BOSTON — Surrounded by second grade students and education officials, Gov. Maura Healey on Friday signed legislation overhauling early reading instruction in the state.
“When you become a strong reader, you know that that really sets you up for success. Did you know that?” Healey said, addressing a group of second grade students from Blackstone Elementary School. “It’s going to help you with everything else in school and it’s going to help you with everything else in life.”
The compromise legislation (H 5511) was enacted by the Legislature on June 18. It creates standards for evidence-based reading instruction in kindergarten through third grade. It also requires universal literacy screenings, expands teacher training requirements and creates new measures meant to track district compliance and student progress.
The bill also limits the use of the controversial “three-cueing” method where students identify unfamiliar words using context and picture clues as well as sentence structure. The final bill preserved the Early Literacy Fund but dropped a $25 million transfer to the fund that was in Senate-approved bills. The fund is meant to help districts buy curriculum materials and provide professional development.
“It did not make it into the bill, but we fully expect that we will do some sort of funding in the future, either a supp or some other vehicle that we have going forward,” Sen. Sal DiDomenico, the legislation’s Senate lead, said when unveiling the conference committee’s report.
The education advocacy group MassPotential called the legislation “the first standalone education bill to pass in Massachusetts since before the Pandemic” and said Massachusetts was taking “a true step forward in addressing its literacy disparities and ensuring that every student knows how to read by 3rd grade.”
Healey said her administration is committed to working with districts to provide what they need to carry out the law. The governor also said she is focused on working with educators as well as listening to them.
“Without our educators, without our teachers, without these folks, nothing — nothing — is able to happen, and it still remains the single most important determinant of how you’re going to do in school is who is in front of you in the classroom,” Healey said.
DiDomenico, an Everett Democrat, noted Massachusetts is ranked No. 1 in education “by far” but that’s not the case for every age group.
“There are gaps in the system that this bill will now fill, and having evidence-based curriculum being taught in all schools across the commonwealth is a game changer and really shifts the paradigm for the successful future of our kids,” he said.
The law comes while Massachusetts is seeing declining literacy indicators. The most recent publicly available MCAS results from the 2024-25 school year show about 42% of third graders in the state met expectations in English language arts. And performance is lower for students of color, low-income students, English language learners and students with disabilities.
The bill’s supporters said Massachusetts was behind other states in enacting evidence-based reading instructions. Opponents of the reform measures, including the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said it would undermine teacher professionalism and local decision making and the group cautioned against limiting instructional tools for educators working with English learners and students with disabilities.
Massachusetts joins more than 40 states that have enacted science-of-reading laws or related literacy reforms in the past 10 years.
Healey signed the bill in her ceremonial event that was open to press photographers. The governor and lawmakers offered comments at the public event but did not take questions from the news media.
Katie Castellani is a reporter for State House News Service and State Affairs Pro reach her at kcastellani@statehousenews.com.