First-of-Its-Kind Report on Dyslexia, Reading Unveiled at Nebraska Department of Education

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LINCOLN — A first-of-its-kind statewide report related to reading and dyslexia for Nebraska K-12 students shows strides in addressing literacy as policymakers see room for improvement.

The Nebraska Department of Education submitted its first report to the Legislature on Sept. 3 as required under Legislative Bill 298. State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn shepherded the legislation through in 2023 as a next step from 2018 legislation that began assessing K-3 students three times a year to get them on individualized reading improvement plans and supports earlier, if needed. In 2017, the Legislature defined “dyslexia” in state law.

LB 298 requires each public school in the state to report the number of students in the 2023-24 academic year who were:

• Tested for a specific learning disability in the area of reading, including tests that identify characteristics of dyslexia and the results of such tests.
• Identified as having a reading issue, including dyslexia, pursuant to assessments under the Nebraska Reading Improvement Act, which Linehan passed in 2018.
• Identified as having a reading issue who have shown growth on the measure used to identify the reporting issue.

“Things only get measured in government if somebody’s watching, and you have to have somebody watching,” Linehan told the Nebraska Examiner of the report.

Breaking down the report

The data indicates that of 10,225 public K-12 students ages 3 to 21 who were tested last year for a specific learning disability in the area of reading, 4,747 students (46.43%) were eligible for special education services.

However, the department cautions that the term “specific learning disability” is broad and consists of various distinct areas in which a child might need additional support to meet state standards: oral expression, written expression, basic reading skills, reading fluency, reading comprehension, mathematics calculation and mathematics problem solving.

“In sum, there is currently not a clean and clear way to fully identify the number of students with a specific learning disability in reading,” the report states.

There is also great variance in what “universal screeners” are used across school districts to assess students in grades K-3, with up to 13 different screeners used across the state’s 244 school districts.

In the 2023-24 academic year, 23,814 students in grades K-3 — more than a quarter of all K-3 students — were on a reading improvement plan. Of those, 22,538 students (94.64%) were reported to improve during the year.

Elizabeth Tegtmeier of North Platte, president of the Nebraska State Board of Education, which oversees the Education Department, said the report to the Legislature had “fallen short” of her expectations. She said she and the board expected a “serious and detailed audit.”

Linehan, who has dyslexia, said until that breakdown was publicly available, “I don’t think you’re going to find out what schools are actually addressing this and which schools still need more help in identifying it.”

District-specific data

The Examiner and Linehan requested data broken down by district, excluding data concealed for federal privacy reasons.

Of 196 districts, for example, more than 50% of K-3 students were on a reading improvement plan in 20 districts. In contrast, fewer than 10% of K-3 students were on a reading plan in eight districts. The median was 28.2% of K-3 students on a reading plan in each district. The department masked data for 48 districts for privacy reasons.

The districts with the highest percentage of students on a reading improvement plan were Umo N Ho N Nation Public Schools (75.93%), Bayard Public Schools (66.23%), Southern School District 1 (59.79%), Maxwell Public Schools (59.62%) and Kimball Public Schools (59.35%).

The districts with the lowest percentage of students on a reading improvement plan were  Norfolk Public Schools (5.45%), Gordon-Rushville Public Schools (6.1%), Johnson County Central Public Schools (7.3%), Tekamah-Herman Community Schools (7.33%) and Seward Public Schools (7.97%).

Six school districts reported a greater than 100% improvement rate, which David Jespersen, a department spokesperson, was likely due to “uncertainty” about the various parameters in the first year of reporting.

The report showed 100 districts reported 100% growth, while no reported growth percentage was shown for 54 districts.

The five school districts with the lowest reported growth percentage were: Ralston Public Schools (23.32%), Madison Public Schools (36.49%), South Sioux City Community Schools (39.22%), East Butler Public Schools (50%) and McCook Public Schools (50.85%).

However, the department cautioned that one growth point on one screener might not equate to the same growth on another assessment.

“It is difficult to interpret the significance of the reported student growth based upon the 2024 data collection,” the report states.

Linehan said that district-specific data is important in part because when she toured about a dozen school districts in 2017, with former State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, multiple teachers and superintendents said they had never taught a student with dyslexia.

‘Bottom line, it’s a journey’

Linehan said the data can also show that the department understands the state has a problem and needs to prioritize where funds go.

David Jespersen, a spokesperson for the Education Department, said that while the department can’t “fully verify” that all school districts are following the three annual assessment periods, “we have no reason to believe they were not.”

The state-level funding is designed to employ local and regional literacy coaches to support teachers who teach children from age 4 to third grade how to read. Linehan passed the appropriation in LB 1284 this year.

Tim Royers, a teacher in Millard Public Schools, and president of the Nebraska State Education Association that represents teachers, agreed the report indicates progress but said it is “certainly not job done.”

He said expanded training opportunities for staff, parents and other stakeholders is needed to provide holistic support to students.

“Bottom line, it’s a journey,” Royers said. “There’s definitely some evidence of progress there but we feel that there’s still work to be done.”

For the 2023-24 academic year, K-3 enrollment ranged from seven students in McPherson County Schools to 15,411 students in Omaha Public Schools. The median enrollment was 100 K-3 students per district. Total enrollment ranged from 52 to 51,693 students, with a median of 379.

Improving data collection and literacy

In a letter to Nebraska Education Commissioner Brian Maher, Linehan and State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, the Legislature’s Education Committee chair, pointed to a report from the Nebraska Statewide Workforce & Educational Reporting System.

It stated that third-grade reading proficiency can be a significant indicator of later academic success, including graduation and college-going rates.

Linehan and Murman said the department should also consider doing away with a specific part of the department’s rule on special education services. They pointed to a subjective “environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage” that could be impacting a student’s learning but doesn’t qualify them for a “specific learning disability.”

The Education Department suggested various ways to improve data collection, such as:

• Adding clear language to specify the total number of students evaluated for any form of a specific learning disability, including reevaluation.
• Implementing clear guidelines for categorizing students identified with a specific learning disability, the total number of which is broken down into:
  • Number of students with a primary disability in reading (in two brackets — age 3 to third grade, fourth grade to age 21).
  • Number of students evaluated but not identified as having a disability in reading.
  • Number of students identified with having a disability in another area.

“Without early support, the gap between dyslexic students and their peers can widen, making it harder to catch up later,” the report states.

The report states that policymakers, educators and stakeholders must collaborate to address the identified gaps.

“By refining data collection processes, enhancing instructional strategies and providing adequate resources, we can better support our students and advance literacy outcomes across the state, the department writes.

The future of literacy policy

Linehan has advocated throughout her eight years in the Legislature for students with dyslexia. This is her final year in the Legislature because of term limits.

She and Murman suggested the department offer insight into demographics, performance on reading evaluations, types of evidence-based reading interventions deployed and criteria for student progress.

Royers said “the gift of time” is important for teachers when screening can be time intensive, especially in kindergarten or early grades when students might begin to develop coping mechanisms. For example, a student might memorize sight words or a combination of shapes that could mean “cat” that a teacher might not catch without one-on-one intervention.

“We know what the playbook is, but it takes a lot of investment at a one-on-one level in order to execute the playbook properly,” Royers said of young students.

Royers said giving educators more time, or bringing in support staff, would be most helpful to join the spirit of recent legislation to be proactive.

One of Linehan’s fears is not catching children as early as possible, which she agreed is difficult. Teachers see a range of students, with some already able to read a book, while others haven’t yet learned the alphabet.

Linehan said new funds should be invested in staff, not “the newest curriculum out there.”

The State Board of Education and Legislature should also collaborate for accountability, she said. For example, they should seek more specific information about the use of new teaching coaches: specific goals, such as the number of coaches needed and how many teachers the state should support.

Tegtmeier said the Education Department will continue to address literacy, particularly with a stated legislative priority to improve third grade reading proficiency to 75% by 2030. For the 2022-23 school year, 62% of third graders were proficient on state assessments.

“Literacy remains a board priority with significant amounts of resources devoted to it,” Tegtmeier said. “It is imperative that guidelines and regulations from NDE accompany the assessment requirement to ensure consistency throughout the state. Our students, parents and taxpayers deserve no less.”

A review of Nebraska’s 244 school districts for data on 2022-23 state assessments offers insights into proficiency in English Language Arts for K-12 students statewide. There were new “cut scores” to define “proficiency” in this subject area  that the Nebraska Department of Education said “better reflect student achievement in Nebraska when compared to students nationally.”

Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and X.

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