In a rare show of bipartisanship this session, the Florida House of Representatives last week unanimously gave final approval to a measure aimed at helping elementary district school students struggling in reading and math.

HB 7039 would expand New Worlds Reading Scholarship Accounts to include coverage for math tutoring. To reflect the change, the bill would rename the program New World Scholarship Accounts.

(Step Up For Students, host of this blog, administers the New World Reading Scholarship Accounts program.)

“Until third grade, we learn to read and after third grade, we read to learn,” said state Rep. Dana Trabulsy, R – St. Lucie, who sponsored the bill. She added that a children’s math knowledge by that time also determines how proficient they will be throughout their lives.

Trabulsy noted that less than half of Florida students are at grade level in reading and math. She said 41% of  Florida fourth graders were proficient in math, and that only 23% of eighth graders were on grade level in math. She said that 88% of those who fail to graduate from high school struggle with the foundational skills of reading and math and that a disproportionate share of those will be “filling the pipeline to prison, not prosperity.”

The bill requires school districts to evaluate students in kindergarten through third grade for reading at the end of each quarter, identify those who were not on track or who display symptoms of learning disabilities, notify parents and offer immediate intervention. The same requirements apply to math students in kindergarten through fourth grade.

The bill also bans the use of a method of teaching method called “three cueing” which involves prompting students to draw on context and sentence structure, along with letters, to identify words. Though widespread, the method has begun to fall out of favor with some groups. HB 7039 requires the use of phonics in all reading instruction.

The bill also expands the eligibility criteria for the New Worlds Reading Initiative, a book distribution program approved in 2021, by adding prekindergarten students to the list of students eligible to receive free books and any student in prekindergarten through grade 5 who is not yet reading on grade level.

The initiative also includes the New Worlds Reading Scholarship Accounts, which offers a $500 scholarship to students in kindergarten through grade five who show a substantial deficiency in reading.

An amendment to HB 7039 approved on March 23 in the House Education & Employment Committee, added math to that program and allows those in kindergarten through fifth grade with a substantial deficiency in math to apply for $500 scholarships to pay for assistance.

During its legislative journey, the bill drew praise from Democrats and Republicans as well as groups that often find themselves on opposite sides of issues, such as the conversative Florida Citizen Alliance and the more left-leaning Florida PTA. Both groups spoke in favor of the bill during the bill’s last committee stop.

“As a co-sponsor, I thank you for looking out for the kids and their actual wellbeing and what is going on in their lives,” state Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, told Trabulsy just before the final floor vote.

A companion bill, SB 1424, is in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Education. However, the Senate could to act on the House bill, which was sent to that chamber after receiving final approval on Friday.

Tamra Creighton’s kids love books.

“After school, we do a little bit of reading and then before bed,” said Creighton, a mom to seven children ranging in age from 10 years to 10 months. “During the summer we’re on trips, we read in the car to and from or inside the RV. Each one would pack a bag, and that was their to-do thing while we were out and about.”

Her husband is a lineman who travels to work for different utilities, and the family sometimes travels with him. The books provide a fun activity that helps boost the children’s reading skills.

Three of Creighton’s children, Mason, 10, Zoe, 8 and Boston, 7, found an extra reason to be excited about books after enrolling in the state’s New Worlds Reading Initiative last year. The program, created and funded through state legislation in 2021 and championed by House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, distributes one free book per month during the school year to qualified children in kindergarten through fifth grade enrolled in Florida district and charter schools.

The University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning is administering the program, which is funded by a $200 million appropriate in the 2021 state budget as well as a corporate tax-credit program that provides a dolloar-for-dollar return in tax credits for a corporation’s donation. Lastinger is partnering with Scholastic to distribute the books to each student.

Books are available in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Kids get to choose the topic of books they receive. Shaunté Duggins, assistant director of the New Worlds Reading Initiative, said the most poplar topics are adventure and humor.

Creighton appreciates the diversity of subject matter; her daughter loves books about the arts, while Mason enjoys mysteries. Boston prefers nature-themed books, especially those about sharks and dolphins.

The kids were recommended for the program after moving from Columbia County to Lafayette County. Their former schools offered the Accelerated Reader program, which incentivized reading and engaged them with quizzes and reward points for reading more books.

Their new schools did not offer the program, and the children’s engagement began to slip as a result. Boston, the 7-year-old, has trouble remembering what he reads and struggled in first grade. So, their teachers invited Creighton to sign them up for New Worlds Reading Initiative.

Creighton says the program has made a positive difference.

“Boston has really benefitted the most,” she said.

Each child’s books arrive at different times, and every delivery excites all of them. Each child has used the books to start a personal library, which is one of the goals of the program.

Duggins, reflecting on reading’s ability to transform lives in incredible ways as reading proficiency supports and promotes learning in all subjects, said teachers are important ambassadors of the program.

“They share our mission in instilling a love for reading within students and helping them read on grade level,” she said. “We are absolutely thrilled to partner with educators, families, and communities to deliver books to the homes of over 100,000 families to help instill a lifelong love of reading.”

As of July 13, the program had enrolled 161,000 families according to the Florida Department of Education. But Duggins said the program is only at its inception.

“We're working hard to ensure that every eligible child across the state of Florida has the chance to enroll," she said.

The book distribution system joins another statewide program available to enhance literacy skills for struggling young readers who attend district and charter schools. The New Worlds Reading Scholarship Accounts program, formerly known as the Reading Scholarship, provides $500 per student. Created in 2018, the program allows funds to be spent on tuition and fees related to part-time tutoring, summer and after-school literacy programs, instructional materials (including desktop/laptop computers and tablets and curriculum related to reading or literacy.

Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, administers the New Worlds Reading Accounts program.

Nearly $2.5 million in Reading Scholarships were awarded to 4,961 Florida students during the 2020-21 school year according to a report prepared by the state-approved scholarship funding organization that helps administer the scholarship.

Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, disclosed that families spent about 82%, or $1.5 million, of the scholarship funds, on instructional materials. Part-time tutoring and afterschool programs were the next most popular options at $260,374 and $53,034, respectively. In total, parents spent nearly $1.9 million to help improve their childen’s literacy.

Two-thirds of the students who used a Reading Scholarship were either white or Hispanic; 28% were Black. Seven percent were considered English Language Learners.

The Reading Scholarship was most popular among parents in Broward County, who accounted for 9% of the total, followed by Palm Beach and Marion counties, each of which accounted for 7% of the total.

Created in 2018, the program provides students with a scholarship worth $500 that can be spent on tutoring, textbooks, reading curriculum, reading programs and more. It is available to public school students in grades 3-5 who scored below grade level on the third- or fourth-grade English Language Arts section of the Florida Standards Assessment in the prior school year. Students classified as English Language Learners receive priority funding.

Changes likely are coming to the program for the 2022-23 school year. The Florida Legislature during its 2022 session voted to rename the program the New Worlds Reading Initiative and expanded eligibility to include students in grades K-2.

Both changes await Gov. Ron DeSantis’s approval.

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