Georgia school officials will use $10 million in federal money to place reading coaches to help improve teaching in 60 low-performing elementary schools, as lawmakers continue to pressure state Superintendent Richard Woods to do more to support a literacy law passed last year.
The move, announced Thursday by Woods, is the first time that the state will directly fund coaches in schools. Coaching is seen as essential because it helps teachers put things they learn about literacy instruction into practice.
“We know that professional learning, without coaching, doesn’t really stick,” Amy Denty, director of literacy for Georgia Department of Education, told a state Senate committee meeting on Feb. 9.
Georgia is trying to overhaul literacy instruction, with legislators last year mandating that each district must retrain all K-3 teachers by August 2025. Already, more than 5,000 of Georgia’s 27,000 K-3 teachers have enrolled in state-provided online training that includes 25 hours of classes on literacy instruction, Denty said.
The state’s effort to help children read better is one example of many nationwide as the “science of reading” shakes up teaching and learning. Most experts now agree effective teaching should include detailed instruction on the building blocks of reading, including letter sounds and how to combine them into words.
The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress found only 32% of Georgia fourth graders proficient in reading, about the same as nationwide. Woods prefers a different measure, which finds about 40% of third-grade students are ready.
Woods earlier announced a plan to hire 32 regional coaches and pay stipends to school district personnel who lead literacy efforts. Those regional coaches would oversee coaches working in schools. A recent survey found more than 500 locally-hired coaches already working statewide.
Georgia will adopt Florida’s coaching standards to standardize what…
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