South Dakota educators have pointed to dramatic literacy successes in the state of Mississippi as evidence for lawmakers to support a proposed $6 million investment into expanded phonics-based reading curriculum and teacher training.

But as the appropriation supported by Gov. Kristi Noem moves forward in the Legislature, a top literacy official in Mississippi said that while South Dakota’s plan is a good place to start, a one-time investment is unlikely to reverse falling reading rates in the Rushmore State.

House Bill 1022 would provide the South Dakota Department of Education with $6 million for a four-year statewide teacher training effort in the science of reading (SOR), an intensive approach to reading instruction at the elementary level that relies in part on phonics, or using sounds within words rather than letters to help children read. Continue reading South Dakota literacy improvements likely to cost more than $6 million