Middleboro Review 2: Now that we’ve adopted Right to Read legislation for our schools, we must revamp teacher preparation to match it

Sunday, August 23, 2026

Now that we’ve adopted Right to Read legislation for our schools, we must revamp teacher preparation to match it

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Now that we’ve adopted Right to Read legislation for our schools, we must revamp teacher preparation to match it

August 23, 2026

By Donna Thayer

On September 16, 2025, when the "Right to Read” Act was being debated at the State House, I testified before the Joint Education Committee in support of this crucial legislation. This was nerve-racking but I had to do it because I strongly believe that all students should get appropriate reading instruction. It felt good to see legislators listen to me, a teacher of 23 years.

During my two-plus decades in the first- and then second-grade classroom, I have been responsible for teaching hundreds of students how to read. I realized long ago that the content I had learned way back when in my teaching program, and even in my masters of literacy and language program, was not enough to help my most struggling kids. I had to independently find ways to supplement my teaching. Fortunately, my school district embraced the importance of teaching our students how to read using evidence-based reading instruction, which is now universally known as the science of reading. More than once, I was witness to the difference it made for the students in my school.

In early June, when Gov. Healey signed the Right to Read into law, it was an exciting day for me. Now school districts like mine would be required to shift to evidence-based literacy curriculum to teach reading to students in kindergarten through third grade, including explicit instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. They would no longer use the three-cueing method.

While this is certainly a victory for students in Massachusetts, the law is only as successful as the teachers who can implement it. In this, crucial gaps remain. One of the most important is that most of the teacher preparation programs in the state do not teach the science of reading methodology. It is not enough for the Right to Read to work great in theory. It must work in practice.