OGDEN, Utah — The day after a troubling report showed how nearly half of young students in Utah are struggling to read at the proper grade level, state leaders and teachers met to discuss what's being done to improve reading skills.
Gov. Spencer Cox and First Lady Abby Cox were among those who attended Tuesday's Literacy and Reading Symposium in Ogden, which focused on how Utah schools are currently working toward improving reading comprehension.
“The thing is that parents need to recognize that it doesn’t start in Kindergarten, early literacy starts at zero at age 0,” said Mona Elementary School third-grade teacher Megan Montoya.
The study from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah claimed that nearly half of K-3 students in the state failed to meet grade-level proficiency.
“We’ve been told this for years," added Montoya, "that we have a literacy epidemic in the state."
As Utah students struggle to read, what's being done to help them?
Montoya said her school began making changes to improve literacy more than five years ago, and claims it is finally seeing results. Mona Elementary also informed parents how they can help. As a mom herself, Montoya has made an effort outside of the classroom to help her son improve reading.
“I also take him to the library and check out books with him, read books to him every night before bed,” she said.
The governor added that the state is also working toward supportive policies, including holding students back if they fail to meet reading standards.
“A retention policy, if you’re not reading, we’re not going to move you forward because you’re not going to progress the way you need to," said Cox. "We’re having some discussions about what that looks like. There’s a stigma that comes from retention, getting held back, which also isn’t great, and so is there a better way to balance that, and is third grade the right place to do that?”
Cox admits that in order to see reading success among Utah students, changes have to be made.
“We need more money from more people. We have big class sizes, and so we need para-professional people who can go one-on-one with a child who’s struggling and who can work with the parents as well,” the governor explained.
“What we’re looking to do as a state is to bring in communities, municipalities, parent engagement; we need everyone to come around and say early literacy is a Utah core value," added Rich Nye, the governor's senior advisor of education.
Schools are hoping for additional community support as well. It could be as simple as state leaders, teachers and families continuing to work together for change so that students get the help they need.
“Having people throughout the whole state as a whole community recognized that we’re all in this together,” said Montoya.
