State Superintendent Thurmond Hosts Literacy Leadership Summit with Educational and Philanthropic Partners to Address Five-Year Literacy Funding Plan

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond hosted a Literacy Leadership Summit with educational and philanthropic partners today to discuss how to deliver on California’s literacy and biliteracy promise, specifically his five-year literacy plan to ensure that every child is reading by third grade.

The summit convened state leaders, legislators, educational partners, and philanthropic partners to examine where California currently stands in literacy achievement, where the state aims to be, and how a comprehensive literacy strategy can help close the opportunity gap. The discussion focused on implementation, recognizing that California has a literacy strategy and must be prepared to fully deliver on it.

“I have a vision that every child in this state will achieve literacy by third grade and also achieve biliteracy, opening doors later in life and better preparing our students for the global marketplace. Over the next five years, we are proposing a $1.5 billion investment to accelerate outcomes and ensure all students have access to high-quality literacy and biliteracy instruction,” Superintendent Thurmond said. “We've committed more than $1.2 billion to literacy efforts since 2019, and those investments are paying off: this past year, we saw the greatest single-year increase in literacy rates since 2015. We are on a positive trajectory, but progress requires consistency. The next phase will require continued focus and partnership.”

At today’s summit, Superintendent Thurmond called on educational and philanthropic partners to support the funding and implementation of his five-year literacy plan to support all students to achieve reading by third grade.

The plan contains key strategies that are proven to improve literacy and would represent the most significant investment and the first long-term literacy plan in recent California history.

Thurmond’s plan includes funding for:

• specialized professional learning and coaching to support those who teach students to read.
• high-impact tutoring, which recent research from Stanford University has shown to boost both achievement and attendance;
• family engagement supports for literacy development; and
• screening for reading difficulties like dyslexia.

The literacy plan also includes legislation sponsored by Thurmond to make attending kindergarten mandatory for all five-year-olds across the state, AB 1631 (Muratsuchi). This effort aligns with Thurmond’s call to expand funding for the California Community Schools Partnership Program, which helps schools connect students and families to resources for health, mental health, and social services.

For media inquiries regarding Superintendent Thurmond’s literacy plan, contact communications@cde.ca.gov. For non-media inquiries, please contact Dr. Bonnie Garcia, Statewide Literacy Co-Director, at bogarcia@cde.ca.gov. A recording of the first segment of the Literacy Summit can be viewed on the CDE Facebook page .

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Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100