We are delighted to welcome you to the 2018-2019 school year! We are here to assist you as you open the doors to another year of possibilities and outstanding education for students across this state.
The MOWR literacy plan and data portal opened on August 1st. Literacy plans and the first round of data are due on or before October 1st. As this is our alternative year for submissions, only LEAs with letter grades of C, D, or F are required to submit.
Per the Move On When Reading legislation, LEA letter grades must be used to determine the schools and districts that will submit MOWR literacy plans and data during the alternative submission years (i.e. 2018-19). Unfortunately, the most recent LEA letter grades are from 2014 (LEA letter grades are different from school letter grades in that they provide an overall grade for districts and multi-site charters). The 2017 letter grades provided by the State Board of Education are at the school level only, so legally they cannot be used for this determination, even for single-site charters and districts.
We are very aware that the use of 2014 LEA letter grades is not optimal, and we know that much has changed in that time, but it is the guidance we have been given by the Attorney General’s office to best follow the letter of the law. If your school/district had a letter grade of C, D, or F in 2014, then you are required to submit MOWR literacy plans and data for this school year.
While LEAs with letter grades of A or B are not required to submit literacy plans or data this school year, all other components of the MOWR legislation are still required. So, all schools will screen their K-3 students to identify struggling readers early and will provide targeted interventions so that all students are reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade.
Vital resources were recently e-mailed to the LEAs required to submit this year. Please reference that email for all the guidance documents that will assist you in meeting the MOWR requirements for this year.
All guidance documents can also be found on our webpage: http://www.azed.gov/mowr/.
Don’t hesitate to reach out for any assistance. We are eager to review the great things happening in K-3 literacy across the state.