HB 332

Abstract

Department of Education; pilot program; reading diagnostic tests and instruction. Requires the Department of Education to develop and implement a geographically representative two-year pilot program to administer reading diagnostic tests that include all components of a normed rapid automatized naming test. The bill requires each local school division in the pilot program to provide evidence-based instruction, including structured literacy instruction, to students in kindergarten through grade three who fall below the benchmark on any such reading diagnostic test or demonstrate deficiencies based on their individual performance on the Standards of Learning reading test. The bill requires the Department of Education to report to the Governor and General Assembly, no later than December 1, 2022, on the outcomes of the pilot program and the necessary resources for statewide implementation of such tests and instruction.

Reading diagnostic tests; intervention. Requireseach student in kindergarten and grade one to participate in readingdiagnostic tests that include a rapid automatized naming test andone or more rapid alternating stimulus tests as follows: (i) forstudents in kindergarten, a rapid automatized naming test and a rapidalternating stimulus test that each include colors and objects and(ii) for students in grade one, a rapid automatized naming test andtwo rapid alternating stimulus tests that each include colors, objects,letters, and numbers. The bill requires any student who enrolls ina public elementary school in the Commonwealth for the first timein grade two or grade three to participate in the reading diagnostic tests required for students in grade one. The bill specifies thatsuch diagnostic tests shall consist of the RAN/RAS tests developedand published by Maryanne Wolf and Martha Bridge Denckla or a substantiallysimilar reading diagnostic tool that is evidence-based, normed, andapproved by the Department of Education. The bill requires, beginningJuly 1, 2021, each local school division to provide evidence-based,structured literacy instruction to students in kindergarten throughgrade three who fall below the benchmark on any such reading diagnostictest and requires that such structured literacy instruction be overseenand monitored by the local school division's advisor on dyslexiaand related disorders, when applicable.