North Carolina鈥檚 latest push to help children read has gotten under way, with almost $50 million set aside by lawmakers and more than 10,000 teachers enrolled in science-of-reading classes.
The state Board of Education got an update this week on the first batch of districts to launch the training, known as . It spread over two years.
Officials say the pilot districts have had to to clear time for the training, hire subs for sessions during school hours and pay stipends for after-hours work.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Union, Cabarrus, Catawba and Anson county schools are among the first cohort. So is Winston Salem-Forsyth, which made a presentation to the board.
The district鈥檚 chief academic officer, Nicolette Grant, told the board the work is worthwhile but tough on teachers.
鈥淛ust as a community if we could just validate and thank the teachers,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is a tremendous undertaking 鈥� a great learning experience, but it is a lot to ask for teachers as they鈥檙e also dealing with students who are coming back with a year and a half of learning loss and socialization loss.鈥�
State Superintendent Catherine Truitt agreed: 鈥淲e have to thank those who went first, because it鈥檚 a heavy undertaking, not just because of the time and the mental energy, but we鈥檙e asking most teachers to do a paradigm shift of the way they鈥檝e been teaching early literacy for years.鈥�
The General Assembly had approved $12 million for the LETRS program when it this spring, and added $37.5 million as part of the new . It鈥檚 the latest twist on the state鈥檚 Read to Achieve act, passed in 2012 with a goal of getting all third graders reading at grade level. Despite millions of dollars spent on summer reading camps and other efforts, North Carolina's scores showed little progress even before the pandemic. In 2021, after COVID-19 disrupted in-person classes, .
The next group of districts, which includes Iredell-Statesville, Gaston and Kannapolis schools, starts LETRS training in January.
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