Governor Tomblin’s education reform bill passed by the legislature earlier this year requires all children to read proficiently by the third grade. A strategy to make sure that happens will be discussed at an education summit Tuesday, November 5.
From grades kindergarten to third grade, children learn to read. By fourth grade, they must read to learn.
Dr. Amelia Courts, the President and CEO of The Education Alliance in Charleston says it takes more than a law on the books to do that. It takes support from the school community.
“Obviously Governor Tomblin has made it very clear that he views the improvement process for education to be a long term commitment and that’s where our organization stands as well. There were some legislative changes this past session,” said Courts.
“We would envision that some additional changes will occur this coming session and we want to continue to engage the community as we move through that process. Also as we work with individual schools and school districts we hope to take some of these lessons learned from the summit and work with them as they are implemented in programs at different schools.”
The summit includes speeches, panel discussions and a town hall meeting hosted by former governor Gaston Caperton. It convenes Tuesday morning at the Charleston Civic Center.