September/October 2025

Conversations and Commentary: Literacy Questions in Illinois

By Louise Dechovitz

With the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan in place, and the con­versation about literacy continuing, Illinois literacy advocates continue to elevate the Plan, but acknowledge there is a lot of work left to be done.

What do people still not understand about literacy?
I think there is still a pervasive myth that explicit instruction is needed just for some students, and that a constructivist approach, also called “discovery learning” or “inquiry-based learning,” is appro­priate for others. It is not an either/ or situation. We know from decades of research in cognitive science that when a person is a novice learner (e.g., a 5-year-old at school for the first time, a middle-schooler learn­ing chemistry for the first time, or a college student learning engineering for the first time), explicit instruc­tion is most effective and efficient.

Once that individual has a strong foundation in that learning and is accurate and fluent, then a more inquiry/discovery-based instruction­al approach can be appropriate.

Just recently, I heard from an Illinois parent whose district’s staff — including the reading specialist — told families that science-aligned reading curricula are a “fad,” too difficult for teachers to implement, and likely to disappear with the next political shift. This kind of thinking reflects deeper systemic misunder­standings and resistance to change.

Implementing evidence-based literacy instruction is indeed challenging, but not because it doesn’t work. It is challenging because many teachers were never adequately trained in these meth­ods. This is where local leadership really matters a lot.

School boards have a vital role to play in ensuring their district anchors literacy instruction in research-based and evidence-based practices. They must hold their superintendents accountable for providing high-qual­ity, sustained professional develop­ment and adopting aligned curricula.

Science is not a fad, and our children cannot afford for schools to chase pedagogical trends at the expense of what is proven to work. When board members use their over­sight authority to ask hard questions, demand better training for teachers and staff, and stay focused on student outcomes, they become powerful allies for both teachers and children.

What do you think about the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan?
The Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan is really well done, and we at the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition are pleased with the way ISBE invested the time to solicit feedback and develop a plan with significant input and buy-in from the field. There are some areas that we would like to see refined as they continue to refresh the Plan with updates, but generally, Illinois has a solid foundational document that outlines what literacy instruction should look like. ISBE also has a host of tools, toolkits, and resources on their website for educators, dis­trict leaders, educator preparation programs, and even for families and community members.

One of my favorite features of the Plan includes the charts that explicitly share evidence-based practices and corresponding prac­tices that do not align with evi­dence. Our Coalition felt strongly that this degree of specificity was important guidance for educators who need to know more about the practical implications for instruc­tion, and also to debunk some of the “outdated” instructional prac­tices that are not supported by liter­acy research. The Plan also includes a paragraph up front that says we don’t use the phrase “science of reading” because people have vary­ing perceptions of what that means. The Plan is specific and doesn’t rely on buzzwords. We didn’t want people to skim through it to decide if they supported the Plan based on some ideology or “taking a side.”

We genuinely wanted the Plan to be true to the research and user-friendly for readers, and it achieves that.

How do you feel about the progress Illinois has made, since literacy began its current splash?
I have mixed feelings about this. While we do have a great literacy plan, there are no requirements for schools to follow it. Also, while we secured $3 million in the state budget last year (which dropped to $1.5 million this year), resources dedicated to implementation of the Plan are scarce. Anecdotally, we hear about rooms of 100+ teachers where not one person has heard of the Plan. But we’ve also seen a lot of districts improving their curric­ulum, screeners, and professional development to better align with evidence-based literacy practices.

Last year, our literacy coalition worked on a bill (HB4902 Faver Dias/Lightford) that requires IL-EMPOWER learning partners working with turnaround schools to align their ELA supports with the Plan. This year, we passed HB1368 (also Faver Dias/Lightford) that requires ISBE-approved professional development providers to align their ELA training with evidence as out­lined in the Plan.

We continue to elevate the Plan, but there is a lot of work left to be done.

In addition, we continually hear that teachers are eager to learn about evidence-based instructional practices, as they did not gain this knowledge or training in their edu­cator preparation programs (EPPs). This is a serious problem, not only for the disservice to the teacher candidates, but it also puts the bur­den of re-training teachers on the school districts, and the burden is significant. I would like to see the state support our EPPs to align to the Plan and to the Administrative Code, and to put on notice those programs that do not come into compliance. This will require a robust audit process for program review and reauthorization.

What are the next steps for literacy in Illinois?
There are many. The original SB 2243 (Lightford/Mayfield) required ISBE to revise the content test for the grade 1 – 6 licensure band to add enough questions to produce a valid and reliable subscore for literacy. That is being developed, and teacher candidates will begin taking the new test next year.

Then, we will see data that indicates which EPPs are preparing candidates well for that portion of the test. As stated above, we still have work to do to ensure that EPPs are providing teacher candidates with the pedagogical knowledge they need to effectively teach children to read and write, and we hear repeat­edly from teachers who have grad­uated and entered classrooms that they feel ill-prepared to support stu­dents who have difficulty, as well as those who are multilingual learners.

Our Coalition has worked together with Everyone Reading Illinois for several years to advance universal literacy screening, and continues to face a lot of challenges in making progress on that front. Because Illinois is mandate-averse, we cannot simply mandate a specific screener, and there is still plenty of opposition to creating a list of high-quality screener options. As a result, many schools continue to use screeners that are expensive, time-consuming, and inaccurate in identifying students who are at risk for reading difficulties, or may already be having difficulties.

There are also a lot of schools that have good screeners but don’t know what to do with the data they collect. Ultimately, schools need to have a strong multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) in order to effec­tively and efficiently respond to chil­dren’s needs. Such a system requires high-quality screening and evi­dence-based response to that screen­ing, beginning with strong Tier 1 instruction. So we want to work to support MTSS across the state.

As I said above, funding and implementation support for the Literacy Plan continues to be a huge challenge, and there are broader funding issues, like com­ing up with resources for regional literacy coaching hubs, summer learning, early childhood, and after-school tutoring.

There are other challenges that tangentially impact literacy achieve­ment, such as chronic absenteeism.

What can IASB members do to support literacy?
As a two-term board mem­ber, I attended the Joint Annual Conference many times. With the support of my board of education and superintendent, I drafted and defended a Resolution at the 2021 Delegate Assembly on pre-service teacher education and licensure in reading science, and it passed with overwhelming support of the dele­gates and is now an IASB Position Statement.

I would love for the November 2026 Conference to include ses­sions on evidence-based literacy and numeracy instruction. ISBE recently held a Numeracy Plan Summit and has started drafting a State Numeracy Plan. Moving the needle of literacy and numeracy achievement in our state will take the combined efforts of all stake­holders working together.

What resources can you think of that would help explain evidence-based practices in teaching and learning reading to school board members?
I think all school board mem­bers should be aware of the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan and ISBE’s Dyslexia Handbook, written by the Illinois SLD Support Proj­ect. ISBE also has a literacy toolkit specifically for families and com­munity members, and another one for district leaders.

School board members should talk with their superintendents about the Plan and the Dyslexia Handbook, and ask how their districts are using these important tools. Is the district developing a local literacy plan as advised? How can the board support the district’s efforts for staff professional develop­ment and acquisition of high-quali­ty instructional materials?

We are all continuing to learn, but students need effective instruc­tion now. Our responsibility is to act on the evidence we have, while continuing to grow our under­standing. Scientific knowledge is always advancing, and the evidence base for how children learn to read, write, and comprehend text con­tinues to deepen. When we know better, we must do better, for our students, our educators, and our communities.

 

Louise Dechovitz is a co-founder of the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition and co-chair of its Outreach committee, working to promote statewide literacy initiatives and support equitable access to quality instruction in Illinois. As a Stand for Children fellow, she has actively collaborated with educators, policymakers, and community stakeholders to champion evidence-based literacy practices. She is a board member of The Reading League Illinois and a former two-term school board member for Avoca SD 37. Dechovitz works as the Administrative Assistant for the Illinois SLD Support Project, a grant-funded project through ISBE in partnership with Eastern Illinois University and Eastern Illinois Area of Special Education. The Illinois SLD Support Project will be meeting with attendees at the Exhibit Trade Show at the 2025 Joint Annual Conference. Resources mentioned in this article, and many more, are available at iasb.com/Journal.