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Kenosha Unified outlines first-year implementation of Act 20 literacy law
Summary
District staff told the school board they have expanded phonics instruction, trained hundreds of teachers and begun issuing personal reading plans after state-required screeners; staff said timelines, guidance changes and unanticipated costs created heavy workloads for schools.
Kenosha Unified School District staff told the school board on Tuesday that the district has moved to implement Act 20—the 2023 law on the science of reading—this school year with expanded phonics minutes, new teacher training and individualized reading plans for at-risk students.
The district increased primary-level phonics instruction from 30 minutes to 50 minutes, started using decodable readers and supplied teachers with tools such as sound walls, staff said. "We took steps to improve the phonics instruction. First, by increasing the number of minutes that we've earmarked for phonics instruction at the primary level, so we've moved from 30 to 50 minutes," Mary Hoover, district elementary ELA and social studies coordinator, told the board.
District leaders said the work has required construction of new materials, scheduling changes and additional staff time. "The timeline was aggressive is an understatement," Hoover said, describing overlapping tasks including screener administration, diagnostic testing, creation of crosswalks for diagnostic decisions and training turn‑keys for building leaders.
Why it matters: Act 20 requires districts to screen students and to provide diagnostic assessments and personal reading plans for students who score below the 25th percentile on the state-selected screener. Implementing those requirements in a large district, staff said, required new processes across teaching and special education, added training time, and unanticipated printing and administrative costs.
What the district has done: District staff described several major components: - Curriculum: The district reviewed options and kept the existing core curriculum with enhancements aligned to the state rubric; staff removed references to the three‑cueing method and emphasized a "phonics first" approach. "We did find that the curriculum that we currently had was best in terms of content and value with the enhancements that we would have to provide," Hoover said. - Professional development: The district contracted with CESA 6 and used Cox Campus coursework to provide structured‑literacy training. Hoover said the district trained leaders to meet the law's leadership requirement and is running a two‑year teacher training plan to allow application between course modules. - Assessment: The state purchased AIMSwebPlus for universal screening; staff said all K–3 students are screened and those below the 25th percentile receive additional diagnostics and are eligible for a personal reading plan. "To date, we've completed over 16,000 screeners," Hoover reported. - Personal reading plans: The district created 10 teacher-facing plans (six for general use and four Spanish plans for dual‑language learners). Staff said about "a little over 2,000 students in grades K through 3 on one of our 16 reading plans" are receiving targeted instruction; teachers are monitoring progress weekly in AIMSwebPlus or FastBridge.
Challenges and resource needs: Staff described frequent changes in state guidance and late clarifications that forced district pivots. They also reported platform limits in AIMSwebPlus (batch reporting, district-level exports) and unanticipated clerical workload for plan entry. Hoover said the district absorbed printing and organizational costs and funded a personal reading plan lead position to handle data entry and tracking.
Funding and state context: State Representative Dindweski attended and explained that funding for the law (initially authorized in the budget as $50 million) has been delayed by a legal challenge to a partial veto used in the budget process. She said the dispute has held up distribution and that lawmakers are exploring workarounds. "We're waiting on the court to take up the case," the representative said during the meeting.
District next steps: Staff said they plan to acquire a unified data management system to link screener, diagnostics and reading plans; increase the number of trained interventionists; continue intensive professional development; and develop the district promotion policy required by the law. They also said they will reflect on this first year and refine crosswalks, plans and training.
Board questions and clarifications: Board members asked how the district reallocated minutes to increase phonics time (Hoover said core ELA minutes were rearranged to include decodable reader time), how special education students are served (special education teachers and PSTs are included in PD and reading plans), and whether the district used or collaborated with other large districts (staff said they participated in Big 5 conversations and CESA 6 workshops).
