FOLLOWING HER GENERAL SESSION PRESENTATION AT NSBA'S 2024 ADVOCACY INSTITUTE, LITERACY POLICY EXPERT KYMONYA BURK SPEAKS WITH AN ATTENDEE.

Kymyona Burk began her career in education teaching first-grade students who struggled with reading. She would later serve as State Literacy Director at the Mississippi Department of Education. There, she led the implementation of the Literacy-Based Promotion Act. The far-reaching state law is credited with fueling the so-called “Mississippi Miracle,” a dramatic rise in academic achievement in the poorest state in the nation. By instituting strategies including educator training and coaching, early literacy intervention, and retaining and providing extra support to third graders who don’t meet state reading standards, Mississippi went from being ranked the second-worst state in 2013 for fourth-grade reading to 21st in 2022.

Burk is currently a senior policy fellow at the national advocacy group ExcelinEd, where she supports states pursuing a comprehensive approach to K-3 reading policy by assisting state leaders in building new or improving existing K-3 reading policies. She explained the Mississippi reform work during a general session presentation at NSBA’s 2024 Advocacy Institute in January in Washington, D.C.

Burk spoke to ASBJ senior editor Michelle Healy about the strategies needed to ensure that children who struggle with literacy don’t become adults who struggle with illiteracy. “If we don’t intervene for these students, it will have an impact on their quality of life as adults, the ways in which they’re able to be a community member, engage with their community, and take care of their family.”

Even after decades of discussion and attention, is the nation still wrestling with a literacy crisis? 

Yes. For so long, we have been underperforming as a country. We’ve talked about this for decades in terms of closing the achievement gap, especially between our White students and our Black and brown students, our students in under-resourced areas, or from low-income families. And that’s just become our reality—that we’re going to have students who are going to do well and students who aren’t. Historically, there’s only ever been about a third of our students who’ve been scoring “proficient” in reading. Dating back decades, that has always been the case.

Mississippi is not alone in instituting K-3 literacy initiatives. Why are these early school years so crucial to future reading ability?

Studies have looked at third grade as the year where we can really determine how students are going to perform later in school. Research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that students who weren’t skilled or proficient readers by the end of third grade were less likely to graduate from high school. About 88% of students who failed to earn a high school diploma were struggling readers in third grade. Subgroup data showed students who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to not graduate from high school. If they are African American or Hispanic, they are six times more likely not to graduate. Low-income minority students who cannot read proficiently by the end of third grade are eight times more likely not to graduate. Other data collected on incarcerated populations showed that seven out of 10 inmates were poor readers in third grade. The end of third grade is considered a threshold, where children transition from learning to read, learning all the foundational skills for reading to reading for information, learning more about their community, about the world.

What’s behind the national reassessment of how reading is taught?

A couple of things really brought this to light, not just for those of us working in education, because these conversations have always been had. I think that this conversation began to take place in other communities, with more parents understanding that some children aren’t where they should be as they’re exiting certain grades, particularly third grade. I call it greater stakeholder awareness. Emily Hanford’s 2018 “Hard Words” report certainly looked under the hood of how children were being taught to read. So, there’s more of a spotlight on this issue that we should have had a long time ago.

What are some critical components of Mississippi’s reform work?

Having a law in place helped tremendously. Our Literacy-Based Promotion Act (including the requirement that third graders meet state reading standards to be promoted to fourth grade) was only one part of the reform agenda. We’ve seen success with the science of reading and ensuring that our teachers are prepared and supported to teach reading skills this way. We can no longer accept the excuse that the problem is because students are poor, because they are Black or brown, or that they’re just not going to do well. We know that something can be done to help kids become skilled readers.

You believe that we lost ground when we moved away from the research-based science of reading approach to teaching children to read?

The short answer is yes. Years and years ago there was a big push around phonics or decoding in learning vocabulary and language, and all of those things that are a part of what we consider the science of reading. You saw it when you watched shows like “Sesame Street.” In addition, the “National Reading Panel Report: Practical Advice for Teachers” in 2000 also said that these are the components of reading, and if we explicitly teach these components, students can become skilled readers. But no one was monitoring the actual implementation of the recommendations in schools and districts across the country. Now, with this increased stakeholder awareness, the message is if your child is guessing at a word, that’s not the best way to learn how to read. If your child is looking at a picture to try to figure out a word, that’s not the best way to learn how to read.

What can school board members learn from the communications strategies that supported the reform work in Mississippi?

Transparency is essential, even if you don’t have all the answers. It’s important to share information with parents and families, letting them know what the work will look like, even testing and screening dates. Make sure that as you communicate, you are intentionally communicating to specific audiences. You don’t send correspondence to parents in the same language that you send to teachers. Districts also should proactively tell their own stories to the media. You gain trust by being very transparent and communicative.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)