Alaska students from kindergarten to third grade showed overall improvement in reading proficiency last year, according to preliminary data from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
DEED reported an overall increase in reading proficiency from the beginning to the end of the school year, for the second year in a row.
“So year after year, we look for a good trend ahead of us,” Commissioner Deena Bishop said.
At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, 44% of Alaska K-3 students were reading at a nationally defined benchmark level.
By the end of the year, that had increased to 60% of students.
It was the second consecutive school year of improvement. At the beginning of the prior year, 2023-2024, 41% of students were reading at the benchmark level, which was up to 57% of students by the end of the year.
Bishop and state officials credit the success of the Alaska Reads Act, signed into law in 2022, for instituting reading curricula and screenings, adding teacher training, and boosting support for school districts’ reading programs.
She credited the statewide training for teachers in science-based reading instruction as essential for the improvements.
“Phonics and fluency and comprehension all add up to good reading skills that allow for a child to read,” she said. “It’s the professional development, high-quality instruction of teachers in the science of reading, as well as we utilize a screener, which really assesses kids and catches them early to be able to change the instruction or give them additional instruction on those discrete skills that they might be missing.”
Bishop said the literacy screener allows teachers to see where students are struggling with reading and provide support.
“Then teachers can look and pull a student aside and, knowing the science of reading, give them a little extra help so that they can continue to grow,” she said.
“We just don’t wait till kids fail, and that’s a large part of this with early literacy that is highly effective,” she added.
Kindergarteners showed the biggest gains last year, improving from 23% reading at benchmark level at the beginning of the year to 62% of students by the end of the year.
First- through third-graders showed more moderate improvements, with 64% of first-graders, 59% of second-graders, and 52% of third-graders reading at a benchmark level by the end of the year.
The Alaska Reads Act requires districts to create a district reading improvement plan, and offers additional support and grant funding for lower-performing schools, virtual training, and instruction and grant funds for early education programs.
“Absolutely, early education matters, what’s learned in pre-K and at home,” Bishop said.
Bishop acknowledged ongoing challenges for Alaska students reaching reading proficiency.
She said catching new teachers up on reading instruction training is challenging, given the high rate of teacher turnover in Alaska.
“It’s no secret that we have a larger transition of teachers,” she said. “Generally in rural Alaska, their turnover rate is about one in three teachers from K through 12.”
She said the department tries to give time and options for completing the training, and offers an annual Science of Reading Symposium for teachers’ professional development.
Bishop said chronic absenteeism is a continuous problem. In the 2022 to 2023 school year, the most recent year of available department data, 45% of Alaska students were chronically absent, meaning they missed more than 17 days of school.
“Almost half of our kids in our schools are missing more than 17 days. That does not equate to good learning and trajectory of learning, when the learning in one day builds on the next and the next and the next,” Bishop said, adding that the department is working on a statewide campaign to incentivize students and families to improve attendance and highlight the importance of school.
A district-level success
Haines Borough School District incoming superintendent Lilly Boron said she also is seeing reading improvements in students in the community’s elementary school.
“It has certainly made a difference, and we are very excited to see the changes. You know, we see an upward trend in our cohort,” Boron said in a phone interview last week.
“I think any time you’re trying to make some major changes, a lot of the work goes in, and the investment really goes into making sure that your teachers have what they need, you know, instructionally and just practically to do the work,” she added.
Boron said the district applied for and received grant funding to implement the Alaska Reads Act.
Haines has one teacher per elementary grade level, and all the teachers from kindergarten through fifth grade, as well as administrators like herself in her former role as principal of the Haines School, participated in the literacy instruction training.
“It got everyone on the same page, as far as … the instruction and the methods that you use for early literacy, but it also kind of helped connect everyone with what they were doing, she said. “It allowed them to talk about what they were doing.”
She said the overall effort “really looked at reading and instruction and monitored our students and implemented the individual reading plans, not just for our students who were far below proficient, but the ones who were just below proficient. So that was very helpful.”
Boron also expressed concern that this year, the longtime school librarian retired and the district is not able to hire a replacement because of funding.
“We’re going to do what we can with what we have, but that really hurts,” she said. “A strong library program is super important.”