A retired public school teacher who now chairs the Senate Education Committee, Sen. Laura Sturgeon led the way in assisting our public school to raise lagging literacy rates among Delaware students by shifting the state’s reading instruction to evidence-based curricula that focuses on a child’s cognitive development.
Passed unanimously by both the Senate and the House, Senate Bill 4 (S) instructed the Delaware Department of Education to publish a list of evidence-based reading instruction curricula prior to the 2022-2023 school year.
The bill also instructed district and charter schools to adopt one or more of the evidence-based curricula published by DOE by the 2027-2028 school year.
This bill works in conjunction with Senate Concurrent Resolution 82 sponsored by Sen. Sturgeon to help the Department of Education assess how best to adapt teacher certification requirements to align with evidence-based approaches to reading.