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DEED released Spring 2022 state, district, school, and subgroup assessment results on November 10th. In English Language Arts, 30% of Alaska students met grade-level expectations. While students in grades 5 (37.4%) and grade 6 (38.1%) had the highest achievement levels, students in grade 7 (55.3%) demonstrated the greatest need for support.
The National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) assessment shows similar results. Fewer than half of Alaska students in grade 4 (24%) and grade 8 (26%) were proficient on the reading assessment in Spring 2022.
 The DEED Assessments team is made up of four staff members. Please see their contact information below.
Elizabeth Greninger, Assessments Administrator
elizabeth.greninger@alaska.gov
Rachel Schweissing, District Test Coordinator Liaison
rachel.schweissing@alaska.gov
Kari Quinto, AK STAR & Alaska Science Assessment Coordinator
kari.quinto@alaska.gov
Raina Moulian, NAEP State Coordinator
raina.moulian@alaska.gov
Follow this link for more information on Alaska's Statewide Assessment:
https://education.alaska.gov/assessments
ELA Core Curriculum Project Update
On October 27th, the Department of Education and Early Development officially announced the English Language Arts Curriculum Grant for grades K-5. The informational webinar was attended by district leaders and stakeholders across the state. Following the webinar, interested districts completed a “Participation Agreement,” indicating their interest and commitment to the grant initiative. After a Q&A session with participating districts scheduled for November 21st, 2022, the next stage begins. This next stage is diving deep into K-5 English Language Arts (Reading) materials. The initial list of programs has been through 3 phases to ensure alignment with evidence-based reading instruction outlined in the Alaska Reads Act. Additionally, curriculum and support materials were required to provide opportunities for practice and interleaving of skills taught (e.g., phonics, decoding, encoding). Now, our district educators and stakeholders will review each program through the lens of usability and cultural-based context specific to Alaska. Educators will ask questions such as “do the materials demonstrate learning opportunities that are reflective of our population” and “do the lessons infuse culture-based content and differentiated instructional approaches/resources to meet the needs of all students?”
The goal of this review process is to have a final list of programs that meet the unique landscape of our state classrooms, truly reflecting diverse perspectives and providing inclusive reading instruction for all of our students. The participating districts will narrow the list of curriculums for the project to four. From there, participating districts will choose the curriculum that best suits their needs and develop an implementation plan. The goal of the project is to support participating districts with evidence-based curriculum for grades K-5 to be implemented in school year 2023-2024.
State-Sponsored Literacy Screener
The Alaska Department of Education & Early Development will sponsor mCLASS from Amplify as the statewide literacy screener that will help with the early identification of students with reading deficiencies in order to provide specific support so that all students will be able to read at grade level by the end of third grade.
Statewide screening and support are components of the Alaska Reads Act. The screening tool will be administered three times each school year. If a student exhibits a reading deficiency, the school district must offer intensive reading intervention services in addition to the core reading instruction that is provided to all students in a classroom. With early identification of reading deficiencies and evidence-based intervention methods, teachers and families can strategically and confidently help a student improve their reading skills.
Amplify’s mCLASS was developed by the University of Oregon’s Center on Teaching and Learning. mCLASS has been built on decades of research in curriculum-based measurement science and delivers a proven approach that screens for at-risk students and provides insight into individual student’s reading development. The comprehensive assessment system offers progress monitoring, a built-in dyslexia screener, intervention tips, and robust reports for teachers and administrators. The assessment does not diagnose dyslexia but identifies which students need additional evaluation to test for dyslexia.
Two informational webinars and one office hour webinar have been hosted by DEED to help school districts learn more about the state-sponsored literacy screener, Amplify’s mCLASS. These live webinars had over 130 attendees. Follow this link to view a recording.
Following the webinars, a survey seeking feedback was sent to each school district to gather information surrounding interest in possible pilot program participation, any requests for more information, and district anticipated usage of Amplify’s mCLASS literacy screener. Information from the survey is currently being reviewed, and the next steps will be decided based upon the results. For questions or requests for more information, please contact Tracy Parker at tracy.parker@alaska.gov.
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Alaska Literacy Blueprint
The Alaska Department of Education & Early Development continues in the process of updating the Alaska Literacy Blueprint. The past literacy blueprint was created and published in 2011. The purpose of the literacy blueprint is to provide clear communication regarding Alaska’s literacy plan from birth through high school graduation. A group of stakeholders from across Alaska will play a vital role in updating the Alaska Literacy Blueprint.
The first stakeholder meeting was held in early November. Stakeholders were introduced to the Alaska Literacy Blueprint project team members. An overview of the project was presented, and stakeholders were asked to provide input. Results from stakeholder input will drive the work of the Alaska Literacy Blueprint project team members. A special thank you goes out to the stakeholders willing to volunteer their time and expertise.
For more information regarding the Alaska Literacy Blueprint, please contact tracy.parker@alaska.gov.
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Alaska RTI/MTSS Refresh
Alaska Staff Development Network, Alaska Council of School Administrators and the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development would like to announce the districts that will participate in the RTI/MTSS Refresh. Through this two-year project, support will be provided to assist districts in analyzing their current multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) model, ensuring strategies and structure to enhance practices that increase student success.
Congratulations to:
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Juneau Borough School District
Kodiak Island Borough School District
Ketchikan Gateway School District
Sitka School District
Petersburg Borough School District
Dillingham City School District
Haines Borough School District
Mount Edgecumbe
Bering Strait School District
Alaska Gateway School District
Lake & Peninsula Borough School District
Southwest Region School District
Kuspuk School District
Yukon-Koyukuk School District
Northwest Arctic Borough School District
It is possible that there will be opportunity for additional districts/schools/individuals to participate in activities, events, and other meet-ups over the duration of this two-year project. If your district, school, or an individual is interested in discussing how your educators might be involved, please contact Doug Gray, dgray@alaskaacsa.org.
Let us explain...
Department of Education and Early Development
Alaska Reads Act Implementation Webinars Scheduled
Please mark your calendar to set time aside for a series of hour-long weekly virtual webinars that will begin on January 12, 2023, designed to take a deeper dive into each of the four programmatic parts of the Alaska Reads Act, including: a) District Reading Intervention, b) Department Reading Program, c) Early Education/Parents as Teachers and d) Virtual Education. The series of webinars will focus on implementation, with draft template and flowchart supports at the district and school level. Each week a different topic will be covered. Sessions will be recorded for those that are not able to attend all sessions live and they will be posted to the Reads Act webpage. The webinar series is intended for those that will lead implementation efforts in each district and/or school. Links to the webinars will be sent in December 2022, but please consider blocking off this time on your calendar.
The Alaska Reads Act updated webpage is live! Please visit this page to read about the four programs of the Alaska Reads Act (Early Education/Parents as Teachers, District Reading Intervention, Department Reading Program, and Virtual Education).
The Alaska Reads Act (HB114) was passed by the 32nd Alaska State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Dunleavy in June 2022. It created a statewide comprehensive K-3 reading policy designed to improve reading outcomes. Learn about the how and why here.
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2023 Alaska Science of Reading Symposium
2023 SoR Symposium II Planning Update
"Empower Alaskan educators to connect understanding of reading science to classroom and leadership practices, resulting in increased reading proficiency for students."
The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development and Region 16 Comprehensive Center co-sponsored Science of Reading Symposium will be held from April 28th-30th at the Egan Center in Anchorage, Alaska. There will be NO registration fee. Plan to come engage with other leaders and educators from around the state and nation in rich content regarding reading science.
Registration for the Science of Reading Symposium will be available in early December at aksorsymposium.org. We are finishing up the keynote and breakout speaker schedule. What a great line-up we have this year to support all of you in reading!
Building and district leaders are encouraged to attend the Symposium. Your leadership matters in the building and districts you serve. Having a leader present and engaged in professional development is key in leading reading improvement efforts. Leaders are also invited to a pre-conference session on the Alaska Reads Act Friday, April 28th from 8:00-11:00 to learn more about implementation efforts. In addition, there will be breakout sessions focused on leadership at the symposium.
Breakout sessions will also include culturally relevant practices, early learning, middle and upper grade reading, data literacy, multi-tiered systems of support and many other evidence-based practices for all attendees.
REMEMBER, SAVE THE DATE!
- April 28-30
- Anchorage at the Egan Center
- 1000 participant cap
- Watch for registration announcements
- Subscribe to this newsletter for monthly updates
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School Spotlight
This month DEED is highlighting Annette Island School District's Richard Johnson Elementary School. Please read about their journey in choosing evidence-based curriculum and supports, implementation, and achieving desired results.
 Background
At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, the Annette Island School District was considering the purchase of a new curriculum to increase student’s ability to read on grade level based on years of test scores demonstrating students not making the academic progress they should be making. Annette Island School District began the process with a committee of 5 teachers in June of 2020. The committee included a high school, middle school, and three elementary school teachers brought together to discuss what was the district’s greatest need and which curriculum could provide the best outcome for students. The team considered several options which included El-Education-ReadyGen, Fountas & Pinnell, ReadingGen, Book Worms, Fundations, Heggerty-Phonological Awareness, Geodes, and Wit & Wisdom.
The intent of the committee was to find a curriculum that could be administered with fidelity which would take a concerted effort and on-going training. The key considerations for the new curriculum was to reach a wide grade range and ability span and contain multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate their mastery of the standards. The curriculum must be engaging, developmentally appropriate, and address the standards in the lower grades as well as in the upper grades.
The committee began by reading the reviews and the research on every curriculum they considered. They came up with a multi-step approach to consider two different English Language Arts (ELA) programs. They went through the pros-cons of a full comprehensive ELA program as opposed to ELA programs using multiple components to allow for all learning needs, learning styles and making sure the material meets the needs of a variety of student abilities.
The committee took into consideration the National Reading Panel’s identification of reading as it is broken down into five key concepts that are at the core of every effective reading instructional program. Those concepts are phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. These concepts guided the committee's approach to narrowing down the options. The Annette Island School District’s ELA committee ultimately recommended to the school board an ELA program consisting of multiple components: Heggerty, Fundations, Geodes, and Wit & Wisdom.
ELA Curriculum Implementation
In grades PreK through 2nd, daily phonological awareness instruction is provided using the Heggerty Phonological Awareness program, which was implemented in September 2020. The lessons are between 10-12 minutes in length and skills are taught in an explicit and systematic way. Weekly progress monitoring allows teachers to identify students who may need additional support in phonological awareness.
Heggerty’s Bridge the Gap program, implemented in 2021, is an intervention program that provides phonemic awareness lessons for students in grades 3rd through 5th. Students who need additional support in phonemic awareness will receive daily targeted instruction to ensure proficiency in this area. Student data is collected and updated through frequent progress monitoring and that data is used to further guide instruction.
The Wilson Fundations Phonics program was implemented in grades PreK-3 in September 2020. It is a research based, Tier 1 and Tier 2 instructional program designed to explicitly and systematically teach phonics skills necessary for reading, writing, and spelling. This program is considered a proactive approach, using a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). The daily lessons are 30-40 minutes with an additional 30 minutes, 3-5 times a week for those students who need additional support. Progress monitoring of phonics skills is ongoing and used to guide instruction.
Geodes, published by Great Minds, was implemented in grades K-2 in September 2020. The program aligns with the scope and sequence of the Wilson Fundations phonics program and the module topics in Wit & Wisdom, also published by Great Minds. These knowledge building books are geared towards emerging and developing readers and are at least 80% decodable. Geodes focuses on phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary development and provides students an opportunity to learn about ideas in the areas of science, history and the arts. Teachers use Fundations data to assist in creating small groups and use Geodes within those small groups as an instructional tool to strengthen and enhance phonics skills.
The final part of the comprehensive reading program was found in the use of Wit & Wisdom. Implemented in September 2020 in grades K-5, the curriculum is intended to build necessary ELA skills while at the same time cultivate students' knowledge around history, art, science, and other topics. Wit & Wisdom is a high-quality, research based curriculum that aligns with the science of reading, state standards, and also pairs with Geodes and Fundations. Geodes and Fundations are aimed at strengthening the lower strands of Scarborough’s rope (phonological awareness, decoding, sight word recognition) while Wit & Wisdom is intended to strengthen the upper strands (background knowledge, vocabulary, literacy knowledge, etc.).
This ELA curriculum is designed to address the five essential components of reading (phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) making the curriculum accessible for students at all levels of learning.
Our school district has a keen focus on culture. This ELA curriculum can be tailored to fit our cultural commitment to our students.
Additional Supports
The Annette Island School District did not stop with simply adopting a new curriculum, it also provides ongoing training for teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators to ensure all staff have a solid understanding of the curriculum. The district continues to monitor and adjust their use and understanding of the various components of the ELA curriculum.
In addition to professional development, Annette Island School District has hired a reading specialist to assist with the implementation of the ELA curriculum. The reading specialist serves as an instructional coach as well as provides one-to-one support for students with reading challenges.The reading specialist also assists in the coordination of professional development, conducts observations, provides feedback for teachers, and supports data collection and analysis.
Example of progress
Since the implementation of the ELA curriculum, one area that our students have experienced growth in is phonological awareness. The chart below shows the gains that our kindergarten students have made over the course of a school year.
 Phonological awareness is an essential foundational skill in which other reading skills are built, so it is vital that our students develop and become proficient in this area.
*Please note, phonological awareness skills continue to become more complex grade level to grade level and as the school year progresses. For instance, the students move from syllable work to phoneme work. An example of this you can find when looking at the chart and see the beginning of the year data in the area of ‘Segmenting Words into Compound Words’, the skill changes from words that are not as complex to words that require a more advanced reading skill such as segmenting words into phonemes.
Thank you Superintendent Lindsey and Annette Island School District for all of your hard work, and congratulations to your district on its amazing journey toward reading proficiency for all students! We at DEED appreciate you sharing your story with us!
Have you had great success increasing student reading proficiency with an initiative or strategy in your school? Do you have something you are really excited about as an outcome of a shift to Science of Reading best practices? We are interested in hearing what amazing things are happening in your school to positively impact student reading proficiency and achievement. Please submit your story to the e-mail below. You may be chosen as the next school spotlight in a future edition of the Alaska Reading Newsletter!
Please e-mail your submissions to: Jenn.Miller@alaska.gov
AKLearns
AKLearns is one of our education information webpages. Watch for an update coming soon regarding reading initiatives, and professional development. There will be links to resources, etc. It will be your “one stop shop” for evidence-based reading.
Please visit AKLearns.org and bookmark it to check back frequently to view the PD calendar for upcoming sessions. There will be many options throughout this school year.
The Alaska Reading Playbook and related webinars can be accessed from AKLearns.org. AKLearns is maintained in partnership with Region 16 Comprehensive Center.
Keep an eye out for upcoming...
- Alaska Reads Act Guidance for School Districts
- Updated RTI/MTSS Refresh opportunity
- Additional Science of Reading Professional Development
- Updated 2023 Alaska Science of Reading Symposium details
- Alaska Reading Strategic Plan Presentations
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 Canvas Courses Available
The live Fall Professional Development series highlighting Heggerty, UFLI, Phonics for Reading, Core Reading, and Core Multiple Measures is complete. Credited Canvas courses (1-3 CEU's) are available for those wishing to dive deeper into the content. For questions, please contact Tracy Parker at tracy.parker@alaska.gov or Kristi Graber at Kristi.graber@alaska.gov.
Don't forget to also check out https://aklearns.org/ for current and future professional development opportunities.
Alaska Reading Playbook
Did you miss the Fall opportunity to attend engaging, FREE webinars to learn about the Alaska Reading Playbook and its importance to reading improvement across the State of Alaska? Don't worry! Plans are in the works for a Winter Alaska Reading Playbook series. Stay tuned for details!
In the meantime, click Alaska Reading Playbook for your own FREE downloadable or digital copy! You can also find archived playbook sessions at https://aklearns.org.
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Help Spread the Word!
Alaska Educators, we need your help! Please help us spread this information by subscribing below to receive this monthly newsletter. When you receive this newsletter, please forward it to teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and any other educational professionals /organizations that would benefit from this information. You can sign up for email updates on other topics from DEED at this link. Thank you for your service to the students of Alaska!
The Academic Support Team is here to help!
Contact any team member below for assistance with Alaska Reading Initiatives.
Alaska Reads Act inquiries go directly to akreads@alaska.gov.
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VACANT
Education Associate, Academic Support Team
Come join our team! Email sandra.rogers@alaska.gov with questions.
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