No Waiver for Wilton: Despite Student Success, State Demands Schools Purchase “Costly & Antiquated” Reading Materials

In what school officials described as a flawed and “mind-boggling” process, Connecticut’s State Department of Education has refused to grant Wilton a waiver where its K-3 reading program is concerned.

That, say administrators, is despite the district earning the highest score in the state’s Next Generation Accountability System just one year ago, and reaching higher reading achievement levels than other districts that met the state’s approval.

In a well-meaning effort to raise the reading abilities of students statewide, the CT legislature enacted a “Right to Read” statute in June 2021 requiring each school district to purchase one of seven prescribed — and, Wilton administrators say, costly — reading programs from designated publishers. Districts can opt out, however, if they can demonstrate that they’re already achieving success in various categories in K-3, including reading comprehension, fluency, phonics and vocabulary, through the use of a scientific research-based and evidence-based program.

The district requested the waiver last year and, officials said, provided ample evidence to show Wilton’s approach was proving successful. However, following some confusing and incomplete responses from the state, on Dec. 1 Wilton administrators received a form letter from CT Education Commissioner Charlene M. Russell-Tucker informing Superintendent of Schools Kevin Smith that Wilton was being denied a waiver.

“After a thorough review and careful deliberation of your Waiver,” she wrote, “your collection of programs do not show evidence of meeting the expectations.”

Not only was the town’s waiver request denied, Wilton was among some likewise high-performing peer districts that were either also flat out denied — such as Westport — or were told by the state that they had to “add and substitute specific programmatic or curriculum components.” Among the latter were Darien, New Canaan and Ridgefield.

In a Dec. 14 letter Kevin Smith, on behalf of the district, asked Russell-Tucker for a follow-up meeting, something offered by the state in correspondence with the rejection, both to discuss the waiver and see if it can be reconsidered. [A PDF of the letter is available at the end of this article.]

“It’s just not clear that our waiver was even reviewed,” Kevin Smith told the Board of Education at its regular meeting on Dec. 14, having sent the nine-page letter, which included a range of specifics and test-score results relating to their case, earlier in the day.

“My sense is the state board of ed will honor the meeting,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of confidence that they will honor the reconsideration.”

He noted that it was “mind boggling” to see the scores and arguments for the success of Wilton’s K-3 reading program in one document, yet know the state rejected the request.

“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said.

What Next?

After consulting with legal counsel, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Chuck Smith told the BOE the lawyers advised district officials to pursue several options, but to treat the legislation itself and the waiver process as two separate items.

“So in terms of the legislation, that means communicating with (our) legislators … to help them understand the fundamental problems with the legislation, as well as ways they may want to consider to make it better,” he said.

“After all, the intent of the legislation is very good,” he said. “They’re just not going about it the right way.”

Supt. Kevin Smith said he had already reached out to State Rep. Keith Denning (D-42), sharing his concerns.

“He’s reaching out to other legislators across the state,” Smith said. “We’re certainly not alone in this. There are a lot of other communities that are really scratching their heads about the outcome and contemplating what to do next.”

Kevin Smith said that, according to the district’s attorney, the “best remedy” appears to be getting the law changed.

Both Denning and State Sen. Ceci Maher (D-26) may be invited to attend a BOE meeting in later January or early February to talk about the issue.

Asst. Supt. Chuck Smith said in working in collaboration with other districts from throughout Connecticut, Wilton hoped “to put pressure on the legislature to address our concerns.”

“And those basically revolve around a one-size-fits-all approach to a problem that really needs a more nuanced, complex and individualized response, taking into account the unique needs of each district’s students and teachers,” he said.

In terms of the waiver itself, he said they would wait to see how the state responded to Smith’s letter. [Editor’s note: Smith said a meeting with the CT Department of Education is scheduled for later this month.]

“We believe the process was badly flawed with what we believe to be an unfair outcome,” Chuck Smith said, “and our legal counsel agrees.”

“We know how to teach reading,” he said. “We know what works.”

He said when he looked at some of the materials that were being recommended and required by the state, “It’s like going back to the 1950s,” with programs centering on whole-class instruction and workbooks.

Karen Brenneke, curriculum coordinator for WPS, also addressed the BOE meeting, speaking critically of both the prescribed materials and the process the district underwent in trying to get the waiver.

“It’s very workbook-dependent,” she said of the new program options. “They’re very dated … The workbook would be reminiscent of work that you did when you were in kindergarten through third grade,” she told the adults on the BOE.

Still, Chuck Smith said the district would begin reviewing the seven program options to determine which would be the best choice should Wilton be forced to purchase a program that he said would exceed $1 million initially and then have additional annual costs for workbooks.

Brenneke described how representatives from the Department of Education not only wouldn’t answer questions about what the Wilton Public Schools’ was specifically lacking in terms of its current program, but they also delivered the district an incomplete form document about the waiver request itself, which she said included eight inaccurate statements.

“It is a bad process,” Chuck Smith said. “It’s just bad.”

Asked what the state could do if Wilton decided to ignore the waiver denial and simply not purchase the material, he said it could initiate an investigation.

“You probably end up in a hearing — Board of Education vs. Wilton,” he said. “If we lose, they could do a number of things. They could take money away from us. They could force enforcement.”

Assistant Superintendent of Special Services Andrea Leonardi said that controversies over how to teach reading, a.k.a. “The Reading Wars,” have been going on for years but have more recently deteriorated into uninformed mandates.

“What began as not-bad debate turned into something that has now taken on a life of its own,” she said, “and is really being decided by people who don’t seem to have the core knowledge necessary to teach reading.”

Meanwhile, she said, authentic experts in reading appear to have lost their voice in a debate that centers in the halls of the state’s Department of Education.

Chair Ruth DeLuca raised the question of whether this represented a precedent by the state.

“Is this going to be a model … for other disciplines or other areas?” she said, with the state demanding that each district purchase prescribed packaged programs.

At this time, school officials have no way of answering the question.

Editor’s note: The article has been updated to include information about a meeting district officials have scheduled with the CT Dept. of Education, as well as to clarify the assessment of the materials is solely that of Wilton school officials, not GMW.