacity
• shared leadership
• multi-tiered systems of support
• family partnerships
• community collaboration

The Ohio Department of Education’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement calls for schools to develop a literacy framework and encourages all educators to promote language and literacy development across all ages, grades, and subject areas.

Important Update from the Ohio Department of Education

NEW! Third Grade Reading Guarantee Promotion Criteria Changes for 2021-22
Emergency Legislation Changes the Third Grade Reading Guarantee Promotion Criteria for 2021-2022

Governor DeWine signed Senate Bill 229 of the 134th General Assembly on December 14, 2021.
The following emergency clause takes place immediately:

Retention Criteria for the 2021-2022 School Year
No school district, community school, STEM school and no chartered nonpublic schools subject to ORC 3301.163 can retain a student in the third grade based solely on a student’s academic performance in reading in the 2021-2022 school year unless the principal and reading teacher, in consultation with the student’s parent or guardian, agree the student is reading below grade level and is not prepared for 4th grade.

Parental Consultation in Promotion Decisions
For the 2021-2022 school year, if a third-grade student’s academic performance in reading in the 2021-2022 school year is below grade level but the student’s building principal and reading teacher, in consultation with the student’s parent or guardian, agree that the student is prepared to be promoted to the fourth grade, the student may be promoted.

However, if the principal of the school building in which a student is enrolled and the student’s reading teacher, in consultation with the student’s parent or guardian, agree that the student is reading below grade level and is not prepared to be promoted to the fourth grade, a student in the third grade may be retained.

Parental Notification of Remediation Plan
For the 2021-2022 school year, each school district, community school, STEM school and each chartered nonpublic school subject to ORC 3301.163 must notify the parent or guardian of each student who achieves a scaled score below 683 on Ohio’s State Test for grade 3 English Language Arts and describe the district’s or school’s remediation plan to improve the student’s academic performance in reading.

post added: January 5, 2022

What We Do

Our consultants offer support to educators, families, and community partners to improve literacy outcomes for all learners through technical assistance, coaching, networking opportunities, and professional development.

Contact Us

As a part of the Statewide System of Support, State Support Teams work closely with the Ohio Department of Education to provide training, resources, and technical assistance to schools and districts as they strive to ensure that each child has access to a high-quality education. The documents, policies, and laws shared here provide the foundation to this work.

Links:

• Each Child, Our Future
• Each Child Means Each Child
• Ohio Improvement Process

• Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement
• Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement – Appendices
• Third Grade Reading Guarantee
• Ohio Dyslexia Pilot Project – Years 1 & 2

Links

• ODE: Literacy Ohio
  • ODE: Ohio’s Literacy Toolkits
• Reading Rockets
• ODE: Dyslexia Supports
• International Dyslexia Association of Northern Ohio
• Ohio Dyslexia Center
  
• OCALI: Ensuring Access to the General Curriculum for ALL Learners

Learning Opportunities

Ohio’s Annual Literacy Academies

The Ohio Department of Education holds annual Literacy Academies for districts, schools, and early childhood providers to support the use of evidence-based language and literacy practices. The resources and tools from these events are available online.

The Science of Reading

Quality instruction is key to developing literacy skills in students. Educators should continue to build their base knowledge of the science of reading and use evidence based language and literacy practices to support the growth of students’ literacy and language skills.

Further Reading:

• Science of Reading Snippets: Teaching Using Evidence Based Practices in Literacy

We are here to help!

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or support requests you may have. Our Literacy Team is here for you!

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