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Omaha Public Schools reports uneven elementary reading gains; district to expand structured literacy and early interventions
Summary
Chief Academic Officer Susan Christopherson told the board that while some elementary schools met multi‑year reading growth goals, overall the district fell short of a 4% per‑year target and will expand structured literacy, kindergarten readiness partnerships and paraprofessional training to boost outcomes.
Susan Christopherson, Omaha Public Schools chief academic officer, told the board at a strategic plan workshop that the district did not meet its 2024–25 target that each elementary school raise kindergarten‑through‑grade reading proficiency by 4 percent annually, but that growth is trending upward.
“We have begun an upward trend, increasing growth by 4.6% and meeting the goal by 1.5%,” Christopherson said in presenting the five‑year review of the 2020–2025 Strategic Plan of Action. She reported that 11 schools met the 4% growth goal; 37 showed growth but did not meet the 4% threshold; 48 experienced growth at or above the percentile between 2022–23 and 2024–25; and seven schools showed neither growth nor goal attainment across the period.
The nut of the district’s response will be instructional and structural changes: Christopherson said OPS will institute master scheduling to protect an uninterrupted structured‑literacy block with intervention time, require kindergarten‑through‑grade teachers to take an early literacy workshop provided with University of Nebraska Omaha and the vendor Leading Educators, and align the role of school‑based reading specialists across all schools. The district will also reduce multi‑grade classrooms and train paraprofessionals to deliver one district‑selected literacy intervention with professional learning supports.
Board members pressed for detail about which schools failed to grow and whether common factors existed. Christopherson said she would provide the list of the seven schools that did not meet or grow and described the district approach: use elementary support teams (ESTs) and school support teams (SSTs) to diagnose local needs, review fidelity of Tier‑1 instruction, staffing experience and attendance, and coordinate tailored support.
Superintendent Ray told the board the district will begin a next strategic‑plan process with a hoped‑for launch in January 2026 and that earlier goal revisions (February 2022) had already narrowed some objectives. Christopherson and board members described partnerships with UNO and Leading Educators to deliver teacher coursework and stipends for participation in science‑of‑reading professional learning.
The presentation emphasized that growth has been uneven across years and schools — for example, one school rose 10 percent over two years and then fell 3 percent the following year — and the district plans targeted, school‑level interventions rather than one‑size‑fits‑all fixes.
Looking ahead, district staff said they will: (1) implement the structured‑literacy block and intervention schedule; (2) require and provide professional learning for teachers and paraprofessionals tied to the adopted curriculum; (3) expand early‑childhood classroom access and community readiness partnerships to improve kindergarten preparedness; and (4) supply principals and instructional teams with precise school‑level data so ESTs/SSTs can tailor supports. Christopherson said the district “knows who those seven schools are and what we need to be doing.”
Ending: District staff and board members agreed to follow up with school‑level lists and further data; staff will return with implementation timelines and specifics about the paraprofessional intervention and the planned early‑literacy course offerings.
