Any support from the grassroots in the form of calls, emails, faxes, or letters would be helpful in moving A-2652, the "Phonics Bill", along toward passage. Here is the contact information for Assemblywoman Myers' office:
Hunterdon County—908-713-1608
Warren County—908-835-1202
Mercer County—609-466-7454

The text follows:

AN ACT directing the State Board of Education to revise the Core Curriculum Content Standards for Language Arts Literacy and supplementing chapter 35 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. a. The State Board of Education shall revise the Core Curriculum Content Standards for Language Arts Literacy to include cumulative progress indicators which ensure that students demonstrate the ability to read and spell phonetically by the end of grade 2.

b. By the end of the second school year following the revision of the Core Curriculum Content Standards for Language Arts Literacy pursuant to subsection a. of this section, each board of education that operates an educational program for students in grades 1 and 2 shall implement an assessment program to be administered to all students at the end of grade 2 that measures the student's ability to read and spell phonetically. Any student who does not successfully complete the assessment shall be provided with additional phonics instruction until the student is able to meet the cumulative progress indicators until the student is able to meet the cumulative progress indicators adopted by the State board pursuant to subsection a. of this section.

2. This act shall take effect on the 180th day following enactment.

STATEMENT

This bill requires that the State Board of Education revise the Core Curriculum Content Standards for Language Arts Literacy to include cumulative progress indicators which ensure that students demonstrate the ability to read and spell phonetically by the completion of grade 2. Presently, there are cumulative progress indicators establishing State required student abilities only at the end of grades 4, 8 and 12. Under the bill's provisions, each board of education would be required to establish an assessment program to be administered to all students at the end of grade 2 that measures the student's ability to read and spell phonetically. Students who do not successfully complete the assessment would be provided additional phonics instruction so that they are able to meet the cumulative progress indicators adopted pursuant to this bill.

Phonics instruction is a way of teaching reading that stresses the acquisition of letter-sound correspondences and their use in reading and spelling. The primary focus of phonics instruction is to help beginning readers understand how letters are linked to sounds to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns and to help them learn how to apply this knowledge in their reading.

A recent study by the National Reading Panel, a panel convened by Congressional request, concluded that systematic phonics instruction beginning before grade 2 is significantly more effective in enhancing children's success in learning to read than instruction that teaches little or no phonics. Systematic phonics instruction was also found to positively and significantly improve the reading skills of students with learning disabilities and low-achieving students who are not disabled. Moreover, the National Reading Panel concluded that systematic phonics instruction was significantly effective in improving low socioeconomic status children's alphabetic knowledge and word reading skills.

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Directs the State Board of Education to revise the Core Curriculum Content Standards for Language Arts Literacy.

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