ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia school officials will use $10 million in federal money to place reading coaches to help improve teaching in 60 low-performing elementary schools, as lawmakers continue to pressure state Superintendent Richard Woods to do more to support a literacy law passed last year.
The move, announced Thursday by Woods, is the first time that the state will directly fund coaches in schools. Coaching is seen as essential because it helps teachers put things they learn about literacy instruction into practice.
“We know that professional learning, without coaching, doesn’t really stick,” Amy Denty, director of literacy for Georgia Department of Education, told a state Senate committee meeting on Feb. 9.
Georgia is trying to overhaul literacy instruction, with legislators last year mandating that each district must retrain all K-3 teachers by August 2025. Already, more than 5,000 of Georgia’s 27,000 K-3 teachers have enrolled in state-provided online training that includes 25 hours of classes on literacy instruction, Denty said.