Bush signs a law to provide reading coaches to train teachers in low-performing schools, and tosses in extra funds.
By Associated Press
Published May 28, 2004
MIAMI - Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Thursday that will provide reading coaches to train teachers in the state's lowest-performing middle schools and require all schools to develop a reading improvement plan for children in sixth through eighth grades.
Bush signed the Middle Grades Reform Act in the library of Shenandoah Middle School and announced $16.7-million in grants for the reading coaches - $3.7-million more than his original budget request.
"Reading can be taught in every class all day long, as long as there is a focused approach," Bush said. "Reading coaches will teach the teachers the new research and the new techniques on how to teach reading."
Among the new requirements, public schools must create by fall a personalized plan for each entering sixth-grader who scores below average in reading on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. "If you get it right in middle school, you won't be dropping out in high school," said Rep. Rafael Arza, R-Miami, chairman of the House Education Pre-K through 12 subcommittee. The latest FCAT results indicate middle school pupils made smaller improvement in reading than those in earlier grades. Seventy percent of fourth-graders were reading at grade level this year, up from 53 percent in 2001. Results for sixth-graders improved only from 52 percent to 54 percent, and fewer than half of eighth-graders were reading at grade level this year, 45 percent.
"What we have decided to do is give the middle schools the tools to replicate the gains we have seen in elementary schools," Bush said.
Before the bill signing, Bush sat in on a reading class where sixth-graders were reviewing a book they just read.
Bush praised the children on their descriptive vocabulary and enthusiasm. "We need to make sure all middle school kids have that same desire in our state," he told them.
