VERONA, Wis. – A reading specialist is conflicted Wisconsin may overhaul its system for teaching students to read.

Wisconsin kids desperately need help. According to the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 67% of our fourth-graders aren’t proficient in reading. For eighth-graders, that number is the same. Those scores are the lowest since 1998.

“We need help,” said Kim Feller-Janus, a reading specialist and owner of the Feller School in Verona, which focuses on reading. “We needed to help these kids, like, yesterday.”

The $50 million plan from Wisconsin Republicans would create a Council on Early Literacy Curricula within the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). It would allocate $10 million to hire 64 literacy coaches throughout the state and assign them where they’re needed most based on test scores and administrator requests.

However, GOP leaders and DPI officials are at odds over parts of the bill. It would also require students be held back based on certain test scores, which DPI officials do not agree with.

Teaching kids to read was one of Feller-Janus’ biggest challenges, even though she relied on her training.

“I’m doing my best, I’m doing what I was taught in college, I was I'm doing what I learned in my practicums. I'm doing what I've been doing for years and years and years,” she said. “And yet, there's still a group of children, usually about four or five kids in my class, that would not make progress.”

She decided to leave the public school system to become a reading specialist. That’s when she learned balanced literacy, the method Wisconsin schools currently use to teach students to read, is not backed by research. She said it attempted to add more of the science of reading method, but is still based on things like recognizing words by sight and context clues.

“It was devastating to hear that all of my training, including my specialty in reading from the beautiful state of Wisconsin, was all for naught,” Feller-Janus said.

Research does support a method called science of reading. About 30 states now have laws requiring their public schools to use this system, which focuses more on letters, the sounds they make, and how those sounds form words. It’s much more phonics-based. That’s what Feller-Janus teaches.

“Kids just light up and in turn their whole attitude towards writing and towards reading around,” she said. “[They] actually say hey, this is fun. This makes sense. I'm decoding, I understand the code now for reading.”

The bill would require public schools implement science of reading-based curricula.

“This is not an ideological idea. It's not a political move … this science of reading is based on years and years, decades of research,” Feller-Janus said. “Within the last 20 years, we actually have proof, like brain research, where there's brain imaging that actually shows kids who are successful skilled readers, something happens in that brain, little synapses happen in that brain that are different than a child who struggles.”

On the other hand, Feller-Janus said lawmakers telling educators how to educate doesn’t always lead to the best education.

“I like what I see,” she said. “However, I don't know that it's a good idea to do top-down mandates, rules, that sort of thing.”

She knows educators are just doing the best they can. She also knows they need better tools and a better system on a statewide scale.

“To all those teachers out there, give yourself grace,” she said. “Take one step at a time. Educate yourself on the new stuff, and you will never regret it.”

Feller-Janus trains teachers at the Feller School in Verona. Her first year changing from just a tutoring operation to a school, all of her students will return in the fall.

The “Right to Read Act,” is headed by State Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, and State Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville. The hope is that by implementing this new approach, struggling readers will be spotted sooner.

“Wisconsin is returning to the way lots of us learned to read, because it works,” Kitchens said in the release. “Our plan will help districts with this transition to the Science of Reading and make sure struggling readers are identified and get the help they need. This is a proven pathway to improving test scores.”

The reading bill will have a committee hearing Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.