A bill beginning to make its way through the California State legislature, AB 1121 (Blanca Rubio), marks a significant step toward improving early literacy outcomes for all students, particularly the state’s 3.6 million low-income learners, through focus on teacher training and instructional materials.
According to Decoding Dyslexia CA, one of the bill’s cosponsors, passage of this bill would move state guidance to action by focusing on:
- Teacher training: requires professional development, paid for by the state, in evidence-based literacy instruction for all California elementary teachers and administrators involved in reading instruction
- Instructional materials: requires Local Education Agencies to select materials from a new list of evidence-based ELA/ELD instructional materials aligned with the state’s literacy framework
The bill will be considered by the Assembly Education Committee this spring. More information, including an online petition of support and what you can do to help the bill pass, is available here.