speaker-0 (00:14.548)
All right, good afternoon, and welcome. You are all here for a live recording of the Good Life EDU podcast with Andrew Easton. Today you will meet literacy leaders from NDE, Dr. Jane Stavum and Jamie Cook, Sarah Rinken, did I say it right?

practiced, an administrator with Waverly Public Schools, and David Lowe from SPED Strategies, an NDE literacy partner, who will share with us what literacy in Nebraska is evolving into. As a member of the live podcast audience, you'll learn about what is happening throughout Nebraska, how it affects your school or district, and what initiatives in Nebraska are helping us to get to our destination. So without further ado, get ready

It's a live podcast.

speaker-1 (01:25.134)
The Good Life EDU podcast presented by the Nebraska ESU Coordinating Council. I'm your host, Andrew Easton, thanks for joining us as we discuss the greatest in digital learning across Nebraska and around the country.

speaker-1 (01:39.79)
True to form of the podcast, I'd like to welcome everybody back for another episode of the Good Life EDU Podcast. And today we're getting chance to join you from Kearney, Nebraska at the 2026 N-E-M TSS Summit, where we are at the end of day one of two here at the summit. And there are folks that are in person that are joining us for this conversation, along with those online live, and some might be listening in to this as a live recording via the podcast stream. So with all of that sort of said, we've had a great day of learning from Jonathan Mooney that started our day this.

Morning and some amazing breakout sessions throughout the day that have led to this end of day one, where we're having the opportunity with the panel that's here to have a discussion about literacy and and to ask the room, in addition to those that are up here at the front, the question that's up at the top, which is the title of this episode, what all educators can do for literacy. and so the first question that I'm gonna pose to the room here as a little bit of a

grounding activity as we get things started is to say if you feel that this literacy work in s some way, shape or form is a part of the work that you do in service to teaching and learning in schools in your region or however that sort of applies to your respective roles, will you put your hand up please? And keep it up in the air if you would as we're looking around. Okay. Now if I were to have asked you that very same question five years ago

Would you have put your hand up quite as quickly? So those of you if that's true, keep your hand up.

And so we have some pockets where that is true. And I would say for those of that are listening to this on audio only, what, probably about a third to half of the hands went down. and as such, I think that's really an optimistic sign for us that over the course of the past five years, this work has grown, it's become instantiated more. We're seeing it as being a part of the embedded work and service that we're doing for schools. And so excited for us to continue that through conversations that really lift up that this is not just one offs, this is not something that it's your list.

speaker-1 (03:41.712)
Literacy work and your literacy work, but rather it's a system as this conference and event is dedicated to highlighting and as our panel today will be able to really lean into. And so with that being said, we're gonna have a number of questions that kind of get thrown back and forth, but we'll really get into a dialogue. There's gonna be times we're gonna ask you all for questions, so I want to give that as a heads up for later, whenever I'm running around passing the mic to folks to be ready with those questions. But the first one is gonna be for Dr. Staven.

and I'm gonna ask a little bit about that statewide lens that she brings. And really, when we think about this five years that we just highlighted here, right, with the show of hands and this warm-up activity, what do you feel like you would say in terms of like a sense of urgency, a sense of optimism that comes from the work that we've done to this point and where we're headed next?

speaker-3 (04:35.124)
think the sense of urgency hopefully is the same for everybody and that's that every child has to be a a good reader, proficient reader, because everything else happens from that, whether it's science or math or social studies. And we heard this morning from our speaker that it matters socially. It matters for a lifetime because those messages that go hand in hand about a person's self worth are often tied to something

in their learning life as well. I think we could all remember a comment that was made good or not so good from our our growing up years, either from a a peer or a teacher that directly had something to do with what we were learning and how we were learning.

reading came easily for me and SRA. Anybody in here remember SRA? Yeah. Well, I'm, you know, I might have walked by you flashing my gold level SRA book and you were only on purple, sorry, you know, but I think about what else came easy. Math wasn't as easy for me. Math was an area that I struggled more than I did in reading. And I think about if I would have been a struggling reader, how might my life look different right now?

And so that urgency, and when we think about what happens in the life of a school or a school district with how we look at data and how we make decisions, MTSS framework, as we're talking about the needs of those students, that child only has that year in that grade level. And sometimes by the time our systems get in gear, it's October, it's November, the clock is ticking. And so the urgency factor is getting it in gear with the adults as soon as possible.

that the impact is felt in the child's learning trajectory and in their day-to-day environment as they get interventions or they get enrichment or or whatever might happen. The optimism really comes from the fact that we've never been better positioned, I don't think, as a state. And I think of the different roles that I've had in Nebraska as a principal and a curriculum director and a superintendent of what did literacy look and feel like during that time period.

speaker-3 (06:51.844)
And I don't remember so many things that are so interconnected with the systems work being as strong as they are right now. ESUs are supporting that work. We have funding to do some things with literacy that we haven't been able to do. We have MTSS well in place. We have clarity about our screener. We have support for using data and integrating that into systems. So now we have to stay about the work because

One of my frustrations is when we discontinue things that are working. You have to give things a chance to work and do those things over a long period of time to get good results so that then you're just fine-tuning and you're not overhauling or doing some of these big major things. And so I think it's great geographically. we've got it going on in all parts of the state. And the really fun thing is when Jamie Cook comes into my office or says,

Sydney Kobsa comes into my office and says, my gosh, we just heard from this district today. And they wanted to call and tell us about this thing that's going so well. And the results that they're seeing is like, yes, it's awesome. So it's really exciting.

speaker-1 (08:05.357)
Love that.

Raise your hand if you had a similar experience listening in today to a conversation or a presentation where someone shared something that is going exceptionally well from their work and their continued commitment. You're right in the way that Dr. Stavam just referenced right there. and I also am excited that Jamie Cook is a part of this system and running a lot of this leadership work as the our literacy work as the leader of that through the literacy officer position. So with that being said, I'm gonna throw the next question to to Jamie to talk a little

bit about that system and and where things are at this time but I will open that to by saying I've really appreciated and what opportunity I've gotten to know Jamie that she comes from a practitioner's background and a coach's background and administrator's background and wearing those hats I feel like she wears those as a backpack almost in the journey that she has us all on with her with this and I'm really grateful that you always bring that when we get a chance to chat so yeah we kind of speak to baby maybe

speaker-2 (09:15.032)
Well, first of all, as Dr. Stavum alluded to, one of the privileges that I get to have being in the position that I am is to see really amazing work happening across the state in districts small and large, and the impact that that's having on leaders, on teachers, and on students. And so I feel so privileged that I get the opportunity to talk with lots of leaders and lots of educators across the state and hear about the work that's happening. That is also very much a passion of mine.

as we have thought about literacy, we have been charged with a very ambitious goal by our commissioner and our state board, which is 75% of our third graders proficient on the NSCAS ELA by 2030. If the commissioner was here in the room, he would say by 2027, he would really love for us to meet that goal. And although it is ambitious, I a hundred percent believe it is absolutely achievable, and especially in the work that I get to witness right now with

Our literacy efforts and with the CLSD project. Our goal from the very beginning from a state perspective has always been how do we ensure that our literacy systems from a state perspective is coherent? Because we know if we have coherent systems and structures and alignment at the state, that that will trickle down into the buildings and the teaching and the learning of students. And so there are a lot of literacy efforts and initiatives that we have rolled out over.

The course of the year. Dr. Stavem alluded to the single statewide screener. We're very excited to have one consistent screener across the state that I think will be really helpful when we talk about literacy, early literacy instruction, and the support of students and communication with families having a single statewide screener. And with that, thinking about how, from a state perspective, can we support professional learning? And so that's coming soon. Stay tuned.

For some opportunities for statewide professional learning around our DIBLES screening. So we're super excited about that.

speaker-2 (11:23.034)
another an effort that we have worked really hard on is building that shared commitment that literacy isn't solely the responsibility of the teacher that's providing the direct instruction, that it really has to be a commitment from all educators and including our families and community partners in that as well. And so we have a statute that requires teachers of children age four through grade three be adequately trained.

That statute, there is no exemption by role. And so we feel strongly, again, going back to that commitment that we want to be able to support our teachers that are instructing PE, music, art, technology, if there's departmentalizing a science social studies teacher to be thoughtful and intentional in how literacy fits within their context or within their environment, because it absolutely does. What we're learning is that they're already doing.

They're already thinking about vocabulary and building background knowledge. Maybe we just haven't named it. And so we've developed some professional learning specific to that group of teachers where we hope that they can see themselves in the literacy journey and see how the intentional planning of literacy fits right within their environment.

And then working with our educator preparation programs. So when we think about a coherent system, it has to be a through line through all of that. And we have had wonderful partnerships and connections with our EPPs. And so we continue to strengthen that and continue to partner with our EPPs so that our new teachers come out of our educator preparation programs with the skills that they need to be successful in the classroom to be instructors of literacy. And so they're very

open to that and wanting to learn more and think about coursework and think about experiences that those new teachers get. So we're just excited that everybody has has a place in the system and a responsibility in the system to uplift our teachers and ensure high quality literacy instruction is present every single day for our students. Leaders have the capacity to lead that work at a

speaker-2 (13:41.568)
Level in our EPPs to work really hard to prepare those pre-service teachers to fill a lot of success. And then on top of all of that, we have CLSD. And the CLSD is the Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant, and that really is a funding stream that supports all of that work that I just mentioned. It's not in addition to, it's not separate from, but it's really about how do we go deeper on professional learning.

and building leader and teacher capacity? How are we thinking about evidence-based best practices and having an intentional laser focus on those practices? And how are we using results to be very focused and driven when it comes to that work?

Lori Pusateri Lane is our literacy program specialist, and Olivia Burnt is our reading specialist. We've just wrapped up 46 one-on-one meetings with all of our sub-grantees, and they were absolutely amazing. And as Dr. Stavum spoke, the the momentum and the change that's happening because of intentional leaders and creating systems they were already planning to do using funds available to maybe go deeper or go quicker has been

remarkable. So it's truly an inspiration when we look across the state at what's happening and just excited to continue focusing on being coherent and focusing on being aligned with MTSS and all of our systems and frameworks.

speaker-1 (15:13.182)
I you know, I'm sitting back with the role that I get this support in is a statewide lens as well and thinking about the challenge that comes with that of 'cause your response there started off with there's this part of the system and there's this part of the system and there's this and it's a lot and it's beautiful in the fact that so many people are committed to deep and and really meaningful work and and are trying to carry that forward. And then the a question then becomes how do you coordinate and keep up with that and keep everybody's moving in the same direction? And and I think I caught part of it there, right? That we're

It's forty-six one-on-ones. And and I my a part of my question too is gonna be there's a joy that comes from that as well. But I don't wanna assume some of those things, Jamie. What else would you sort of add to that, I guess, as far as that coordination and the I can tell that that really is something that fills your bucket that you get a chance to to bring that system together along with others, right? But you're you're a key role p player in that. Yeah.

speaker-2 (16:09.218)
We try to do a lot of listening, you know. I try never to lose the perspective of being outside of a classroom or outside leading a building. And and that's really important for for me. And I think it's important for all of us when we think about leading this work that we always have to lead with that mindset of what was it like to be a teacher in a classroom right now? What's it like to be a a leader in a district or in a building? And so we we do engage in forty-six

One-on-one meetings because that helps us learn where does NDE maybe need to provide more support, more clarification? What can we uplift? What can we elevate that's really, really great? We talk a lot about we have to control the narrative and we want to be able to share our story and not have others share the story on behalf of us. And so I think listening, taking in the feedback, input, where our misses are coming from, where we're doing really well helps us share.

The direction that we need to head. Internally, we do a lot of collaboration across departments. We meet weekly with the Office of Special Education, with early childhood, with family literacy folks. So just making sure from an NDE perspective that we're trying to bring everybody to the table that needs to be at the table and needs to hear the feedback so that we can best support the systems that are happening in the building. So just trying to let

Listen, take the input, reflect on what's working, reflect on what's not working, and then continue to offer support where that's needed.

speaker-1 (17:50.862)
And so I put that together with what Dr. Stavem said a moment ago and and sort of paraphrasing but empowering learners through the opportunity to be able to read and ensure that that's gonna happen with the literacy piece and then also leaders as you were sharing there as well. And I think that probably transitions to Sarah's role quite nicely as we're setting up her next here for Sharon on the pods. speaking to Waverly, and your literacy journey there really, I guess.

speaker-0 (18:23.982)
We have had quite the literacy journey at Waverly Public Schools. I'm gonna take us back clear back to 2019. we were reflecting on our scores on INSCAS specifically, and we didn't like what we saw. We were right around 50% of our students were proficient, and that was a little bit of a gut punch and time time to reflect and time to check in on our systems. the first year that we implemented the double screener, we were at 47.

Of our students who were at Benchmark, 64% of our students we wrote individual reading plans for. And it was a lot of work. And so that's where our journey began on the science of reading, learning about the science of reading and really digging in. From there, we participated in strategic planning with our community. And it was a joint effort that we decided to go all in and

And we set a strategic goal of 80% of our students. We want to be proficient in grades K through 12. From there, we did curriculum reviews that match the science of reading. In fall of 2020, we implemented CKLA. We had 100% consensus from our teachers who were part of that curriculum review. And that was a big having a core tier one.

program that matches the science of reading is huge. I will I if I can emphasize that enough. That is huge. And it was great that we had 100% of our teachers on board for that. You know, from there we spent a lot of time. We use ESSER funds to participate in professional learning and even supporting our secondary with some with some literacy curriculum and some materials and really

Coming to present day, you know, CS CLSD has really just renewed our focus in all honesty. we continue to implement letters volume one, volume two in our district and have a professional learning plan. There, we are also engaging our secondary teachers in Adela and Keys for Adolescence for Literacy. we have done a lot, a lot of work.

speaker-0 (20:51.808)
In developing a strong systematic approach to our students, both in the tier one and tier two and tier three. And it's it's it's been a reflection of data, it's been intentional instruction, it's been intentional groupings, and it's going beyond the di or going beyond the benchmark and and really digging in, giving students a diagnostic, grouping students based on need, and then it

Don't stop there. It's happening through progress monitoring, reflecting on our teaching, implementing specific strategies, and being flexible with how we're meeting student needs. So, all in all, the work is not over. Sustaining this work is really hard. And it takes courageous teachers and it takes courageous leaders because this work is not for the faint of heart.

it's it's been a very rewarding journey and we continue to reflect and refine. you know, we were really excited last year. I can speak specifically for my building. We ended the year our kindergarten through second grade students were at 88% proficient. And so that was a big celebration for us. This year, yeah, thank you. This year we are really excited, we've upped our goal to 95%, and and so we want to work really, really hard to get.

speaker-1 (22:25.376)
So many questions to build off of that. And first of all, I want to just acknowledge the vulnerability that had to be in those initial moments where you have that data and you look at the road that lies before you and where you'd like to go but aren't there yet and all the things that I think can be a little overwhelming about that, right? There might be folks in the room or folks listening in that go, that's where we're at. And and and fair enough. And so it's great to have stories from in our state where we have examples that we can lift up to say

Stay the course, I think back to what we were talking about before. and understand too that that there's so much that goes into that that I would ask for a little bit more on what are some of those kind of leadership aspects like the culture building, the the encouragement, the

conversations that that are challenging that that need to take place to sort of get what were some of those lessons learned I guess along that way so that maybe as people start to walk that row they go, I remember Sarah talked about this at the summit, right? And not to put too much pressure on that either, I guess, but if you could just impart a few of those things, I think that would be really great to learn more about.

speaker-0 (23:36.814)
I think one of the biggest lessons we learned is number one, professional development is huge. Number two, it's going to take time. And number three, it takes really high expectations. The work didn't happen overnight, right? It took a lot of intentional planning. I think what we have walked away with most is it's going to take a joint effort of what we're doing in our tier one and the instructional strategies that

We're using our teachers really learned that that through collaboration, and we really had to build that capacity of our teachers and our teacher leaders. It is shared leadership, it's not going to happen just from the building principle, but building the capacity of our of our teacher leaders in the building in leading collaboration and getting very specific around the instructional strategies that we're using. We participated in instructional rounds and got to learn from.

From and with each other, and that was huge. We've also really dug in, and I and I referenced this a little bit before in our win time structures and what our students need during intervention time. And that's evolving as well. I mean, we're it takes a lot of courage, and we're kind of pushing the envelope a little bit this year, and what we're asking of our teachers, and what we're asking of our students. And just the other day, I sat down with a teacher.

We were in collaboration getting ready to actually dig into math and and it was progress monitoring day and she sits up and she flips open her computer, she's like, look.

speaker-5 (25:16.588)
These kids!

speaker-0 (25:17.674)
Are already improving their ORF score, their oral reading floats. And I'm like, that's your work. That's your investment. You are doing that based on your actions and what you're doing with your kids. And you know, I sat in an earlier session today, and we talked about, I heard a lot about collective efficacy. And it is a collective efficacy movement within our schools that do make it possible. you know, I

I have one story of a little girl that we that we had back in kindergarten. bless her little soul, reading letters, sounds, phoning segmentation, all of those literacy skills were so hard for her, and we're noticing okay, we're we're far below, we're far below, we're not making many gains. And so, as educators, we really had to come to the table and problem solve. And you know, she goes into second.

Grade and we see or she goes into first grade and we see some growth. She's not as far below anymore. We're starting to see some gains. We're pushing, pushing, adapting, meeting her needs in other ways. By the by the end of first grade, she's above grade level. And it's like, you're a reader, you did it. And that is one of our best success stories that I can share because that didn't come from just one teacher, it didn't come from her parents just working with her.

At home, it came from the collective effort of all of our staff involved, and and she's a great success story. She's doing great in second grade, and and we're sustaining that. That's also something else is we're really looking at setting growth goals, not just for our far below and below grade level students, but we want all of our kids to grow in their reading ability and their proficiency levels, and so that's another thing that we have.

speaker-1 (27:26.574)
This morning, I was in the back of the room talking with Ryan Rickabaugh, and one of the things that he brought up in that conversation comes to mind in this moment when he said that a big one of the major po responsibilities of leadership is making growth visible. and it sounds like that's something that is apparent not only to your teachers but to your students, and then obviously communicated to families through the excitement that that brings. And that's just really inspiring stuff. So we're gonna throw it out to the audience here now. You're seated with others around the room.

Will you take two minutes and I'm gonna have you here in a moment tell your story with someone near you about where you are with this work. Maybe we're just getting started, maybe it has been a five-year, eight-year journey, whatever it is, but just we come to these things in person to connect, to make opportunities and space to learn from one another. and I'll clue you in on a little secret here. The slides are moving it to every two minutes. and so when we see this slide come back up again, that means that our time will be over and we'll kind of bring everybody back.

So take two ish minutes to tell your story at your tables, please.

speaker-1 (30:55.726)
All right. Thanks for taking a little bit of an opportunity to turn and talk and share about the work that you're invested in. And I think it's probably time I need to throw things over to David. David, we probably need to do like another introduction for you here, because now we're half an hour into our program and we've not had a chance to circle through and and hear from you. So can you share a little bit of your

and backstory I guess of with us as we kind of transition into the back half of things.

speaker-4 (31:27.564)
So my name's David Lowe. I'm a managing director with SPED Strategies. And we've been partnering with NDE for the last few years around beginning around their journey to inclusion. So all the work that's been going on over the last few years with that. But now also expanding into that, like the Nebraska Leeds Literacy efforts. So all the conversations that have been happening around like there's all these different pieces, and how do we make sure that they're aligned and integrated and supporting the same things? Like we get the joy and privilege of having to partner and bringing those pieces.

together. And then this last year also began work around materials matter for all, which is a professional learning series that we'll talk about a little bit more, but thinking specifically around how do we use our HQIM, our like high quality literacy materials, to make sure that we're suiting all serving all students well.

speaker-1 (32:15.79)
Yeah, and can you lean into that a little bit more as far as thinking about the the HQIM and we have kind of a a set of questions here too that I was I almost want to read this one to you. What can educators do to help students with disabilities access grade level literacy instruction through HQIM?

speaker-4 (32:32.43)
Yeah.

Yeah, sure. So and and just for context too, the when we were looking at the series, the materials matter for all series, there's like a lot of schools and districts have been leaning into the like the emphasis around adopting high quality literacy materials. It's just been it's been amazing to see how widespread that is across the state. but what a lot of a lot of schools and districts see, not just in Nebraska but nationwide, is that after they begin that implementation, you begin to see outcomes improve like you're hoping for, but when you disactict

What you often see is that that that growth is happening for students in the general education setting, but it's not happening at the same rate for students with disabilities. And that's because they're not getting the same kind of access to the curriculum and instruction, right? And that happens for several reasons, right? The oftentimes special educators aren't brought into the initial training to the same degree as general educators, right? So they may not have the same level of exposure or experience or even access to the curriculum to be leveraging it with their students.

And or that we're just used to a paradigm of I use something different, right? Like those kids need something different. And so breaking that paradigm and understanding how to use your HQIM or your literacy curriculum you've just adopted for all students is different. It's new. And so that's another change management piece on top of that, right? So there's there's many reasons why our students with disabilities aren't getting access to the same curriculum and instruction. So we designed Materials Matter for All to try and see, can we create a targeted

curriculum embedded professional learning series to help bridge that gap. So really can we help educators kind of answer three questions? Like, how do I use my existing literacy curriculum and the embedded supports within them to support students? How do I adapt my existing literacy curriculum to support the needs of students? And then how do I use my existing literacy curriculum to provide intervention for students at the tier two and tier three level? And we want to do all of that in two very

speaker-4 (34:32.428)
Specific ways. One, we want to do it curriculum embedded. So this is not like it's not a training about theoretically, here's how one might apply strategies with whatever. Like this is about if you're using CKLA, here's where the embedded supports are, and here's what it looks like. If you're using Wonders, this is what it looks like to use it in a small group context for students given particular needs. and then the other piece, and Sarah mentioned this too, is that it's done in collaboration. It's general educators and special educators working together to understand for

Because these are all of our kids, where do all these materials fit in everything that we're doing and how do we use them across contexts tiers one, two, and three to make sure that all we're doing for students is consistent and aligned. So that's the work that we've been we started last year with this series and and are expanding on this year to really help bridge that gap so that as districts and schools are rolling out their their curriculum, their literacy curriculum, they're using it well for all students, and all students get to be a part of the kind of growth that Sarah was talking about.

speaker-1 (35:34.318)
Yeah, and the three the justifications or or aims that you had mentioned there, the first two focused in on

say it this way perhaps but like fidelity with the HQIM and then the next one was adapting. And I I heard in your answer that you just gave a moment ago that those how those can coexist but I do think sometimes we can get not not see those as being something that that requires that sort of teacher lens perhaps or coaching lens to to adapt where appropriate. So can you kind of press into that a little bit more and and give us a practicality. Yeah.

speaker-4 (36:10.712)
Yeah, yeah. So and I think the first thing when you think about adapting your curriculum, you have to know your students, right? and so thinking back to what Jonathan was talking about this morning, like how you think about your students and how you understand their strengths, their motivations, as well as where they need supports and accommodations, like it begins there. So for for both your special and general educators, when you think about how do we how do we leverage the embedded supports or how do we adapt the curriculum, you have to know the student first so you know what it is that we're trying to do for students and where the places where adaptation

might be might be necessary. And then from there, you have to actually you have to know the materials well. And I think when you're doing, you know, when you're doing an initial curriculum adoption, it's a lot. And as a classroom teacher, you're like, I just I want to know how to teach that lesson. Like I want to make sure I'm doing it the right way, right? There's so much that's going on. And so your your capacity to ingest all the new materials, there's a lot going on. There are there are embedded components within that and there's resources for helping understand

How you adapt and use those materials for all students that we don't often have the time to explore or to really wrap our brains around. So that's that's another piece is taking the time as you get through initial adoption to really look and see where are the resources that show standards that are being addressed. Because if you're adapting materials, you're looking to see what the student needs and how do I use these materials to address those pieces. That's happening all throughout the curriculum. It's happening in whole group settings, it's happening in small group settings. And so if you know

where that lives in the resources, you know how to be flexible and how to use those in different ways, whether you're doing whole group instruction or whether you're doing small group instruction. But it takes some fluency and some familiarity with the resources to be able to come to a lesson and say, this is what I can do with my whole group, this is where I can draw from their click them to do with my small group. And so getting the time with your team to understand those resources and be able to make those decisions, like that's time we need to give teachers and that's training we need to give teachers so they can do that well and fluently. It's the 101 other things

speaker-1 (38:13.998)
I'm seeing so many head nods from our panelists up here that I would love to pass the mic around and have folks kind of build off of that point or what would you maybe add to what David shared there as you you process that from your lens and role?

speaker-0 (38:33.346)
I think about I love what you said, we're doing a hundred and one different things in classrooms and teaching is such hard and complex work. So on behalf of educators, I appreciate that you recognize that first and foremost, because teaching is not for the faint at heart, right? so when I think about our role in reaching all students, right, within the tier one, because I fully believe as well, we're not going to reach

More students' reading proficiency just through an intervention time. I, you know, at one point last year we said we're gonna tear one the crap out of our kids, right? And and we can. I fully believe that we can. at the same time, with 101 things that our teachers are doing, we have to be intentional.

And so I I want to bring the word intentionality to around what our teachers are doing. And we're we work best in partnership and collaboration, which I know you mentioned as well. And so as we collaborate and partner with our special education counterparts, sometimes that might be our paraeducator colleagues, and how we can support our students within the tier one environment is huge. And knowing the strategies,

speaker-4 (40:01.794)
Yeah, and I'll I'll I'll brag a little bit on some of the ESU 10 folks that were helping pilot the the series last year. A lot of those, a lot of the big aha moments were coming in those first conversations around tier one. Because when you talk about using the embedded resources or adapting resources, that's all tier one. sorry, ESU eight, excuse me. and and as as the as teachers were were working with this, they realized I'm like, we have structures for our tier one that we can flip. Because if if we can do this kind of adapting and we can leverage these kind of resources.

that can all happen and should all be happening in a tier one setting. So like there was a party going on around tier one before we even got to the tier two or tier three conversation. So 100% like that's where it starts because I mean that's why it's tier one.

speaker-2 (40:47.64)
Something that I heard both of you share that I think is is really important of when we're supporting our teachers and our leaders, whether it is through professional learning or a material adoption or just collaboration, that it's not a one-time event. We don't go to a training and learn how to adapt materials and go back into the classroom and say good luck. That it's really about the ongoing coaching and and conversation.

That really help move the learning to application and the classroom. And that is a really critical role that our leaders and our buildings play in making sure that the experiences and the opportunities that we are providing our educators can be followed up by their leadership, by their coaching, by their expectation that we have special education teachers at the table for planning, that we have.

EL teachers at the table for planning, that we have interventionists and any other support staff that is serving our students, that they're all at the table. And I think that's a really, really important part. What we've seen in some of our CLSD work is those strong examples of collaboration. The leaders, the superintendents are on board, the vision is shared, is where we're seeing the most significant gains in

Outcomes and behavior shifts in instruction. And so I just say that as a former elementary principal, that was a privilege that I knew was really important. We had to make sure it was about the system and I could support the ongoing work and not just thank you for re providing my teachers with training. Good luck. You know, that we we had to play a support in that as well.

speaker-3 (42:48.438)
Like you looked at me, so I will cap that off. nicely said, and as a former superintendent, part of Nebraska Leeds literacy is to support the work of district leaders. Superintendents have to be in the classroom.

Everybody has to be part of what's happening in the classroom. as a principal, you have to know what's happening with all of your students, whether you have 50 or you have 500, constantly scanning the landscape, what's the growth look like, what's happening in classrooms. It doesn't mean that the superintendent is going to come in and

Teach the lesson every day or be part of you know that dailiness, but they have to be part of instructional leadership. That's really what it's all about, whether it's principals, district leaders, or superintendents, instructional leadership. Because what you heard scattered throughout this whole conversation was things that related to schedules, that related to resources, that related to timelines, that come back to boards approving.

decisions and budgets and turnover and hiring and all of these elements that make the daily part of instruction for kids work.

And so we all have to be a part of that big system, but we have to be close enough to the work to know what's actually happening. And to be able to guide from whatever your vantage point is in your district, we have to be able to do our work really, really well. And I think that that involves very frequent walkthroughs, feeling the pulse of a school, being able to authentically talk in the community with parents and with community leaders.

speaker-3 (44:39.552)
About the value of your school and what you are doing for children. Because we all know in a state that is very geographically diverse, the health of a community is directly tied to the health of a school and a school district. And that vital work that you're doing for the children who choose to live in that particular area because their adults choose to be there, they all deserve the same quality of an education, no matter what that looks like when they

they look out the window. So I just think we've all got to be directly in the game.

speaker-1 (45:16.044)
I could just sit and listen to this. It's so gr great getting the opportunity to pick everybody's brain a little bit and hear a little bit about how you see this work and and the role that we all

To play in it. I set that up to say too that I'm gonna go around for questions from the audience here after this next question. And so please be thinking about yours as you listen in to their answer to this lightning round, where I'm gonna ask you to complete the sentence with maybe a couple words. I can give a little explanation if you'd like. but the question will be, and we'll start with David. starting tomorrow, educators can strengthen literacy by

speaker-4 (45:55.234)
Being really intentional about using your existing literacy curriculum in all three tiers of MTSS.

speaker-1 (46:04.332)
Should I do the setup again? Yeah. Starting tomorrow. Educators can strengthen literacy by.

speaker-3 (46:10.752)
Understanding the importance of the trajectory of a person's life based on what you were doing that day in the classroom.

speaker-1 (46:22.966)
Jamie, starting tomorrow, educators constrict in literacy by

speaker-2 (46:28.238)
It's also going to say intentionality. So I'm going to go with being intentional in providing more opportunities for students to read, write, speak, and think in classrooms.

speaker-1 (46:40.942)
And

speaker-0 (46:44.75)
Right. so starting tomorrow, educators can strengthen literacy by. I was also gonna go with intentionality, but I will piggyback off of what I talked about before, having super high expectations. High expectations for ourselves, high expectations for our kids, and high expectations for each other.

speaker-1 (47:08.974)
So we have a lot of educators in the room. And so you know this moment where we're gonna have that kind of pause, where am I really gonna ask? I hope you ask your question. please raise your hand and I'll walk around and pass the mic to you. And we'll get a chance to answer your question that you have for our panel.

speaker-1 (47:34.936)
We'll we'll start here and then I'll go to the next table.

speaker-0 (47:37.582)
Dr. Stavem, if I'm a teacher and I really want my superintendent or principal to have more knowledge about Nebraska Leeds literacy, what can I do to get them that information?

speaker-3 (47:52.45)
I think you can be kindly relentless in inviting them to many things that lead to them feeling a sense of urgency or just awareness. You know, I think it goes from, I'm not sure what this is, maybe our district could find out more. tell me what you know about this. Would this be something great for our district? I support that. emails, phone calls, please don't go to their house.

That's just you know awkward. but I think if a few people can frequently ask about that and it's invitational and it is all part of some of the goals that maybe already exist in the school district, and maybe some of the things that are already showing great outcomes, that that's another enhancement that could happen in your district that then also not just makes things better in your district.

But part of the goal of Nebraska Leeds Literacy is to strengthen that statewide web of network of people who can share what's happening in their district challenges and opportunities and successes. But we just want to look at having just a web. I'll just say really quickly: when we were visioning how this might work at its inception, I was flying over Nebraska coming back from somewhere. And whenever I fly, I just am struck by how.

how insignificant I am.

But when you fly up above our state and you think about how do we get an entire state full of people to do the best work that they can for children, you can see how the connections happen. And when it's nighttime and you can see yard lights on, and you can see little towns and lights, and then you see the metro if you're flying into Lincoln or Omaha. It's just such a good reminder that we're all part of this beautiful state, and we all have to connect around education, and it makes it much more valuable.

speaker-3 (49:55.024)
valuable and more fun and better for kids.

speaker-2 (50:15.01)
Love to. Our CLSD goal has been really instrumental. We have the Nebraska Literacy Project, which is really focused on K3, a little bit of pre-K in there with the adequately trained, but mostly K3. And CLSD allows us to really broaden that birth through grade 12.

and what we know about early literacy is that those opportunities to engage our youngest future scholars in our school is really, really important. some of the work from our CLSD grant has been how are we supporting communities and families and building opportunities for language development and in the home, getting books into the homes of families.

Just helping build routines of reading and children seeing reading as important. talking and the language that we use and noticing small things and a sound that that

Sun makes sound. Some of those little things that we can really help build language and vocabulary for early for our preschool students. CLSD has a very specific goal, which is increasing literacy and language development for four-year-olds. And so that is something that we're really, really tracking. We also know that professional learning and high-quality materials in our preschool classrooms are really, really important.

Important as well. And so making sure that those educators and support staff are equipped with the same opportunities as our school-age teachers are. We've seen some really amazing examples of schools and districts connecting with community hospitals. And as new parents are leaving, connecting them with a literacy bag and building relationships and partners with community organizations to support that. Because we do know.

speaker-2 (52:22.704)
That makes a pretty significant difference when those children that have had and been exposed to vocabulary and high-rich conversations, we see the success of that as they enter our schools. And I think as educators, we want to continue to elevate that and continue to learn more about how we can be more intentional in that support and thinking about all children when we think about our birth to K kiddos.

speaker-1 (52:53.806)
We have time for one more question.

speaker-0 (53:05.036)
No pressure or anything. so mine is kind of directed towards Sarah, but anyone can answer. So knowing that literacy is not all educator strength nor necessarily passion, how do you build some of that buy-in and really take accountability for those high expectations to meet what we want for all kids?

You know, really good question. because you're right, it's not everybody's forte and it's not everybody's favorite thing. in elementary school, it might be a little bit easier for us to kind of tackle that bridge. I can speak to a little bit of what I know is happening in secondary, but first and foremost, professional development. So all of our teachers, K three, have participated in letters, and we we've done that, gosh, that was back in

2020 2021 where we started that journey and we continue to have a professional development plan. So I would say that's first and foremost because when you know and understand how important reading is, it's easier to invest and to understand. Number two, we set it as a school goal. We set it as a school goal, and it's not just the school goal for our first grade teachers or our second or kindergarten or special education or intervention. It's a school goal.

And so everybody's part of that school goal. And everybody, we talk about feedback, everybody's getting feedback on how we are addressing literacy skills in all classrooms. And all classrooms means all classrooms. And so that's something that I can speak specifically to what we've done at my building. Now I also know in our secondary, our secondary is really digging in this year through

C CLSD grant and really digging in to understand and building their professional learning capacity as well. And they're really looking at all of their core classes, how many minutes students are spending in text at a class level. And so when you take on big work, you make it a school-wide focus and a school-wide goal. And not to sound simplistic or cheesy, but you collect data on it and you reflect.

speaker-0 (55:25.044)
On the data on a school-wide. This is where these are the adult actions. This is the percent of our of our staff initiating these adult actions. This is the percent of our students responding to those adult actions. And when we look at data, it can become real and that it affects our actions and implements change.

speaker-3 (55:47.158)
Can I just add a little bit to that? I think historically we're not always good at making some of that work visible, K twelve or even pre-K twenty, really. And I think everybody wants to be part of good growth and good news. And so I think there's more work to be done for helping secondary teachers be aware of what's being worked on in middle and elementary school and elementary knowing what

high school teachers are working on even if it's not quite the same thing because that allows the whole school district to celebrate the wins. And I think everybody wants to see great things happening and can feel then a part of the collective effort to move district scores or proficiency levels forward. But it takes some intentionality and there's nothing better than having high school teachers go and spend about half an hour in kindergarten or first grade because they're like, man

That is really hard and vice versa. But sharing the worlds of our elementary, middle, and high schools, teachers to teachers for that experience, I think needs to happen more often.

speaker-1 (56:59.334)
You're right. Yes, that is a perspective builder is what I might say with that. So for the everybody here, can we give a round of applause for our panel? I

I really want to lift up that it is one thing to give of your time and your expertise and be able to share in a format like this and so so grateful for that. But to get to that place where you're tapped to be the person up here sharing takes a daily commitment to showing up and being invested. And I'm such a believer in one percent improvement over time with that consistency leads to great change and and the fostering the type of expertise that we need in our leaders in our state. and so thank you all for doing that and being with us today to share it.

For sure. and

The final note that I would end with is I'm gonna have us all give a round of applause for ourselves here because you're doing that too. You're here, right? You showed up to this event because you believe in that same sort of commitment and want to connect with others that are like-minded in that same way. So whether you're here live or listening in after the fact, let's give up one time for our education community, and we'll pass it back over to the leaders of the summit.

speaker-0 (58:22.414)
Thank you, Andrew. Okay. Hi Ben. So tomorrow you're gonna want to show up to see Ben, who just got here with us. But it please don't leave. we have

because of the Midwest Literacy Collective, a sponsored networking event. so we have appetizers and a cash bar in the back. our podcast is ending. Again, thank you so much. But truly thank you all for spending your time with us from four, it's almost four o'clock. It is four o'clock. It's four o'clock, which might be five o'clock somewhere. So let's network and have some fun. Thanks for a great day one. We'll see you back here tomorrow.