St. Cloud Area School District Launches Science of Reading Program

(KNSI) — The St. Cloud Area School District has launched a revolutionary new reading program.

The Science of Reading is based on more than five decades of scientific research on how kids learn to read. District 742 Director of Elementary Curriculum Laura Steabner told KNSI News the district started training its first crop of nearly 30 teachers this year. “I think we are embarking on a big initiative, but that there’s a lot of excitement and support around it. And so we’re really excited to see what happens in our classrooms as a result of this learning.”

The new training program is Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, also known by its acronym LETRS. Steabner says it’s a game changer in the classroom. “One of the things that I had heard recently was teachers just connecting to the training and saying, ‘I now know what to do in every situation I face when it comes to students who struggle to read, and I didn’t know that before, LETRS has given me that path forward.'”

Getting all their elementary teachers through the instruction will take about three more years.

Mississippi was the first in the nation to implement the system fully, and they’ve doubled their reading proficiency in the last 20 years. In 2019, national testing showed that fourth graders’ proficiency rate was 32%.

In 2022, the St. Cloud Area School District had a reading proficiency rate of 38.3%, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.

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