Horizon teachers outline how Wisconsin Act 20 changed reading instruction for grades 3–5

Horizon School Principal Christy Johnson told the Pewaukee School Board on Monday that the district’s response to Wisconsin’s Act 20 centers on science-aligned, phonics-based instruction and more frequent screening.

"This is a law that was passed by the state of Wisconsin in 02/2023," Johnson said, and it requires schools to use scientifically aligned reading practices and to screen students in 4K through third grade. When students fall below the 25th percentile on the screener, schools must follow with diagnostic assessments and a targeted reading plan.

Johnson and Horizon teachers described a multilayered approach the school is using. Across third, fourth and fifth grades Horizon administers AIMSweb screening in fall, winter and spring to identify students who need additional support. For third grade the school has adopted the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) program as its core word-study curriculum and completed UFLI professional development for third-grade teachers. Fourth and fifth grades are using a separate word-study program the presenters identified as "95 Core Phonics," and those teachers also completed structured-literacy training.

Third-grade teacher Lindsay Krieger described UFLI lessons as a two-day cycle: instructor modeling and sound articulation on day one, followed by multisensory practice and dictation on day two. She said lessons emphasize segmentation, blending, articulation, Velcro tile manipulatives and regular dictation to connect phonics study to writing. Krieger and other teachers said the program targets decoding and encoding and is intended to improve both spelling and fluency.

Fourth-grade teacher Sarah Smith said the fourth- and fifth-grade program places more emphasis on multisyllabic decoding, morphology, prefixes, suffixes and Greek and Latin roots so students can better access complex nonfiction vocabulary. Smith described daily predictable routines: warm-ups, word pattern sorting, continuous text practice and weekly dictation to assess transfer to authentic reading and writing.

Teachers described other supports: Cox Campus structured-literacy summer coursework (about 30 hours) that several teachers completed, ongoing building-level professional development, and scheduled Professional Learning Community (PLC) time to analyze AIMSweb and other assessment data and organize Win Time interventions. Johnson explained that "Win Time" is a 30-minute block when students receive small-group interventions, speech and language or IEP-tailored instruction.

On assessment and timing: Johnson told the board that the state-level reading assessment window runs in March and April and that AIMSweb progress monitoring in three windows allows staff to identify students and adjust instruction throughout the year. Teachers said they are creating reading plan interventions for students identified as at-risk during the current AIMSweb window and are carrying third-grade reading plans forward for fourth-grade students who remain in need.

Board members and administrators asked whether students who were already proficient as readers benefit from the phonics-focused instruction. Teachers said instruction supports both decoding and encoding (writing) and that stronger encoding instruction can reduce overgeneralizations in spelling for students who read well but still make spelling errors. Teachers also reported informal parent feedback during conferences that some families had already seen improved spelling and transfer into writing.

Christy Johnson and the teachers cited early local data and teacher observations suggesting improvement in fluency and decoding skills and described continuing steps: expanding the 95 Core Phonics resource to third grade next year, ongoing PLC monitoring of AIMSweb data, and use of diagnostic tools (fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, spelling and Rapid Automatized Naming) to match students with targeted interventions such as Orton-Gillingham and other structured programs.

Board members applauded Horizon for extending Act 20-aligned practices into fourth and fifth grade voluntarily and for the professional development investment. Superintendent Mike (first name used in meeting) and a board member commended the staff’s rollout and the district’s layered approach of screening, diagnostic assessment, interventions and PD.

The presentation concluded with board questions about long-term measures of success and how the curriculum changes will be tracked; staff said they will return with data updates that tie AIMSweb progress monitoring and eventual state assessment results to their intervention strategies.

Ending

Horizon staff said the work is ongoing: systematic phonics instruction, multisensory practice, PLC-driven interventions and progress monitoring. The board asked for follow-up reports on progress monitoring results and how the third-grade cohort performs on state assessments in the spring.