Nebraska’s PK-12 students have equitable access to high-quality literacy instruction that prepares them for the demands of college, career, and civic life. Instructional practices are grounded in student engagement with complex and challenging texts and are responsive to a range of student needs and interests.
We Believe
- Excellent literacy instruction provides opportunities for all students to learn, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or any other part of their identity;
- A clear, required sequence of foundational skills is important and necessary to developing proficient readers who have the capacity to comprehend a variety of texts across disciplines;
- Every Nebraska student deserves access to high-quality, culturally responsive instructional materials that are aligned to state standards and instructional shifts;
- Deep engagement with rich, worthwhile texts and tasks builds students’ knowledge of the world;
- Providing frequent and meaningful opportunities to write about text is an effective practice that helps students develop the ability to think critically about the content and ideas presented in all disciplines;
- Content-area and disciplinary literacy are essential components of college, career, and civic readiness; and systematic vocabulary instruction in all content areas, across all grade levels, plays a critical role in successful reading comprehension.
Foundational Literacy
The Nebraska State Board of Education supports and encourages systemic efforts to improve foundational literacy, working to ensure that all students become successful readers and writers. The Nebraska State Board of Education believes that all schools should establish policies that promote high-quality early literacy instruction that is grounded in evidence-based practices and that highlights the importance of grade- level reading. Foundational literacy instruction is essential to ensure all children become successful readers and writers. All students, including students with disabilities, English learners, and high-ability learners should have access to high-quality instructional materials and instruction.
New & Noteworthy
Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunity
The NDE, in partnership with TNTP, is providing Secondary Foundational Literacy in Practice through an asynchronous course. Rounds 1 and 2 of the course are already underway and over 400 Nebraska educators have already taken advantage of the course.
- Purpose: to internalize the ways in which to access strong, secondary literacy instruction enabling education equity for all learners. There is a mutually interdependent relationship between foundational reading skills and more advanced literacy skills needed in secondary classrooms.
- Course Details: personal study of six modules highlighting literacy research followed by a two-day in-person capstone event where educators can practice planning with fellow colleagues.
Watch for future offerings of this course that has been touted as “the best professional development I’ve ever had because I can start using it tomorrow!” For more information, reach out to Becky Michael
K-5 Student Friendly Standards
K-5 Student Friendly Standards are now available in English, Arabic, Karen (coming soon), Somali, and Spanish! You can use these “I can…” statements to display the standards in your classrooms and share them with families.
