Breaking News
Uncategorized

DeWine spells out importance of literacy during Marietta visit

By Douglass Huxley 4 min read

MARIETTA -- Ohio's governor talked about the importance of reading in an event Wednesday in Marietta.

Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife Fran were at Washington Elementary to observe classroom activities, discuss how the Science of Reading has been implemented in its lessons and to hear about the students' experience with it.

"What Fran and I are doing is going around the state and listening to those teachers, and those schools, that have made the switch over to the Science of Reading," DeWine said.

DeWine said his stop at Washington Elementary was his ninth visit to a school in the last three weeks. He said teachers were telling him they were working as hard as they could, but not making the progress they wanted to make with students.

"We knew we had to do something," DeWine said. "They did the research and found out the Science of Reading is really the way to go. They switched over to that and they've seen tremendous, tremendous results."

DeWine signed an executive order on March 23 putting the Governor's Children's Initiative into effect. The initiative will coordinate with interested parties to develop a program to recognize schools that are demonstrating strong implementation of best instructional practices aligned to the Science of Reading and where students are making significant progress in reading.

DeWine said the state will provide the funds for schools to get the curriculum and to train teachers on how to use the program to benefit students.

"Over $100 million in our budget that we proposed, that the legislature is now working on the budget, but we're going around the state and learning, and listening, but also urging the state Legislature to pass the budget we have proposed."

DeWine said the significance of the initiative is there are students who are not learning to read and it's negatively impacting their lives.

"We want every child in the state to live up to their God-given potential," DeWine said. "And for that to happen they have to learn to read."

DeWine said it not only hurts the students but also the state. He said there are more jobs available than there are qualified people to work them. He said the only way to get these positions filled is to not waste the potential of Ohio students.

"Have every child when they graduate from high school be on some pathway," DeWine said. "The only way they're going to be on that pathway is if they can read. If they can't read, they're not going to live up to their full potential and Ohio is not going to be as great a state as it could be."

The initiative also is in collaboration with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Ohio to develop recommendations for ongoing public-private partnerships aimed at encouraging reading. This is being spearheaded by First Lady Fran DeWine.

"It's really been a lot of fun to do this program in Ohio," Fran DeWine said. "We have over 51% of kids now that are signed up that are under five (years of age)."

Mrs. DeWine said the program provides a free book to children every month until the age of 5. She said 380,000 children are registered, which she said was more than any other state, and in three years more than 10 million books have been sent to those children. She said it was transformative for families as they read together and get children ready for kindergarten.

"And then when they start kindergarten they're introduced to the Science of Reading," Mrs. DeWine said.

Raven Cromwell, an assistant professor of education at Marietta College, said in the roundtable discussion she has had training in the Science of Reading. She can now pass that onto her students.

"One of our interns is graduating already knowing about the Science of Reading and knowing how to teach it," Cromwell said. "She's not going to go into a classroom and not know what to do."

DeWine said he expected resistance to a new way of teaching, but that isn't what he's found on this tour. When teachers start seeing the results, they become the most fervent supporters, he said

"Because they're watching these kids every single day improve," DeWine said. "That's what teachers want. Every teacher wants to be an effective teacher, every teacher wants their kids to do well. I think that's what's really exciting about this, that the teachers get excited about it as they see the results."

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com

Starting at /week.