Tag: Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

House proposal aims to teach youth responsible social media use, evaluating constant flow of information

      A House member believes Missouri children should be taught in school how to deal with and scrutinize the constant stream of information with which they are faced every day.

Representative Jim Murphy (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      St. Louis Republican Jim Murphy believes all media has one thing in common:  that it was created by someone, and created for a reason.  He thinks children aren’t being equipped with how to figure out, in each case, what that reason is and how to deal with it.

      House Bill 1585 would create the “Show-Me Digital Health Act.”  It would have the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education create a curriculum on the “responsible use of social media,” but Murphy said his aim is to teach how to critically analyze information whether it comes through news, entertainment, advertising, or anything else.

“It’s about how you process the message.  We see things coming at children from so many different angles, and today they’re not being taught how to process that information, how to verify it, how to question why is it they’re receiving that message, what is it the person on the other end of that message is trying to make me do,” said Murphy.  “We’ve just gotta teach our kids to question, to verify, all of the different aspects of the information that’s being sent to them.”

Murphy’s bill would have DESE create a curriculum to cover things including the purpose and acceptable use of social media; identifying online misinformation; and applying protections for freedom of speech for online interactions in schools as provided by DESE. 

The bill also specifies that the bill should cover cyberbullying prevention and response.  Murphy said bullying goes beyond interactions between bullies and victims, but is fueled by what children see online.

“If they don’t fit into the mold of everything they see then they feel like they’re an outcast.  We don’t teach them that they’re not an outcast just because they’re seeing it out there.  It’s a very encompassing view, but if we’re not teaching our children to process all of the information as a whole, and questioning it as a whole, and understanding it as a whole, then they’re going to take some things personal and it can have catastrophic results,” said Murphy.   

“They have to understand that what they see and hear on the internet is meaningless in their lives, and we can teach that to them but we don’t.  We try to, instead, try to put a policy up that says you can’t put this information out there.  Well it’s out there anyway so we have to teach the people on the other side how to process it when it gets to them.”

      Murphy stresses he doesn’t believe this is a partisan issue.  He doesn’t want the curriculum to be tailored to favor information from any given sources, but to teach children to understand and dissect everything with which they are presented. 

      He said his legislation could be expanded to address teaching children how to be safe from online predators, scams, and other such threats. 

      HB 1585 would require Missouri schools to adopt such a curriculum for grades three to 12 by the 2024-25 school year and provide professional development to the teachers who would use the curriculum.   

      His bill has been prefiled to be considered in the session that begins Wednesday.

Task Force on Dyslexia issues recommendations for dyslexia screenings of Missouri students

A Legislative Task Force on Dyslexia has completed its work and released recommendations for having Missouri public school students screened for dyslexia.

Representative Kathy Swan (left) listens as Kim Stuckey, Director of Dyslexia Specialists at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, discusses the report of the Legislative Task Force on Dyslexia. (photo; Chris Moreland, Missouri House Communications)

The Task Force’s report to legislative leaders and the governor recommends that all students in kindergarten through grade three be screened for dyslexia and related disorders beginning in the 2018-19 school year.  It also recommends that students who have not been previously screened, and who have been identified as “struggling” in literacy, be screened.

The Task Force was chaired by Cape Girardeau representative Kathy Swan (R), who said early identification of reading difficulties is key to helping children get the education they need.

“By identifying and addressing this reading failure, students will not only be successful in school but successful in life.  If our children do not learn to read they will, and cannot, read to learn,” said Swan.  “This small investment today will have long-term benefits for not only students and families but for the economic and social benefits of our communities and for our state.”

It is also recommended that schools require two hours of in-service training in assessing reading difficulties.  Currently schools are required only to offer such training.

Swan said it is also important that Missouri colleges’ and universities’ teacher education programs address dyslexia characteristics, identification, and intervention.

Task Force member Erica Lembke chairs the Department of Special Education at the University of Missouri.  She said she is excited about what the recommendations could mean for teacher education programs.

Erica Lembke, chair of the Department of Special Education at the University of Missouri, comments on the report of the Legislative Task Force on Dyslexia. (photo; Chris Moreland, Missouri House Communications)

“It’s critically important that this content is delivered and infused in our teacher preparation courses at the colleges and universities in Missouri,” said Lembke.

The Task Force’s report says the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) should recommend a process for universal screening that includes a multi-tiered support system.  It stresses that districts should make clear to parents that a positive screening for dyslexia is not a diagnosis.

The Task Force was created with the passage of House Bill 2379 in 2016.  It required that public schools in Missouri screen for dyslexia and related disorders, and established that DESE would develop rules for screenings based on the Task Force’s recommendations.

Earlier story:  Legislative Task Force on Dyslexia holds first hearing, Rep. Swan selected as chair