The last time we checked in with the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership (MEEP), the organization had released a report calling on the state to close equity gaps in education.
Now, MEEP is taking on inequities in early literacy, encouraging Massachusetts to close persistent gaps in reading achievement — and gathering research and data for a statewide advocacy campaign that will be released in early 2025.
“We know that the data from the most recent MCAS shows that only 42% of third graders are meeting key literacy benchmarks. And when we dive into the data even further, we see that there are huge gaps in reading achievement among low-income students, Black students, Latino students, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities,” Jennie Williamson says. Williamson is the state director of EdTrust in Massachusetts, the nonprofit organization that tackles racial and economic barriers embedded in the education system and that convenes the MEEP coalition.
Last March, EdTrust in MA released Five Takeaways: Literacy Crisis in Massachusetts, an infographic that notes, “greater investments in early literacy can narrow the gaps between students at the start of their academic journeys and ensure all students have the foundation they need to succeed in school and life.”
Among the takeaways, are the disparities in reading outcomes:
Another challenge the infographic points to is a lack of high-quality curricula in Massachusetts schools:
MEEP is tackling these and other problems in several ways. The organization successfully advocated for funding for Governor Maura Healey’s Literacy Launch program to promote “Reading Success from Age 3 through Grade 3.” Literacy Launch received $20 million in the FY’25 state budget. This funding is vital because of, as state officials explain, “the critical role that early educators and preschool providers play in children’s literacy learning.”
Next year, MEEP plans to release various materials as part of a statewide literacy campaign to continue advocating for improved literacy outcomes across the state. These materials will include an interactive website that describes the current statewide literacy crisis, along with a data dashboard that will allow families and advocates to learn about local literacy rates and about how literacy is being funded and taught to young children in their districts.
“A big part of our statewide literacy campaign,” Williamson says, “is raising awareness about literacy and about the importance of evidence-based literacy approaches that are aligned with ‘science of reading,’ ” the evidence from diverse fields about how best to teach literacy.
MEEP will also release an advocacy toolkit for parents and advocates who want to work for change at the local level.
“We hope it will be a living, breathing, evolving campaign so that as the landscape shifts and contexts change, we’ll be able to update the toolkits and add new resources and materials to really help push for meaningful changes to improve literacy outcomes across the state.
“We want children to be able to reach these key literacy benchmarks because we know the implications of being illiterate are huge.”
Some of MEEP’s partners have also been advocating for more equitable access to higher education, working to ensure, for example, that students have the help they need to pay for the full cost of college. It’s work that could potentially help early educators who are seeking college degrees.
Be sure to stay tuned, MEEP’s literacy advocacy promises to be a huge benefit for the state’s children. As Williamson explains:
“Being able to read proficiently by third grade is in many ways a key predictor of other outcomes later in life. For example, early literacy is tied to higher graduation rates, higher attendance rates,better health outcomes, better lifetime earnings, and there are even connections to incarceration.”
“That’s why our organization and our partners are so deeply immersed in this issue, because we know that reading is the foundation for everything.”