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By Yesenia Robles, Chalkbeat
While Colorado is seeing some improvement in reading instruction, some students continue to struggle.
As a result, the Colorado Department of Education is seeking $3.3 million in the 2025-26 education budget to create new training for teachers to teach English learners to read. It would be used to help teachers differentiate instruction for those students.
State officials say it’s a common request they’ve heard from the field.
English learners advocates have raised concerns for years about how literacy instruction policies affect students who are simultaneously learning English as a new language. Recently, academic achievement data has raised more concerns about how English learner students are performing. And, a recent national study published last month found that many teachers are unhappy with guidance on how to teach reading to English learners.
“Teachers want to more deeply understand how to support this group of students and we want to provide them with that training,” said Joanna Bruno, CDE chief academic officer.
It’s not about teaching something different from what science of reading research tells teachers is effective, Bruno said. The science of reading is a large body of research on how children learn to read that emphasizes teaching phonics, or the relationships between letters and sounds.
Rather, Bruno said it’s about providing additional support so that students get more practice with the language to develop their vocabulary, learn the meaning of the words they are decoding, and also get more opportunities to write, and hear the pronunciation of words and sentences.
“It needs to be an active classroom,” Bruno said.
In the current school year, about 12% of Colorado’s public school students, or more than 105,000 students, are identified as either having limited or no English proficiency, an increase from previous years.
Report says teachers face challenges in the classroom
Similar teacher needs are represented in the new nationwide survey of 77 teachers published last month by the National Committee for Effective Literacy. Co-authors Kathy Escamilla and Kim Strong, both researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, said they wanted to get an idea by asking teachers how science of reading polices and statutes were being implemented in classrooms with English learners.
Researchers found that, in many places, phonics literacy requirements are encroaching or replacing the required time for English language development, and that materials are not culturally inclusive or relevant.
But, Claude Goldenberg, another English learner researcher who wasn’t involved in the study, said that the published report was concerning, unclear, and that it appeared biased, in part because teachers were recruited for interviews at the conferences hosted by the same English learner advocacy groups that criticize new phonics-based reading instruction policies.
Goldenberg said he agrees that reading policies are inadequate in addressing the needs of English learners, but that the report doesn’t allow for a clear takeaway on the problem at the root of teacher experiences.
“The issues they identify, is that the fault of the science of reading, or the science, the knowledge, what we know? Or is it the fault of superficial and inadequate understanding of that knowledge base and how it’s being implemented?” Goldenberg said. “We don’t know what to do with it.”
Escamilla said the report isn’t meant to be critical of the science.
Instead she believes there is likely a gap between theory and practice. She said advocates in Colorado have asked lawmakers to reconsider reworking the state’s statute directing reading instruction.
She said if lawmakers can agree, “this isn’t what we had in mind, the kids aren’t getting what they need, they’re spending too much time doing this and not enough time doing that,” then, “help us craft a statewide policy that is more friendly and more equitable to what kids need.”
The state has responded to feedback
Bruno said the department hears similar feedback from Colorado teachers. She said the department is trying to help districts understand that literacy instruction should not replace English language development time for students learning English as a new language or other academic courses.
In Colorado, English learner researchers, including some involved in the recent survey report, called on state officials to make changes in 2020, worrying that as the state drilled down on science of reading that it would mean a phonics-only focus that would harm English learners.
Since then, the department responded by creating specific guidance for school districts about how to implement literacy instruction for students learning English as a new language, created a rubric to evaluate Spanish-language literacy materials, and hired a liaison to help the department’s different offices work together to think more about multilingual learners.
The department also created a series of professional development courses to help teachers understand more about biliteracy, and started a new State of the State report that looks at how English learners are performing, as a way to more closely monitor and find best practices.
“It’s baby steps,” Escamilla said. “We fought hard in Colorado, but well, the outcomes speak for themselves. We have some real things we need to work on with regard to how we’re looking at outcomes for kids who are learning English as an additional language.”
Education department budget request documents cite the most recent external evaluation of the program from October 2024, which found bright spots in how the READ Act is working, including that the number of students identified as having a significant reading deficiency has decreased to 4.7% of students. The READ Act is a Colorado law, first passed in 2012 updated since, that makes certain requirements of school districts related to reading instruction.
However, English learners continue to be over-represented among students with a significant reading deficiency, according to the budget request. And, students who have a significant reading deficiency identified between kindergarten and third grade, have “extraordinarily low” rates of proficiency on literacy tests.
Those numbers suggest, “a need to emphasize increased training on strategies to support ELLs alongside their English speaking peers,” the budget request stated.
At a hearing last week to discuss the budget request, State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, a Republican representing Weld and Larimer counties, questioned when to decide that funding reading programs isn’t working.
Amanda Bickel, the budget analyst speaking to the joint budget committee, responded that staff would like to see if more training might have an impact on outcomes before they decide that millions spent on reading initiatives aren’t working.
“You have put in a lot of effort so far,” said Bickel, chief legislative analyst.
The legislative staff recommended that the line item be approved if money remained after using COVID relief funds this year.
The committee approved the recommendation for the $3.3 million request, contingent on money remaining, by a 3 to 2 vote.
Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at [email protected].
