The Maryland State Board of Education will use a $6.85 million grant to offer free training on the science of reading for 33,500 teachers and school leaders over the next four years.
State Superintendent Carey Wright announced the grant from the Ibis Group, a national literacy nonprofit, in a board meeting Tuesday. She said this training is a direct response to teacher requests for professional development in the new reading method.
In January, the state board formally adopted the science of reading — which focuses on phonics and fluency instead of memorization — as the new literacy policy beginning Fall 2024.
“We all know the power of the development of early literacy skills,” Wright said. “It's such a strong predictor of achievement later in life — not only in reading, but in mathematics.”
The State University of New York will offer the 35-hour virtual training for teachers and paraprofessionals starting July 1, with priority for those in elementary schools. Of the 27,500 educators, 22,000 will come from K-5 schools.
“This is a flexible, virtual program, so they’re going to be able to make their own schedule and complete this coursework at their own pace,” Wright said. And when they do, and their students demonstrate higher results in reading proficiency, they're going to become those teachers that other educators really look towards.”
The AIM Institute for Learning and Research will train six thousand administrators statewide.
Tenette Smith, Maryland’s executive director of literacy programs, said the goal is to establish a universal baseline on the new reading pedagogy.
“This has been months in the making,” Smith said. “It may alleviate some of the angst and anxiety that we've heard [local districts] express about the lack of professional learning opportunities around the science of reading.”
Smith said state leaders are still deciding how to select participants for the training.
“As we get closer to the launch date, we'll have specifics as to how we will identify teachers who will go through the pathway,” she said. “The one thing that I can say is that we wouldn't want someone who's had a substantial amount of training around the science of reading.”
Board members largely praised the announcement. But some expressed concerns about how to compensate teachers and paraprofessionals for the additional time spent on training.
“I love that it's free; I love that teachers and paraprofessionals will be able to do this on their own time,” said member Rachel McCusker. “But 35 hours is a lot of time. Is there going to be something that's going to be paying teachers for their time, paying paraprofessionals for their time in any way?”
Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Deann Collins said teachers will receive credentials for completing the training that they can cite when applying for recertification.
She also said state leaders will partner with local school districts to make sure the program isn’t interfering with other work.
“We want to make it beneficial,” she said. “We cannot plan this in isolation.”
Johns Hopkins University will also conduct a study to measure the training’s impacts, using $1.5 million of the grant money.
