Early Literacy and Act 20 Updates: May 22, 2025

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction sent this bulletin at 05/22/2025 02:31 PM CDT
 

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May 22, 2025 

Dear Reader,

 

As the spring erupts around Wisconsin and the end of the school year grows nearer (except for the few places that have already ended the 2024 – 2025 school year), it is important to recognize all the efforts that happened this year to strengthen early literacy at the system and individual student levels. It has been an honor to answer your questions, visit your classrooms, and laugh (and sometimes cry) together. I am excited about what 2025 – 2026 will bring for students and their families.

 

With appreciation,

Barb

Barb Novak, PhD 

Director, Office of Literacy 

Content

  1. Summer Learning Opportunity
  2. Diagnostic Assessment Reimbursement Application: Submit by May 23, 2025
  3. Professional Development Training Funding Request: Submit by June 13, 2025
  4. Annual Reporting Requirements: Submit by July 15, 2025
  5. Summer Learning Opportunity
  6. What I’m Reading This Summer: A List

 

Summer Learning Opportunity 

The Wisconsin Literacy Collective includes the Wisconsin Professors of Literacy, CESAs, and the DPI. The Collective is committed to ensuring consistent messaging across learning spaces for pre-service and in-service teachers and administrators. 

 

The Collective is hosting a day-long, team-based summer event – Stronger Together: Advancing Early Literacy. Participating teams will spend the day studying their early literacy improvement efforts in order to ensure all students are becoming readers, particularly students who are marginalized. The interactive day includes a keynote address by Dr. Barb Novak about implementation, rounds of consultancy (for group problem solving), team work time, and a panel focused on implementation cautions. 

 

The event will be hosted in four locations: 

  • June 13: Hosted by CESA 7 and UW-Oshkosh at CESA 7 in Green Bay 
  • July 15: Hosted by CESA 5 and UW-Stevens Point at UW-Stevens Point 
  • July 31: Hosted by CESA 2 and UW-Whitewater at CESA 2 in Whitewater 
  • August 4: Hosted by CESAs 11 and 12 and Stout at CESA 11 in Turtle Lake 

 

 

Registration information is available here. 

 

Diagnostic Assessment Reimbursement Application:

Submit by May 23, 2025 

Information about early literacy diagnostic assessment reimbursement is available here.  

 

The request for reimbursement is submitted within WISEsecure where there is an application called “EarlyRead”. District security administrators have access and were instructed to give access to district assessment coordinators (DACs). Anyone else in a district may request access to the application through WISEsecure; requests are granted by the district security administrator. 

 

ELDAR (Early Literacy Diagnostic Assessment Reimbursement) is available within EarlyRead; it is where you submit your request for diagnostic assessment reimbursement. 

 

If you did not purchase a diagnostic assessment to meet the 5K – 3rd grade requirements of Act 20, no action is needed. Simply do not complete anything in ELDAR. 

 

Funding is available for diagnostic assessment reimbursement. The department anticipates making payments – which may be prorated – by late-June. 

 

Professional Development Training Funding Request:

Submit by June 13, 2025 

Updated guidance about the Act 20 professional development training requirement is available here, including the following questions: 

 

  • What professional development training is required of educators and administrators hired after July 1, 2025? 
  • Beyond the professional development training required in Act 20, what on-going learning could support systems-level implementation of explicit and systematic instruction in science-based early literacy? 
  • Will teachers and administrators certified after July 1, 2025, need training in science-based early literacy instruction? 

In addition to updated guidance about professional development training, there is also an opportunity to submit a form for partial reimbursement toward a district or independent charter school’s costs related to the Act 20 professional development training requirement.  

 

Visit “Submitting for Partial Reimbursement” for the form and related guidance. 

 

Funding for partial reimbursement is not currently available. Completing the form is not a guarantee of partial reimbursement. When the Joint Committee on Finance makes the funds available to the department, DPI will distribute funds to schools. If the funds are not made available before July 1, 2025, they will be returned to the state’s general fund (referred to as the budget surplus) and no reimbursement will be provided. 

 

Annual Reporting Requirements: Submit by July 15, 2025 

Information required for the annual reporting requirements is submitted within WISEsecure where there is an application called “EarlyRead”. District security administrators have access and were instructed to give access to district assessment coordinators (DACs). Anyone else in a district may request access to the application through WISEsecure; requests are granted by the district security administrator. 

 

Growing Readers is found within EarlyRead; it is where information for the annual reporting requirement is submitted. 

 

All information about the reporting requirement is available here. 

 

Email reminders about completing reporting requirements will begin one month before the due date. The only way to stop the reminders is to complete your reporting.

 

Office hours (aka REPORTING PARTIES) are:

Monday, June 1, 12 - 1 PM

Thursday, June 12, 2 - 3 PM

Friday, June 20, 1 -2 PM

Tuesday, June 24, 2 - 3 PM

Monday, July 7, 9 - 10 AM

Monday, July 14, 11 AM - 12 PM

 

When available, links to join a Teams meeting for each reporting party will be available at Reporting Requirements.

 

The Reporting Party does not include any presentation from DPI staff. Staff will be available to answer questions. You could also choose one of the reporting parties as a time to complete your required reporting. You could do your reporting with a DPI staff person by your side to answer questions in real time.

What I’m Reading this Summer 

I love a good list, especially a list of books made by a human (read this story to understand the joke).

 

Here are a few of the titles on my summer reading list: 

 

  1. Brownstone by Samuel Teer and Mar Julia – an award-winning young adult graphic novel about a Guatemalan American teen living with her dad for the summer in New York City 
  1. My Presentation Today is about the Anaconda – a middle grade novel in which a class of animals gathers to listen to each other’s oral reports about other animals; as each animal reports, the animals in the audience critique the report 
  1. New books by a few authors that are favorites – The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson, and King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby