Mineral County schools earn literacy grants

The Montana Office of Public Instruction is among 23 states awarded the Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant, which is a highly competitive grant designed to foster a vigorous literacy program.

This grant aims to enhance literacy skills, including pre-literacy, reading, and writing, for children from birth through grade 12, with a focus on supporting disadvantaged children, including those living in poverty, English learners, and children with disabilities. To improve literacy outcomes, the initiative will provide professional development in the science of reading and in implementation science to help schools sustain effective literacy instruction. 

This is a big-deal, and all three schools in Mineral County have been selected to participate. 

The project’s goals are to: 

- Identify and support districts serving the highest percentages of disadvantaged students, building their capacity to accelerate literacy outcomes. 

- Increase the number of disadvantaged students taught by skilled educators trained to deliver and sustain research-based reading instruction. 

- Strengthen both state and local educational systems to provide and implement high-quality, evidence-based literacy instruction.

 “Integrating the science of reading across all subjects is a key goal of our new Montana Reads grant,” Superior School Superintendent Logan Labbe said. “This isn’t about changing curriculum. It’s about aligning how we teach literacy in every class and every grade. For example, if a student writes a paragraph in social studies, the expectations for structure, evidence, and conventions should align with what we require in English. We’ll use common, grade-aligned rubrics so expectations are consistent PK–12, and we’ll train teachers to use them well,” he said. 

“Many of our teachers are already doing this; the grant gives us the resources to make it consistent, structured, and accountable across the district. One of my favorite parts of this grant is investing in professional development by sending teachers to high-quality training so they can bring these practices back to their classrooms. We have hired a Literacy Coach for the elementary school using grant money, and we will do the same for the Junior High/High School to provide in-class support and consultation to teachers." 

St. Regis School Superintendent, Derek Larson, is also optimistic when he reports their history. 

“We just finished 8 years of the prior literacy grant and though our gains have not been tremendous, we have been steadily climbing upward with our scores according to our one constant exam, Fastbridge, that we have maintained in the testing flux of SBAC vs. MAST vs. whatever test they switch to next,” he said. “We have been utilizing the grant in conjunction with our Title grant to fund staff-directed interventions for our struggling students that are not Special Education students. Our success has been rather extraordinary when placed side by side with other schools in similar demographics. We did not experience the post-COVID drop that many other schools experienced and I place that success firmly in the laps of a tight elementary and middle school teaching cohort to establish the basics and then a great crew of secondary teachers that are focused on developing content instruction to draw out a generation of students prone to digital apathy and unproductive (though sometimes entertaining) sidebar commentary.” 

Like Labbe, Larson understands the importance of a coach and follows the state’s directive of having one on staff.  

“The grant requires that we have a literacy coach in place, for which we are lucky to have a staff member that is more than qualified to fill the position, and we will continue meeting regularly to discuss our curriculum, instruction, assessments, and student scores to increase our collective efficacy as a school. St. Regis is already rocking this year and we've had a similar grant the last few years, so we are a bit ahead of the other schools in some ways on this grant, but there are some new components as well that we will be working through and it will be helpful to be a part of an organized effort between the other county schools and other schools in the Western part of the state.” 

Larson then shared his overview of Mineral County from his years as a teacher and administrator. 

“Though each school looks slightly different, the entire county shares a much more homogenous demographic for our kids than twenty or thirty years ago. We have a growing retirement population, a shrinking middle class, and an increasing poverty group as the poverty line moves up. Most of our students in the county are coming from that lower economic group and face academic issues consistent with that demographic across the state and through a large swath of the nation. In order to move the needle in our areas, and similar areas, the schools will be working toward unifying instructional practices, connecting with the community to build awareness, and gaining access to higher quality instructional materials to more effectively build stronger speech and language acquisition through deeper understanding of the neural pathways and mental processes in the science of reading.”

Still unpacking and getting to know the lay of the land, Amanda Cyr is the new Principal/Superintendent at Alberton School. The board of trustees combined the 2 positions as many rural schools are doing. She lives in Huson and has been a teacher and then in administration at Clinton School. 

“Derek (Larson), Logan (Labbe), and I are planning to collaborate on the grant to bring new opportunities for all students in Mineral County,” she shared. “At Alberton School, we are incredibly excited about the opportunities the Montana Reads Grant brings to our students and staff. This support allows us to provide more individualized instruction from early learning through high school, ensuring each student receives the help they need to thrive and prepare for their future. Our teachers will also benefit from meaningful professional development and access to resources such as curriculum and supplies to create engaging and meaningful learning experiences.”  

The first day of school was last week for all three schools.