The Longhorn Way: Reading intervention plan in place to meet state law taking effect

It is hard to believe that it is almost the end of September! Our students are in their sixth week of school and going strong.
As the elementary principal, it has been very exciting to watch the staff and students at Chase County Schools working hard to learn new programs and content.
We are currently using the newly adopted Pearson Envisions Math for our core math instruction. We had a training at our in-service day on Sept. 16. Teachers learned a great deal about how to make our core instruction strong for our students.
Every day the students have a time to review the math curriculum they have aleady been taught, a video as well as teacher instruction and questioning on the new concept for the day, and practice on the new material. The math program is designed in a way that the students know the math concept before we set them loose on a set of problems. We were reminded that a set of problems assigned to a student is only beneficial if the student knows the concept and how to apply it.
We have a team of individuals working on meeting the expectations of the NebraskaREADS initiative.
The following is from the Nebraska Departement of Education website: The NebraskaREADS initiative supports the policies and practices outlined in the Nebraska Reading Improvement Act, which was enacted in 2018 and goes into effect during the 2019-2020 school year. The law takes a comprehensive approach to improve the early literacy skills of Nebraska’s K-3 students.
We have completed our MAP growth assessments as well as our MAP reading fluency assessments to identify the students who are in need of an intervention according to the Nebraska Reading Improvement Act. All students in grades K-3 who are identified as being deficient in their reading skills will have an IRIP created for them.
An IRIP is an Individual Reading Improvement Plan. Students who already qualify for an IEP (Individual Education Plan) in the area of reading through the special education program will not have the need for an additional plan. Students will also not need the additional plan if they qualify for the ELL (English Language Learner) program and have been in school for less than two years.
These plans will include the interventions that we will provide during the school day as well as strategies for parents to use while working with their students. The success of the interventions will be reviewed on a monthly basis and adjustments will be made when necessary to improve growth.
Our goal is that all students are at proficiency or above at all grade levels.
One of the main focuses during our Profile of a Graduate work was content mastery. Through the implementation of the Nebraska Reading Improvement Act and the dedication of our parents and teachers we feel confident that we will improve our reading skills to the standard set forth by the state of Nebraska as well as the Chase County Schools community.