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Board recommends wording edits to literacy regulations, advances VLA changes
Summary
AvTel recommended targeted wording updates to proposed Virginia Literacy Act regulations (Chapter 23) — including replacing “fiction and nonfiction” with “literary and informational” in several places — and voted to forward the edits; staff said changes will be phased in with guidance for educator-preparation programs.
The advisory board on teacher education and licensure recommended edits to proposed regulations implementing the Virginia Literacy Act and approved sending those changes forward to the board of education.
The panel voted to change selected passages in the licensure regulations to replace “fiction and nonfiction” with “literary and informational” text in identified lines and to approve other technical edits. Chair-led voice votes carried the motions without recorded opposition.
Rob Gilstrap, assistant superintendent of human capital, reviewed the regulatory packet and described how the proposed edits will proceed through the regulatory town hall and board-approval process. He said the updates include clarified definitions and the addition of “science-based reading” and “evidence-based literacy instruction” to sections of the licensure rules that staff and stakeholders reviewed as part of cross-references to teacher education regulations.
“[The packet] talks about the justification and the rights to be able to change regulations, some clarity on definitions, and then legal basis, and then it gets right into why we would be changing it,” Gilstrap said while walking through the submission document.
EPP representatives expressed concern about implementation timing and the practical effect on competency matrices. VDOE staff told the board there will be an adoption window and a phased implementation so students currently enrolled can complete programs; the department will publish guidance and schedules for educator-preparation programs to align curricula and competency matrices.
Board members pressed staff on whether the new competencies require specific courses. A VDOE specialist replied that inserting the competencies’ language alone will not be sufficient and that the department will provide a guidance document indicating how EPPs should demonstrate alignment.
Several board members pointed to the 2024 Standards of Learning revisions as the reason for changing text categories. A standards representative said the 2024 SOLs use “literary” and “informational” wording, and the proposed regulatory language is intended to match that terminology.
The motion specified the lines to be edited (listed in the meeting packet as lines 3 26, 3 93, 5 99 and 6 19). The board approved the motion by voice vote.
Next steps: staff will incorporate the approved wording edits into the regulatory submission and proceed through the regulatory town-hall and Board of Education approval steps; VDOE will issue guidance and a phased timetable for EPP alignment.
