Katie Castellani
State House News Service
With an apparent breakthrough imminent, lawmakers appear ready to send early literacy reform legislation to Gov. Maura Healey's desk this week.
Shortly after 9 a.m. Monday, the News Service inquired about whether any of the several conference committees had picked up the materials needed to file consensus bills and it appears an accord on early literacy legislation (H 4683 / S 2940) that cleared both branches in different forms is expected later in the day.
The House has a formal session scheduled for Wednesday and the Senate plans a formal session Thursday where votes could be taken to move the legislation to Healey and advance reforms designed to change literacy instruction and improve reading skills.
Both the House and Senate bills require districts to adopt literacy criteria in five research-based areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The House bill, which was approved in October, also bans "three-cueing," a controversial teaching method that relies on students using context and picture clues.
The Senate bill, which passed in January, does not explicitly ban three-cueing and allocates $25 million to a new early literacy fund that's meant to help districts purchase curricula and offer professional development for teachers.
Conference committee talks have been led by Sen. Sal DiDomenico of Everett and Rep. Ken Gordon of Bedford. Sens. Sens. Jason Lewis of Winchester and Patrick O'Connor of Weymouth along with Reps. Simon Cataldo of Concord and John Marsi of Spencer are also on the conference committee.
