Nebraska schools see improvements in reading and writing amid push from state education department

Allison Almazan’s first grade class sat on the carpet in the front of the room for its reading and writing lesson.

Students sounded out what was on the screen. For words, they would sound out each syllable and then say the whole word. The new lesson this week was the sound “a” and “i" make together.

Almazan, who has taught for nine years at Indian Hill Elementary in South Omaha, said she sees a difference in her students since Omaha Public Schools implemented structured literacy two years ago.

“It's amazing to see the progress of kids that maybe have struggled with reading beforehand,” Almazan said. “Then to see the growth over the past couple of years has just been really crazy.”

OPS made a goal to have all students reading at grade level by 2030. District officials call it their moonshot. Abbie Vlcek, principal at Indian Hill for four years, said students across the district in kindergarten to second grade have a literacy lesson from 9:10-10:10 a.m. Then, there’s an additional 30 minutes for small group instruction.

“All students reading on grade level by 2030 is a big, ambitious, audacious goal, but we know it's the right work,” Vlcek said. “In order to do the right work, our district has dedicated themselves into making sure that we have high-performing teachers and high-quality instruction happening in every classroom.”

That work includes teachers participating in professional learning and implementing the structured literacy curriculum.

Omaha isn’t the only district focused on literacy. It’s become a state focus. The Nebraska Department of Education wants to see 75% of third graders across the state proficient by 2030.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of students proficient in reading and writing dropped to 48%, according to NDE data. The next year it was at 47%. By the 2022-23 school year, it jumped up to 58%, and has stayed in that area since.

NDE has implemented a plan focused on five areas: professional development for teachers, educator preparation programs grounded in science of reading, literacy coaches, data and family literacy.

Allyson DenBeste, academic officer for NDE, said the plan was built to bring in partners across the state like universities, educational service units and school districts.

“No matter what your role is, the tenets will allow you to find a fit and know that we're all moving forward together to improve literacy for the children of Nebraska,” DenBeste said.

Jamie Cook, literacy officer for NDE, said more than 3,000 Nebraska teachers are being trained in the science of reading. The department and school districts are also updating curricula and connecting more with teachers and families.

“That’s really been the focus of teacher training is our teachers' understanding that reading isn't natural, and that it has to be explicitly taught,” Cook said. “When we know that, and we know how the brain processes reading, we can teach in a way that matches how children learn to read, how they actually learn to read.”

State law requires the state education department to design and implement a professional learning system for teachers of younger students. Then, it’s up to districts to implement it or adopt their own.

Cook said with that training, she sees teachers gaining confidence that trickles down into student outcomes.

“We want to see students really diving in and engaging with the texts and critical thinking,” Cook said. “We're beginning to see more and more opportunities for that in our classrooms, and teachers being more intentional with it.”

Additionally, the state is working with educator preparation programs at universities to make sure teachers graduate with the training they need and the most recent research-based practices. There is also a network of literacy coaches to help support teachers as they utilize the science of reading in their classrooms.

The science of reading is based on five components — phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Those components show up throughout Almazan’s lesson at OPS. Students recognized the syllables and then blended them out loud, like for “beach.”

Later in the lesson, students practiced those sounds out loud before “building” the words on their own. Each student had their own booklet with velcro letters and syllables to put together a word they just practiced out loud. Then, they wrote it down.

Those materials cost money, though. Mark Fritch, the superintendent at Nebraska City Public Schools, said it’s hard for districts to upgrade those materials on their own.

“When a district is in financial trouble or struggling to cut costs, unfortunately, one of the first things to go are things like that, because we can't cut the electrical bill, we can't cut the busing,” Fritch said.

Nebraska City was one of many districts to get a chunk of a $55 million federal grant that the state received, called the Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant. It helped them update classroom materials for literacy and use a program that tracks how the students are progressing in reading and writing.

A big piece of Nebraska City’s work has been collaboration. Kate Sherwin, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment at Nebraska City, said everyone in the district helps with reading lessons. That’s especially important during small group reading time that comes after the core lesson.

“It's nothing groundbreaking,” Sherwin said. “We're just making time, putting in the time to figure out how can we meet students' needs, because it's no longer one teacher that can meet all the needs in their own classroom. They need support from their team, from non-teachers also during reading time, from our paraprofessionals.”

Teachers also get time each week to meet and talk about what’s successful and where they need help.

Tammy Schaefer, principal of Hayward Elementary that serves third to fifth graders at Nebraska City Public Schools, said now that teachers have had a year of this reading program, she wants to see efforts expand to families.

“I'm hopeful this next school year that we can push it out even more to educate our families on what we need to do more for the partnership between parents and the school as well,” Schaefer said.

The district was able to hold a literacy night where high school students and some community members read books out loud. There were also stories in Spanish, and one in Finnish. Schaefer said it was something “off the cuff,” but she wants to try for another event like it next year.

Cook with NDE said through the federal grant, schools have distributed over 15,000 books to families and 2,000 literacy kits, which include reading activities and supplies like whiteboards. NDE is also part of the Nebraska Growing Readers partnership that has distributed more than 800,000 books to families.

“We've seen through our survey data that our families, where our grantees have provided those resources, have noted an increased level of confidence,” Cook said. “‘I feel like now I have language and tools, like I wanted to do this, I just didn't know how or what or where to start,’ and so an increased level of confidence to embed that literacy.”

Data so far shows improvements. After one semester of Nebraska City’s efforts, second graders could read 32 more words correctly per minute when the goal was initially 14 more. Third graders could read 23 more with an original goal of 12.

Cook said the average increase is usually two to three words.

“Small change leads to big impact,” Cook said. “Over time, when we continue to move in this direction, I have no doubt that we're going to meet our statewide goal at 75% in third grade.”

Teachers at Indian Hill in Omaha are seeing 80%-100% of students meeting reading goals. On the state’s rating system, the school moved up from “needs support to improve” to “good” after one year of structured literacy.

Almazan was part of the first group of teachers at OPS to take part in a science of reading cohort through the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She said thanks to that training, she has a better understanding behind the “how” and “why” of students learning to read.

“Early literacy is that foundation of a house,” Almazan said. “You can decorate your house, you can renovate your house, you can build your house up, but if your house does not have a stable foundation, the rest of the house is not going to be a good, stable house for somebody to live in.”