How will classrooms be changing?

 Public Act 12-50: An Act Concerning Requirements for Early Childhood Educators  SB-382: An Act concerning teacher certification  SB 458: An Act Concerning Educational Reform, signed by Gov. Malloy on May 14

 State Department of Education assumes a new level of responsibility and oversight of school readiness, ages 3-5 (“lead agency”)  Guidelines for staff-child interactions  Curriculum content  Parental involvement  Staff qualifications and training  Grant awards to provide spaces in accredited school readiness programs in priority districts

 Beginning July 2013, a person with an Elementary Education endorsement may not teach Kindergarten: Need an early childhood nursery through grade three endorsement

 All certified employees working in K-3 take a practice reading instruction exam with results reported to state  CT already requires a similar exam for pre- service teachers  Certified SpEd, remedial reading, and Language Arts must also pass reading instruction test (7/1/13)-sec 92  Other states where this is in place: MA, WI, CA  Designed to assess mastery of foundational knowledge of reading instruction  Expected to be similar to MA test

 FOUNDATIONS OF READING DEVELOPMENT ◦ Understand phonological and phonemic awareness. ◦ Understand concepts of print and the alphabetic principle. ◦ Understand the role of phonics in promoting reading development. ◦ Understand word analysis skills and strategies.

 Understand vocabulary development.  Understand how to apply reading comprehension skills and strategies to imaginative/literary texts.  Understand how to apply reading comprehension skills and strategies to informational/expository texts.

 Understand formal and informal methods for assessing reading development.  Understand multiple approaches to reading instruction.  INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ◦ Prepare an organized, developed analysis on a topic related to one or more of the following: foundations of reading development; development of reading comprehension; reading assessment and instruction.

 15 hours every five years in teaching of reading, reading readiness, reading assessment  Results-based: geared to improved practice and individual or small-group coaching sessions  Topics based on student assessment data  Differentiated  Led by mentor teachers, job-embedded, local  Clearly identify expected model practices

 New state approved student reading assessments for K-3 to identify struggling students  Must include progress monitoring  Measure phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension  Data to be used to drive instruction  Reflects “best practice”  By January 1, 2013

 Early literacy pilot to promote best practices (Sec. 4)  Intensive reading instruction program, K-3 (Sec. 89) ◦ Routine assessments ◦ Scientifically based reading research and instruction ◦ Intensive reading intervention strategy ◦ Supplemental reading instruction and reading remediation plans ◦ Intensive summer school reading program

 Coordinated state-wide reading plan  Research-driven strategies  Aligned with CCS and vertically  Data-driven longitudinal record keeping  Intervention plan  Enhanced instruction for those at/above grade level  District reading plan  Parental involvement  Incentives for schools with significant improvement (>10%)  More literacy training for birth-five

 Addition of required pre-literacy course  Pass reading instruction test (dates back to 2009)  Extended field experiences