NDE Commissioner discusses K-12 literacy plan ahead of State Board of Education vote Friday

Nebraska Department of Education Commissioner Brian Maher discussed a plan aiming to improve K-12 literacy across Nebraska.

State Board of Education members will vote on the plan at their meeting Friday.

“My goal for our literacy plan is to make sure that Nebraska kids can read a little bit better tomorrow than they're reading today,” Maher said. “If we can iterate that day after day after day, we'll be in great shape as a state.”

The department is aiming to increase third-grade proficiency in English Language Arts on the NSCAS, the statewide student assessment, to 75% by 2030.

Maher said he sees reading well as a fundamental part to a child’s education as they grow up and eventually get a job.

“I can't imagine a sector where reading and reading well isn't important, whether that's reading for policy makers or reading technical journals for somebody who goes into a trade, there's going to be an importance and an emphasis placed on reading throughout your life.”

The plan has five focus areas:

• Professional development for teachers based in the science of reading
• Curriculum and teacher preparation programs based in the science of reading
• Regional literacy coaches
• Data collection
• Family and pre-kindergarten programs

The literacy plan also implements several changes the state legislature made to the Nebraska Reading Improvement Act over the years.

The first two tenants of the plan are focused on ensuring teachers have the necessary materials and support to teach reading, including what educators are taught in college as students.

“Not only do we want to make sure that our teachers are really well-prepared, specifically we want them prepared well in evidence-based instruction grounded in the science of reading,” Maher said.

Tenet three, utilizing regional literacy coaches, is meant to help support teachers as they work to implement evidence-based instruction in their classes, Maher said.

Educational Service Units, or ESUs, will help provide regional support to school districts across the state. Maher said ESUs are an extension of the schools and the state education department to help provide resources like literacy coaches.

“They are a well-kept secret as to their importance to what happens in the schools in Nebraska,” Maher said.

Data collection is the focus of the fourth tenant. Maher said the department will be utilizing lots of human and monetary resources for this plan, and the data will show what’s working and what isn’t.

“That data that we talk about in that fourth tenant is a scorecard for us to making sure that our resources are being deployed and being deployed well,” Maher said. “If they're not, kind of like a halftime score at a ball game, maybe we need to make some adjustments at halftime so that we can win that game in the second half, and winning the game to me looks like improved literacy rates for the students of Nebraska.”

The fifth tenant takes a look at the systems outside of schools and how the department can extend their literacy efforts directly to families or other community initiatives. One such program is Nebraska Growing Readers that sends books to sites across the state for families.

“Outside of that K-12 structure, how are we doing in terms of literacy and literacy outcomes before kids get to school?" Maher said. “What are they exposed to, either in the home or in the local public library or other places other than school? How can we help kids, and subsequently, how can we help our state become a more literate state?”

Maher said about 800,000 books have been distributed so far.

Read the full plan here: Nebraska Literacy Project Plan.