Child literacy forum turns into referendum on state education system

A forum hosted by three Missouri state senators on child literacy Thursday quickly turned into a referendum on government response to education.

Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder (Dist. 27) along with Sens. Karla May and Karla Eslinger hosted a forum at Bedell Performance Hall at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

It was the first in a series of fact-finding events across the state spearheaded by the 11 women senators in Missouri to get feedback on the recent passage of Senate Bill 681, a bill focused, in part, on improving reading in the state.

The majority of the forum was spent bringing up various obstacles educators and administrators in the audience and on the panel saw to education in Missouri.

The event contained a panel including local educators Jo Schlitt, Stephanie Lee, Teresa Givens and former District 147 Rep. Kathryn Swan, who were there to answer questions posed by the audience and senators on child literacy and how the state could help with the issue.

The first, heavily agreed upon proposal at the event, was the need for universal preschool in the state. Panelists and audience members said many children attending kindergarten start out behind on reading and social skills if they didn't attend prior schooling.

Lee said she's heard from kindergarten teachers it takes them just 10 minutes to determine which children in a classroom have attended preschool and which have not.

"You know we get these kids in kindergarten, they don't know how to share, they don't know how to take care of themselves. They don't know not to wipe your nose on your sleeve," Givens said.

Givens said much of kindergarten is devoted to establishing social skills that children don't have the time to actually learn the curriculum mandates set forth by the state.

The theme for many of the grievances from panelists and audience members was lawmakers and those at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education -- and often parents -- are out of touch and lack practical knowledge and experience in classrooms.

"Most people don't know what you deal with everyday," Eslinger said.

The system -- including attendance policy, mental health and classroom funding -- is not working, many in attendance and on the panel said. Testing bore the brunt of the negative feedback with educators saying standards for the Missouri Assessment Program and End Of Course exams focus on the wrong areas.

There is an overreliance on benchmarks that don't show the progress of students, forum participants said. Curriculum isn't focused on student learning but covering criteria for standardized tests, they said.

"I feel like that our state is pushing quantity over quality," Lee said.

"Think about how much better we could be if we actually teach kids," Givens added later.

Those in attendance also said the switch to electronic tests is not practical for younger ages. Many telling stories sitting next to elementary students struggling to get them to focus on a computer.

Participants also focused on mental health in schools, saying these issues are more prevalent now and can disrupt classrooms and put teachers in positions they aren't trained for or capable of handling.

Many told stories of experiences with children from rough home lives, including abusive parents and substance abuse, something Thompson Rehder said she could relate to.

"We need to love these kids," Schlitt said.

At the end of the forum the hosting senators, and staffers from the offices of U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley, said they will be taking the feedback to other lawmakers and discuss solutions.