While Colorado is seeing some improvement in reading instruction, some students continue to struggle.

As a result, the Colorado Department of Education is seeking $3.3 million in the 2025-26 education budget to create new training for teachers to teach English learners to read. It would be used to help teachers differentiate instruction for those students.

State officials say it’s a common request they’ve heard from the field.

English learners advocates have raised concerns for years about how literacy instruction policies affect students who are simultaneously learning English as a new language. Recently, academic achievement data has raised more concerns about how English learner students are performing. And, a recent national study published last month found that many teachers are unhappy with guidance on how to teach reading to English learners.

“Teachers want to more deeply understand how to support this group of students and we want to provide them with that training,” said Joanna Bruno, CDE chief academic officer.

It’s not about teaching something different from what science of reading research tells teachers is effective, Bruno said. The science of reading is a large body of research on how children learn to read that emphasizes teaching phonics, or the relationships between letters and sounds.

Rather, Bruno said it’s about providing additional support so that students get more practice with the language to develop their vocabulary, learn the meaning of the words they are decoding, and also get more opportunities to write, and hear the pronunciation of words and sentences.

“It needs to be an active classroom,” Bruno said.

In the current school year, about 12% of Colorado’s public school students, or more than 105,000 students, are identified as either having limited or no English proficiency, an increase from previous years.Bruno said the department is trying to help districts understand that literacy instruction should not replace English language development time for students learning English as a new language or other academic courses.

In Colorado, English learner researchers called on state officials to make changes in 2020, worrying that as the state drilled down on the science of reading that it would mean a phonics-only focus that would harm English learners.Since then, the department responded by creating specific guidance for school districts about how to implement literacy instruction for students learning English as a new language, created a rubric to evaluate Spanish-language literacy materials, and hired a liaison to help the department’s different offices work together to think more about multilingual learners.

The department also created a series of professional development courses to help teachers understand more about biliteracy, and started a new State of the State report that looks at how English learners are performing, as a way to more closely monitor and find best practices.

“It’s baby steps,” said Kathy Escamilla, a researcher at the University of Colorado. “We fought hard in Colorado, but well, the outcomes speak for themselves. We have some real things we need to work on with regard to how we’re looking at outcomes for kids who are learning English as an additional language.”

Education department budget request documents cite the most recent external evaluation of the program from October 2024, which found bright spots in how the READ Act is working, including that the number of students identified as having a significant reading deficiency has decreased to 4.7% of students. The READ Act is a Colorado law, first passed in 2012 updated since, that makes certain requirements of school districts related to reading instruction.

However, English learners continue to be over-represented among students with a significant reading deficiency, according to the budget request. And, students who have a significant reading deficiency identified between kindergarten and third grade, have “extraordinarily low” rates of proficiency on literacy tests.

Those numbers suggest, “a need to emphasize increased training on strategies to support ELLs alongside their English speaking peers,” the budget request stated.

At a hearing last week to discuss the budget request, State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, a Republican representing Weld and Larimer counties, questioned when to decide that funding reading programs isn’t working.

Amanda Bickel, the budget analyst speaking to the joint budget committee, responded that staff would like to see if more training might have an impact on outcomes before they decide that millions spent on reading initiatives aren’t working.

“You have put in a lot of effort so far,” said Bickel, chief legislative analyst.

The legislative staff recommended that the line item be approved if money remained after using COVID relief funds this year.

The committee approved the recommendation for the $3.3 million request, contingent on money remaining, by a 3 to 2 vote.

Chalkbeat Colorado is a nonprofit news organization covering education issues.