Sparks in Education: Shining a Light on Literacy with Kymyona Burk and Nathan Hoffman
Overview of this Episode
To kickstart our new season, we had a live podcast stream on YouTube last January 23. In case you missed the live podcast, we have posted the episode on the channel for you.
In this episode of the Trust Your Voice podcast, host Sylvie Légère sat down with Kymyona Burk and Nathan Hoffman, to talk about shining a light on literacy and its importance.
We hope you enjoy the episode! Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple podcasts. Stay tuned for more episodes and be sure to subscribe to the Trust Your Voice podcast on your favorite podcast player.
Episode Transcript
Sylvie Legere 0:00
In the 2023 season of the Trust Your Voice podcast. And this is exciting, because I'm streaming for the first time never done that in front of a live audience. And I am sparking up a conversation today with Kimyona Burk, who is with the Foundation for Excellence in Education. She's a sudden Senior Fellow policy fellow there. And Nathan Hoffman, who is a director of state policy and legislative strategy at the American Federation for Children and we are going to shine some light on education, particularly in Illinois. The reason why I am focusing on education this year, and starting the year with this topic is a few months ago, I was part of a policy circle roundtable discussion on literacy. And I invite everyone to read the brief on literacy. And there I learned that 40% of kids across the states read at grade level, you heard that right. 40% actually read at grade level and in large cities, sometimes it's below 30%. And I think getting 2022 education and reading is a right. And reading is really the foundation for everything because how can we say that we have an education system that is educating the next. innovators, leaders, entrepreneurs, if kids cannot read at grade level in in fourth grade. So we're going to dissect that today. And I want to focus our conversation on two main components. One is what our state policies that are actually effective in achieving academic academic achievement. And the other is what can each of us do? Right here right now on this topic. So I want to go back to my guest, Kimyona, came from Mississippi thank you for being here. As I said, She is a senior fellow Policy Fellow at the Foundation for Excellence in Education. And in that role, she actually supports states who wants to pursue a really comprehensive approach to k three, teach reading policies. And she also in a most recent role, she was the executive director in the Jackson School District of teaching and learning. And she's spearheaded as the state literacy program director, that implementation for the state of Mississippi of its literacy based Promotion Act across the state. So thank you, Kim Yonah, for coming from all the way from Mississippi to be here today.
Kymyona Burk 2:47
Thank you so much for having me. And the weather is cooperating. So that's,
Sylvie Legere 2:50
I know, you brought the sunshine. And Nate Hoffman is the as I mentioned, is a director of state policy and legislative strategy for the American Federation for Children. He held various roles in state and nation based organizations, including Empower Illinois, and also the Foundation for Excellence in Education. And he really helped state pursue impactful legislation that really empower parents to and also strengthen the overall quality of education system in the state. So welcome you both. And thank you for for being here. So let's get started. Let's park light. So first, you know, before we can figure out what to do, it's good to understand where we are. So Nate, I'd love for you to give us a little bit the lay of the land here in Illinois about education. Absolutely. Yeah.
Nathan Hoffman 3:46
Absolutely. Well, first of all, thanks for for having us here today. So wonderful space. Good to be up here with one of my favorite people in the country, Dr. Burk, who's pursuing all this literacy work that's happening all across the country. I would say the state of education in Illinois is problematic. And there's not I think a lot of people out there who would who would maybe use that term, but I would when you sort of dig into the data and understand where we're at, you mentioned some of the pieces of data at the at the top but just to add to some of those if you look just this year, in the state of Illinois, only 30% of kids are proficient or basically meeting state standards in English language arts, reading, only 25% and math in the city of Chicago or our state's largest school district. It's far less than that. It's only 20% in in literacy and 15% math. And as you go down and you look at sort of minorities, children and certainly low income children, the the numbers are even worse. Yet at the same time, we have a 90% high school graduation rate we have 97% of teachers in the state of Illinois who are rated as babies who get high marks on their on their evaluate Asians, there's a big disconnect there. And I don't think we're having the conversations that we need to be having. They're the hard conversations. But we can't fix a problem. If we don't even believe that it is a problem to begin with. I certainly do believe it's a problem. The pandemic obviously blew the doors off. You know, the thinking of if you didn't believe there was a problem, before we had the pandemic, there's certainly a problem now. And the only way we're gonna fix it is if we, if we dive into the data, believe the data and pursue some of these hard policies.
Sylvie Legere 5:31
Yeah. You know, I think that these numbers are really surprising for people because we often hear that some schools receive commendable no mention right. And and then I know that I read from wire points, dug into the State Board of Education scorecard and found that there's some elementary school, for instance, in Aurora, where 2% of the kids are reading at level. And then so Kim Jana, you've worked extensively in Mississippi in teaching and learning how how is that possible that the entire student population is only 2% might be at level?
Kymyona Burk 6:12
Well, I'll say it's possible when there is not an intentional, deliberate focus on identifying students early, who may be struggling, maybe having reading difficulties. It's also possible when there is a lack of opportunity for teachers to receive the type of professional development that they need to build their capacity to get the knowledge that they need. And it's possible when there's a lack of accountability, lack of accountability to ensure that, you know, again, students are being identified, they're getting what they need, parents and families are able to be supported, in order to be able to help their kids at home. So it's definitely possible when we don't keep our fingers on the pulse of the main thing. And when we think about all the other content areas, reading has to be the main thing.
Sylvie Legere 7:06
Right, and and then when you talk about reading in Mississippi, it's like, it's reading and reading standards, right, like, so this is the way people are teaching. Reading, the way reading is being taught. So talk a little bit about that, like, what is the the, you know, what's the issue with, with read with teaching standards around reading,
Kymyona Burk 7:27
right, so there are different camps who believe that there are different ways to teach children how to read. In 2013, Mississippi passed its literacy based Promotion Act. And I always say we were just at a point where we had to either go big or go home, right, we had a governor at the time, who was dyslexic, and he made literacy, his his personal policy. And we also had a legislature that was supportive state chief that was supportive. So we had what I kind of call the big three, right, those who can can make the law and then also sign it and then make it happen. So what we did is that we had a focus on the science of reading. So you may have heard something about, you know, whole language or balanced literacy and making sure that children have a love for reading. Well, guess what you can't love reading if you don't know how to read, right. So our focus became, we had to have this very explicit approach, grounded in the science of reading or structured literacy, you may have heard it called that, where we focus on those five components of reading that the National Reading Panel Report said in the year 2000, after convening the neurologists, the the scientists, that the educators to say that these are the the main pillars that our children need to be able to learn how to read and of course, including oral language. So we made that our focus, and we really focused on professional development, building that knowledge and supporting those who were in the classrooms every day. And we were able to see some really good results.
Sylvie Legere 8:56
So the teaching standards is really important to improving academic outcome, more than perhaps then even like money. It's like how things are being taught. I think I'd like to add also that right now, kids are facing, you know, a real crisis in mental health. A recent study by the US Department of Human Services, that like 12% of kids between the age of 12 and 17, are have thoughts of suicide, or have had a major depression event that impacted their learning. And as you mentioned, with the pandemic, kids are also delayed. So there's what research is showing that kids need to have different ways of learning and parents involvement in choosing the right learning environment is really key for kids to achieve their full potential. So Nate, what can you talk about what states are doing specifically perhaps in Illinois, to really empower parents and choosing the schools that's right for their kids?
Nathan Hoffman 9:57
Absolutely. Well, and let me say This is the first day of national school choice week. So Happy National School Choice week. In there's ton of events happening all across the country celebrating the empowerment of parents, it's happening in all parts of this country. 2021 We called the year of school choice, there was something like 20 states are so the pastor expanded school choice programs. Of course 2022 was the year illiteracy. And what what it's shaping up to be this year is the year of school choice and literacy. As we look across the country, what states are doing, you may have followed or heard about what they have done in Arizona over the last couple of months right before Governor Doug Ducey left, where they provided universal school choice to all 1.2 million students in the in the state of Arizona, put the money directly in parents pockets and allowing them to choose what whatever school they want to do go to Florida is following suit with that they just filed their own bill that will I think they will regain the top spot is the friendliest place for parents and for kids in the country if they pass this bill. But it's not just the the usual suspects of Arizona and Florida. There's there's other states like Oklahoma that's pursuing this, our neighbor to the to the west Iowa, they are moving aggressively with a bill that will over time, provide all of Iowa students access to school choice as well. So we're seeing school choice expand all across the country. And what's what's happening in Illinois, is you may actually be surprised we have a we have a pretty large private school choice program in the state of Illinois. If you call back in 2017. Governor Brown or and the legislature came to an agreement that would not only change the way in which reform the way in which we fund public education, but they also created this $100 million tax credit scholarship program, which allows private donors to give to organizations like Empower Illinois and others that are out there, that that those dollars were then transformed into scholarships for low income and working class kids to attend a private school of their choosing. It was passed as a a pilot program. And so we have to win a fight right now. Just try and, you know, make sure it stays around and doesn't go away. But but it is the I believe the the unfinished business of the school choice movement, that that that's what school choice is, in my opinion.
Sylvie Legere 12:21
Yeah. So I mean, I think that's a great segue here to talk really concretely, you know, what are the legislative measures that can be advocated for that really make an impact? So, you know, I want to point out that in the policy circled brief on literacy found out that actually Mississippi is the only state that saw an improvement in its reading level statewide between 2017 and 2019, thanks to this implementation of the teaching standards and phonics base. So I'd love comuna, for you to go a little more detail in terms of, you know, how did you shape this legislation? How was it adopted, I wasn't defined and adopted, and then implemented, because it required a lot of teacher training. And let's talk about how it was, how it was defined and then adopted.
Kymyona Burk 13:14
So our Lord Mississippi is fashioned after Florida's read by three law, Florida passed its law in 2002. And began to see some success. Florida is currently ranked sixth in the country. Also success for Hispanic students, black students. And so in 2013, we adopted a law that was fashioned after Florida's and worked with excel in it, the irony of me now working at Excel in it. And I was chosen to lead that effort for the state. Some of the big buckets that we really focused on including the professional development, for our in service teachers, for those who are in classrooms in front of kids every day, the one thing that we learned is that so many of our teachers were exiting educator preparation programs, and they were not prepared. They were not prepared to teach struggling readers how to read, you know, they may have gone through the coursework, and you know, this is how you teach reading. But for those teachers who were standing in front of students who were really struggling, then they were really kind of at a loss. So we decided to start with a blank slate, we adopted a professional development system statewide that focuses on the science of reading, and we decided to empower teachers with knowledge always say invest in people, right, those are the ones in front of kids every day. The next thing that we did was that we put literacy coaches in those schools alongside teachers to help them transfer this theory. They were learning and professional development to actual practice in a non evaluative way to give them feedback on their instruction to model lessons for them, to help them identify resources that were aligned to the science of reading. So we did the support on the ground. This was the first time that our state agency had supported schools in that way. We were seeing it as an auditing arm like everyone thinks that the State Department is you're coming into our Good, I'm gonna tell us what we're doing wrong. But in this case, we said, We want children reading by the end of third grade, and we're going to help you get there. And that began the bargain, right? So professional development coaching, we also adopted an assessment system. We don't know what to do for kids, unless we know where they are the same way that we began this conversation about data. You know, I always say that teachers are superheroes, especially kindergarten teachers, imagine, you know, you get a class of 20. In some cases, 25 little people coming into your classroom, some have gone to Headstart, some have gone to pre K, some are coming from home, right, and you have to identify where they are, you can't just start on page one. So you have to assess students, we adopted a universal assessment system to gather data on students. And then again, we empower teachers to be able to do something about it. When you when you know a child is struggling, what do you do? So we empower them to do that. And then also professional development in other areas just in pedagogy just in how do you teach? Right? How do you have classroom management to make sure that you're able to teach in the class? So this was this, the first time that we had a state led approach, there had been pilots, right, there have been some movement in districts where we would have partners who would come in and say, Oh, we're going to train teachers, or we're going to look into leadership, and we're going to do these things. But when they left after their funding was, you know, gone, or the three year commitment was over, then it seems like sometimes the schools went back to their to the same old thing, right? So we knew with this, that we wanted sustainability. And the way that you do that, again, is to invest what you can in teachers and the processes, and the administrators, because we often take for granted that our administrators have all they need. But we have to support the people who are working, they're supporting our little people every day.
Sylvie Legere 16:52
So the legislation was actually adopting the phonics base, teaching standard. And then also the program to really implement it into the classroom, which included support of the teachers, the administrators, administration, do assessments, etc. So there was a full blown with real measurements of success that school had to report back on. So it was a complete, comprehensive, and you have that blueprint. Right now. They've done it. It's a blueprint that can be done elsewhere. So I mean, clearly, legislation really had a positive impact. And in Mississippi, now, with the Invest in Kids program named Can you tell us a little bit about where it's at right now? And what has been its impact in the last five years and where this legislation is out? Now? How was it implemented also?
Nathan Hoffman 17:43
Right? Yeah. So I mean, I've often said that I don't think there's anybody in the country, except for maybe, miles, who, somewhere around here, who thought that we could get a private school choice program passed in the state of Illinois of all places, I think there's even fewer people, so fewer than none that thought that the program would survive once it was implemented, given the attacks that have come its way from teacher unions from other legislators and other groups who don't want to see parents have the power to choose where their kids are educated. But thanks to the good work of a lot of people, and a lot of families, a lot of school leaders coming down to the capitol and meeting with state legislators. We've been able to hold it Bay, I think every single thus far every single attempt to shutter the program. And we've brought converts along the way. So if you know, you know, some of the states that I mentioned, that are really going big on on school choice right now, Florida, Arizona, etc. They're probably, you know, politically red states, we're obviously politically blue state. And we often say, oh, school choice is supported in a bipartisan way. But in most places, that that that support is very surface level in Illinois. I'm proud to say that the Invest in Kids Act is a bipartisan piece of legislation. There are democratic leaders in the General Assembly, who have led the way thus far for us to make sure that the program continues to survive to make sure it doesn't find its way it into the budget at the last second with a big old cut. And we even had the governor who ran in 2018, who said he would shutter the program as swiftly as possible. That was his quote at the time. When he ran this last year. He's he was asked on the record whether or not he supported the program. And he said yes, all of that, I think is good momentum for where we are today. Because as I said, we're on a we're on a pilot and the time the clock is ticking at the end of this year, December 31 2023. That's the last day that donors can contribute to the investing Kids program or and receive a tax credit unless the general assembly steps in to what we're saying remove the sunset make the program permanent. There are people in here who know the numbers probably a little better than than myself, but last I checked, the program had raised more than $300 million over the last few years, provided more than 30,000 scholarships to kids in virtually every legislative district of the state. So, you know, Illinois school children are being supported by this by this program. And I think that's what where the conversation needs to stay is who's being supported by the program, not who's getting a tax credit, not what's happening to everybody else. But the fact that 30,000 families in this state have received a scholarship to attend a school that works better for them, that they're not being bullied, and perhaps that they have access to fine arts perhaps, that or that they're just in a different setting that that works better for them. So that's where we're at. We have I think, a long road ahead these next few months with the General Assembly in Springfield to make sure that we that we leave Springfield with this program intact. And I think it'll take everybody's help in this room to get it done.
Sylvie Legere 20:49
Yeah, so the program is called the Invest in Kids Act, and it's a tax credit program. And the implementation of the program is led by Empower Illinois, which is the one the nonprofit agency that collects donation, and are tax deductible, and then really works with the schools to distribute the scholarships to the low income families, right, it's for low income families who need a scholarship to attend a school that is a better fit for their child. So So that's, that's good, good. Good news. So. So that's great. I mean, it's also it's an ongoing effort, really, to kind of provide parents with the resources to find the right learning environments for their kids. And there's nothing more empowering for a family than to feel like you are giving your child what they need to learn. So we heard about what's going on in Illinois in terms of school choice, coming up, are you involved here in replicating the successes that you've had in Mississippi, in Illinois, tell us about that.
Kymyona Burk 21:56
I've had conversations for the last couple of years with stakeholders in Illinois, about opportunities to adopt possibly a comprehensive approach the way in which Mississippi and Florida and other states have done, there was legislation, I believe, maybe a year ago that really didn't get off the ground. Right now, I believe there's dyslexia legislation for consideration, which involves universal screeners in identifying kids early and those with characteristics of dyslexia, making sure that we're providing them with the support that they need. So with the Illinois early literacy coalition, we continue to meet monthly looking at language for legislation. And that's just still where we are, we hope to, you know, be able to get some support for it here in Illinois, you've read some of the statistics, you know, I have others. Other statistics about just even on the national assessment on the nape assessment, black students in Illinois are performing exactly where they were 20 years ago, here. And also the same for Hispanic students and and lower than Mississippi. Yes, Mississippi's black students have performed outperforming Illinois about one full grade level, their fourth grade students. And I always say I believe that it had to happen in Mississippi. Because we're, you know, always a state that has always been at the bottom of every education measure. But to show that you can be black and learn how to read, you can be Hispanic and learn how to read you can be low income and learn how to read, as long as there is an intentional approach to making sure that that students get there, then Illinois can can do it as well. And again, it's about it's about all kids. As a nation, as we've mentioned, pre pandemic we weren't doing so well. Only a third of the students, especially in fourth grade reading, we're reading proficiently, the same is now true post pandemic. So we can't blame a lot of things on the pandemic, right. But we know that there's a lot of work to be done. There are parents who are now more aware than ever of the abilities of their child because they had to sit next to them while they were on Zoom, learning how to read or learning those things. So this is this takes all of us in reading struggles don't discriminate, which is what Peggy Carr says, reading struggles do not discriminate. So yeah, looking forward to Yeah, hopefully supporting Illinois in this in this way,
Sylvie Legere 24:31
because there is a blueprint that has worked. So it's kind of easy implementation. So will not easy, but it's feasible, not reinventing the wheel rates, right. So I'd like to point out that a in that and I found this also in the policy circle literacy brief, that a 2020 National Council on teacher quality report found that 51% of the school, were not teaching fun reading using phonics. 51% of schools in the nation. So which is why so many states are adopting laws to implement this teaching standards, and it's called The Science of reading. And to date as of July, I think there are like 30 states that have implemented teaching phonics as a reading policy. So, so this is something that is ongoing right now. So I'd love before we close out, you know, I would love for you guys to say, you know, what are the states to watch this is school choice week, and it's a new year. So what are the states to watch, and maybe also some advice that you have for those of us who want to really get involved in, in, in this industry, these initiatives?
Kymyona Burk 25:48
Well, I'll start by saying one of the states to watch is Virginia, Virginia passed in the Early Literacy Act last year, for kindergarten through third grade. And we know that a lot of the rebar three laws are very intentional, because students transition from learning to read to reading to learn the text gets more complex when they enter fourth grade. So almost immediately, Virginia has now put forth a bill that says we want to expand that to fourth through eighth grade. As we are preparing our k three teachers, administrators, students, parents and families, we want to get ready and get prepared for those. And especially we know there are students who are sitting in middle school classrooms who are struggling to read, we have to make sure that teachers know what to do when they get there. Louisiana is is a state to watch they last year they passed a law banning three queueing and three queueing is the method or the systems model that goes along with this whole language or balance literacy, the non phonics approach. So they passed a law to ban that. So if there's any curriculum that's in their schools in Louisiana, that includes prompting students to guess when they're reading words or using pictures to try to identify what the words say, then it's going to be banned. It's banned in Louisiana, they're only the second state in the nation to do it. Arkansas was the first state to do it. And South Carolina, South Carolina has a new state superintendent who was fired up about literacy. They adopted a literacy law some years ago, they haven't been seeing the success with it. Because again, adopting the law is the first step implementation is key. So now that we have new leadership in South Carolina, they're really looking forward to revamping their law and making it very, very strong and making sure that it includes and is grounded in the science of rating. So very excited about some of those states that you don't normally hear about. But they're slowly and quietly making
Sylvie Legere 27:45
you're involved in supporting these initiatives. Yes. So you can comuna How can people follow you and follow your work? Is it?
Kymyona Burk 27:54
Yes, well, I'm an accelerated. Kymyona underscore Burke on Twitter. And I'm usually just Kymyona. If you can spell it right. Then
Sylvie Legere 28:04
You can find all the in the show notes. Yeah. So Nate, what are this say to watch?
Nathan Hoffman 28:09
Yeah, I mean, I think there's last time I looked rough, potentially 30 states that could pass meaningful school choice policies this year. That's probably on the high end. But I can be on I mentioned some of the states we don't often hear about, often. But in addition to Florida, in addition, Arizona, like I said earlier, Oklahoma has a, you know, Governor state, they're the Secretary of Education, Ryan Walters, they're very aggressive in wanting to provide school choice to Oklahoma's kids. Utah just passed a school choice bill this last week of all places. So you know, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, we're still waiting for Texas to do something, anything in school choice. This might be the year I don't know, but we'll have to see. But yeah, then there's the you know, there's a ton of other opportunities. But I would also say watch Illinois, I feel very good about the chances that we have to cement the investment Kids Act this year, and get it and get it done by May. So I continue to say watch Illinois, I usually get nervous when the Illinois General Assembly is in session because you know, you never know you're gonna get there. But on on the investing kids front. I do feel good. They're
Sylvie Legere 29:19
great. And Nate, people can follow you on Instagram.
Nathan Hoffman 29:24
Yeah, you can follow me on Instagram. You can also follow me on Twitter mile. Nate Hof only mildly controversial, but that's okay.
Sylvie Legere 29:32
Well, great. So I hope that Kymyona and Nate really lit a spark within you with a desire to get involved in promoting teaching standards and school choice. And what I'd like to do is invite Antony holder, who is the CEO of Empower Illinois to kind of share really some concrete things that people can do today to really promote school choice in Illinois. Roy and Anthony, you want to come? Do it later? Okay. Great. Well, great. Thank you so much. So we're in the camera,
Anthony Holder 30:12
am I letting okay? I never have to worry about that. But so we thank you so much, Nathan. And can we honor for your inspiring remarks? I think what my take away from from your conversation here today is that there's a lot that unites us here tonight. I think we all believe in the unlimited potential of children. We believe that good public policy can help them thrive. And that what I heard from Nathan and Kim Jonas, certainly from us Sylveon. Our conversations is that where people of action, we can and must do everything we can do right now, to ensure that kids get their best fit school, and the best chance to thrive into the future. One of those opportunities really is facing us right now here in Illinois. It is an existential moment, the Invest in Kids Act, tax credit scholarship program, a five year pilot, a one year extension, we've got to convince lawmakers to do something before December 31 2023. That's 11 months away, and it's a big lift. So we're going to need your help. And you're probably wondering to yourself, well, how can I help? That's a great question. I've got some opportunities. So the first one is, I invite you to consider making a tax credit scholarship donation. As Sylvie mentioned, these are 75% tax credits. So if you give $1,000 $750 comes right off the top of your Illinois state income tax liability, you're not going to find a better philanthropic deal in the state, I guarantee. And you get to direct it for scholarships for kids from low income communities who want to attend a school that you can designate. So if you got a favorite school, a favorite kind of school, a favorite network of school, you can make sure the dollars go there. So the first one is to donate. The second one is to advocate your voices matter. Everyone's voices matter, but only if you use it. So you need to let your lawmakers know that this is a program that you want to see continue. And we've got some great resources to help you do that. The third thing, tell a friend, just one, and then ask them to tell a friend, and so on and so on. So three things, consider a gift, advocate, tell a friend. And just to help you remember, we've got these handy dandy little business cards around they've got QR codes on them. There's also some larger signs that have QR codes, you can scan it with your phone, take a handful of these and hand them out. You can do all three of those things with all the resources that are available on this card. So again, so we thank you so much for the invitation. Thank you. Thank you all
Sylvie Legere 32:43
what I like to do well, first off, it's very easy. I actually did it I wrote to Robin Gable and Laura fine using your website at Empower illinois.org. So I need to make now a phone call. So and then I'd love to open it up to questions we have. I think we have time for 15 minutes of questions.
Anthony Holder 33:04
Very good to use this microphone for questions. Yeah,
Sylvie Legere 33:06
we can use this microphone. Oh, manage that. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 33:13
Hi, I am P ray of black excellence hour when WVU in 1690 Am Chicago. My question is for Kim. Jana. I said that correctly. I'm Jana. Kim, Jana. Sorry about that. Kim Jada. So I am from Chicago, you're from Mississippi, we are cousins. Okay. Has some of you may or may not know, the majority of black Chicago originates from the great state of Mississippi. What types of similarities do you think we have here in Chicago that we brought from Mississippi? And how can we translate your successes to us here in
Kymyona Burk 33:51
Cook County? Well, I'll first say that it would be the makeup, you know, just just the makeup of some of the same issues as far as resources, lack of resources in certain areas, where there are other, you know, more resources in other areas. I think that the one thing that Illinois can learn from is that, you know, again, there are some great things happening in some schools. The issue was that these things aren't happening everywhere. So the question becomes why legislation? You know, why do we have to have a law, right to ensure that children are reading and that becomes this accountability piece that we want to make sure that things are happening everywhere? The best practices? So I would I would say that I would say when you think about demographics, when you think about certain areas that have never seen success before. In Mississippi, it's our Mississippi Delta, right? And we started having some of those schools that were they were performing well, students were passing the assessment. When I say parents were crying community members were crying. They had never experienced success before. And so what You see that you cannot unsee that, right? So we want to give all children that opportunity for a better quality of life. And I think that again, Mississippi, it started there to just really let the nation know it can be done. Right.
Unknown Speaker 35:17
You mentioned legislation that didn't get off the ground. So I don't know if that's what you're referring to. But are there specific bills that have not been brought to the floor that we can get behind and support? And can you comment on that, please,
Kymyona Burk 35:31
there was an Illinois right to read act, I believe it now has the same name, and working with the Illinois early literacy coalition, working on opportunities to ensure that the language is what it needs to be. And when you're working on policy, that's the important piece, you know, again, making sure if you're if you have universal screening, that you're screening students three times per year to make sure that you're, you know, checking for progress, or regression and those types of things. So really looking to strengthen the language in that policy so that it is a comprehensive approach. And so that it's not one thing that says, Oh, well, we can celebrate that we pass policy, but it doesn't have teeth in it, right. So we want to make sure that it has teeth in it. And there are opportunities for all stakeholders, and events such as this for stakeholder awareness, to really understand what students and parents and teachers and all of that need as far as a comprehensive approach, so that we can get it right the first time and not try to piecemeal efforts and say, we're going to do this this year, this next year, you know, we really need to do this, this comprehensive approach to ensure children are, are learning what they need to
Sylvie Legere 36:39
know. So what you're saying is there's a there's a blueprint of success of success from Mississippi and Florida. So the legislation can just be used,
Kymyona Burk 36:50
right? We have a whole website, you have,
Sylvie Legere 36:53
yeah, that'd be thing. And we could we don't have to reinvent it. And it doesn't need to be necessarily adapted, maybe to Illinois, because it
Kymyona Burk 37:00
right work, there's that came out with your resources in preparation for this event, there is a comprehensive how to guide. And it highlights states across the country that have implemented early literacy policy and the different types of efforts, the principles that they've implemented and how they've done it. So there again, there's a blueprint for Mississippi for Florida for other states that you can see, this is how Nevada did this, or this is how North Carolina, you know, did professional development. So I think that it's again, it's something where you don't have to recreate the wheel. But it's something that you also want to make sure that your department of education, right, that's a big piece of it, they're going to be responsible for leading implementation. So you have to make sure there's infrastructure there. So there are all of those things. And in my role at Excel in it, I support state agencies that are implementing policies. And then I also support our advocacy team who are working directly with legislators to actually get those bills, write them and get them passed. So there's help there support has to be we'll
Sylvie Legere 38:09
have another question.
Unknown Speaker 38:10
Right. All right. My questions more toward the political aspect when it comes to the teachers union. How in Illinois, because we are so especially Chicago Teachers Union, how have you been able to, I guess, overstep them to get to the politicians, because they really, with the teachers union, they seem to really have a hold on politicians.
Nathan Hoffman 38:37
Yeah, well, a few things. One, I think there's no, I'm a registered lobbyist. There's no more powerful advocate, then students who have received a scholarship and school leaders who are dealing with kids every single day. So the fact that I show up to the Capitol, nobody cares. I that's what I get paid to do. But the but the fact that we have on any given day, thanks to the Empower team 100 families and school leaders at the Capitol directly in the face of lawmakers basically saying, Tell me why you don't support my education. I think it puts legislators in a in a tough, a tough position. And we've been able to keep the the CTU and others at bay. Through that that's one, too is we we stepped up as sort of a school choice movement this last election year and started spending money because we realized that, you know, we needed to basically we don't have the level of resources that the CTU and others do. But we spent an AFC three quarters of a million dollars on on races this last year. Not all of them were successful, but it's it's a step in the right direction to start showing lawmakers number one that we're going to have their backs when they take, you know, politically controversial votes or tough votes for them that they consider to be tough votes. But number two, that there is a consequence for not supporting policies like school choice, so The two things that we've done, I think over the last year pretty well. And it's
Kymyona Burk 40:03
a little bit different when it comes to literacy, right. It's a bit different for teachers unions, when it comes to saying which curriculum should be adopted in a school district? Or that you're going to assess students to, to find out where they are. I think a lot of the challenges that we've seen in Illinois with the teachers union is that there is really, again, a lack of awareness. You know, when when you have opponents say, well, we don't we don't want any more testing? Well, you're testing kids at some point, right? You're assessing students to see where they are, I think the question is we about what assessments are you using? It's not that we want to change the business of school, we want the business of school to be done better, right? If you're adopting curriculum anyway, you're paying for this anyway? Why don't we make sure that the curriculum that you're adopting is aligned to the science of reading, it's going to teach your children the code of how to learn to read, if you're assessing kids anyway, because Illinois has a multi tiered system of support, which you may have known before is the response to intervention, the RTI process where if students are identified as having a reading difficulty, they must receive interventions, as a process already, what we're saying is we want you to use the right tools, so that you can get the right data about how to support kids. So I think it's, a lot of times a lot of things can really be solved by having a conversation by addressing just some of the questions that people may have. I always say be transparent, even if you don't know the answers, right, you have to have that conversation. And so in some cases, there are some groups that may just I want to draw the line, no more assessments, yeah. But you need to understand why we need to do that, right. We're not saying assess every day, this is three times per year. So that's just kind of one of the sticking points and teachers want autonomy. I'm a former teacher, I've taught elementary, middle high school, college students, right, teachers want autonomy, but we want the right tools in those classrooms, so that they can get the information they need to, you know, always I mean, we are as educators, partly responsible for her, for her children turn out to be in life, right? Then I say, no pressure. But we're literally responsible for the quality of life of kids. And so sometimes we just have to, you know, be willing to see things differently, to see things from someone else's point of view, and it may not impact your home. But it may be your friends, or maybe your cousins, right, it may be someone else's home. If you're not faced with someone with dyslexia, and maybe someone else that you know, so I think a lot of it is is being willing to come to the table and have a conversation and just learn more about it.
Sylvie Legere 42:50
Yeah, thanks for saying that. And also, I think this is a great question, you know, as parents are looking for the right school, or seeing their kid not being successful in one school system, and want to look somewhere else, those are questions to ask, right? It's like, how, what methods are you using to teach meetings? How do you a What's the intervention program, and it might be in the public school, or it might not be in our public schools phenomenal intervention program in the early reading what all my kids benefited from. So it really those are good questions, also to inform parents that something can be done
Kymyona Burk 43:25
in Colorado recently passed a transparency law about curriculum. So each district in Colorado, they must post on their website, the curriculum that they're using to teach children how to read. Great.
Sylvie Legere 43:36
That's another thing. We have more questions we have time.
Unknown Speaker 43:42
Hi, my name is Nicole. I'm a case manager and special education teacher on the west side of Chicago in North Lawndale. Thank you for the work that you're doing. My question is more high school specific, because as you know, we're inheriting a lot of these gaps. So most of the children at my high school or on elementary reading levels, and I've, I'm leading this project right now, how to increase our MTS s are reading intervention there. But I'm wondering if you've seen successes, either Mississippi around the country of what works in high school, obviously, I know it starts in elementary school, but what advice would you have for teachers on the ground doing this work?
Kymyona Burk 44:18
So that has been the conversation lately? For secondary teachers, you're known as content specialists, right? You want to teach biology, but it's difficult to teach biology to a child who can't read, write. And so the challenge becomes most secondary teachers, they don't go through traditional teacher preparation programs and they don't learn how you know, these are the foundational skills that students need to learn how to read. So Mississippi is piloting a project with the rail se our rail, the southeast. Well, I think you have the Midwest, in Florida Center for reading research, where they're looking at professional development for secondary teachers in the science of reading interventionists. They can be placed in secondary schools. So those who are trained to be able to support students with their foundational skills that they may be lacking. And again, just opportunities for the educators for the professionals to have more knowledge, you know, we know how to teach kids how to read, write more people need to know how to do that, especially for educators who are receiving the students who are still struggling readers. That's how I began this process. My passion, I was teaching at a high school, and there was so many kids who were struggling readers, and I said, How did you get here. And a lot of that is not again, a lack of will, it's just that some teachers just don't know what to do. You know, so we, in your you can be one of the best advocates for why we have to support early literacy, because again, you know, a child who was a struggling reader becomes an adolescent who was a struggling reader who becomes an adult, who was a struggling reader who we say read to your child 20 to 20 minutes for, but if they can't read, right, do these things which are if they can't do those basic things, for their quality of life, or boat, or, you know, read a ballot, those types of things. So, I think that it's important to really just make sure that your voice is heard that, you know, at the end of the day, secondary teachers also need to be involved in the process of process of just really the professional development intentionally about what to do when you're faced with students who are struggling readers in your classrooms, and how to identify them and how to get them support.
Sylvie Legere 46:25
I think I was so I just heard Actually, today in Michigan, there is a whole intervention program in the high school where within 12 weeks, an intervention program can get kids at reading level by just teaching the designs based reading, so phonics, so great. I think that we are about done. Do we have one more question? Great. Well, last question here.
Unknown Speaker 46:52
Yes, hi, um, the Illinois General Assembly has a supermajority and they could drag this out till the end of the year if they wanted to. What are you telling them in Springfield right now to try to persuade them to pass it in May for investing kids?
Nathan Hoffman 47:08
That's, uh, yeah, the Democrats run everything in the state. The, I think what we're telling them is, they have to get it done now. Otherwise, you put you start to put families and schools in positions where they're starting potentially a new school year in the fall, where they don't know if they're gonna be able to stay in their school, that that full year and you don't from a school standpoint, you don't know what kind of resources you're going to have the if the scholarship program runs out. So just from a pure practical standpoint, let alone the sort of philosophical you know, beliefs about it. From a practical standpoint, the sooner they can get it done, the more certainty you start to create for families in school leaders, so I think that's been the message Anthony might know even better than I But who is
Sylvie Legere 47:51
the representative? What are the prep representatives who are sponsoring the bill? For extending or removing the sunset on Invest in Kids? Do you know that I don't
Nathan Hoffman 48:03
think that's been decided yet. We've used pass legislators representative Curtis Tarver has been a champion and a sponsor of the policy in the past, I don't think we're settled just yet on on who's gonna sponsor that bill.
Sylvie Legere 48:17
So I think it's just a great topic of conversation on occasion to perhaps introduce yourself to your representative and ask them where they stand on on this issue, and if they are interested in perhaps even sponsoring the bill. Right. So great. I think that this is a wrap and I want to thank everyone, for being here. Thank you so much, Kymyona and Nate for this really insightful comment. Thank you, everyone who are online and participating and everyone in the audience for coming. We have over 100 people here. So thank you. Have a great evening.