Alabama Reading Initiative

The Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) is a statewide K-12 initiative committed to supporting the development of high-quality instruction that will prepare all students wi​th the literacy skills needed to meet or exceed grad​e-level standards. The goal of the ARI is to significantly improve reading instruction and ultimately achieve 100% literacy among public school students.​

Meagan Swingle
Which States Have Passed ‘Science of Reading’ Laws? What’s in Them?

Education Week - Sarah Schwartz

The “science of reading” movement is sweeping through state legislatures.

Over the past several years, more states have passed laws or implemented other policies requiring schools to use evidence-based methods for teaching young students how to read. These mandates touch on many different components of instruction, including teacher training, curriculum, and how students are identified for extra support.

Meagan Swingle
Can teaching be improved by law?

Fordham Institute - Robert Pondiscio

If there’s one lesson education policymakers might have learned in the last twenty-five years, it’s that it’s not hard to make schools and districts do something, but it’s extremely hard to make them do it well. There has always been at least a tacit assumption among policy wonks that schools and teachers are sitting on vast reserves of untapped potential that must either to be set free from bureaucratic constraints or shaken out of its complacency. Those of us who have spent lots of time in classrooms watching teachers trying their best and failing (or trying hard and failing ourselves) often find those assumptions curious. Compliance is easy. It’s competence that’s the rub.

Meagan Swingle
No more ‘magic.’ Training in the science of reading has been a relief for these teachers.

EdNC - Rupen Fofaria

At times, it’s a helpless feeling. That’s how Samantha Osteen, a third-grade teacher at Brevard Elementary, describes it.

She’s looking at state reading standards and knows that a large part of her job is to help students build fluency and comprehension skills. It’s to help them glean meaning from the words they read.

Each year, though, she realizes that far too many can’t even read words.

Meagan Swingle