Kansas blueprint for literacy reports 9,420 educators trained in first year; gaps remain toward 2030 goals
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Summary
Higher-education leaders told the Committee on Education the Blueprint for Literacy completed its first implementation year with universities offering new science-of-reading courses, 9,420 educators trained to date (letters plus foundations), and pilots showing some student gains; lawmakers pressed for comparative NAEP and program completion data.
Higher-education officials told the Committee on Education that the Blueprint for Literacy’s first year has put new training and coaching systems in place but that significant work remains to meet statutory proficiency goals.
Dr. Cindy Lane, lead for the Blueprint, told legislators the legislative package (Senate Bill 438) charges the seven public universities to strengthen educator-preparation and to provide high-quality professional learning. "We have trained 9,420 educators," Lane said, citing combined counts from the State Department’s letters initiative and the universities’ foundations courses. Lane added that the Board of Education identified 18,698 elementary educators who must attain a literacy seal by the statutory deadline.
Why it matters: The Blueprint sets two statutory targets tied to SB 438 — by 2030 the entire elementary education workforce should be trained in the science of reading and structured literacy, and by 2033 the state aims for 90% of third–eighth graders at level 2 or higher on the Kansas assessment. Lane noted the new state assessment and cut scores mean the committee may need to revisit numeric goals.
University courses and a graduate-level 'Foundations' track
Lane said the seven public universities met an August 2024 deadline to implement application-focused undergraduate science-of-reading courses that share a common performance assessment. In addition, higher-education faculty collaboratively developed a graduate-level Foundations course for in-service teachers, validated by the Reading League and approved by the State Board for the Seal of Literacy in April 2025. Dr. Carolyn Carlson, who helped design the Foundations course, described its three components — aligned content (12 modules), a community-of-practice, and non-evaluative coaching — and said faculty deliberately rejected off-the-shelf commercial courses in favor of Kansas-designed instruction.
Teacher voice and early reports of impact
Rebecca Robbins, a special-education teacher at Jaguar Academy at Jardine Elementary, described applying Foundations content in a behavior-unit classroom and said the course produced faster student gains than she expected. "This program is amazing," Robbins told the committee, adding she saw improvements in students by December that previously would not have appeared until May.
Coaching pilots and early student data
Dan Dooling, partnership and outreach facilitator at Pittsburg State University, described a ConnectEd coaching pilot funded under the literacy enhancement grants. He said the pilot targeted small, high-need districts (500 students or fewer and high shares of level-1 readers). Dooling reported the pilot has reached 639 students and more than 100 in-service teachers and that one district saw a 5% increase on FastBridge between fall and winter benchmarks after coaching support.
Funding, scholarships and paraeducator pilots
Lane clarified that Foundations scholarships are paid from Blueprint higher-education funds: foundations has 836 completers since a March pilot, with one-pager figures showing 511 completers and 326 in progress. "Letters" training is funded separately by a $25 million State Board allocation, she said. Wichita State is running a paraeducator pilot (50 scholarships; 15 completions so far) and Lane said the advisory committee hopes to expand paras support to 350 participants.
Questions and next steps
Lawmakers pressed for more comparative data and transparency. Representative Brantley and others asked for a correlation of old and new cut scores and for exact counts of how many participants retook or failed state-administered components; Lane said higher education does not hold the correlation data but will ask the State Department of Education to supply it. Lane urged consideration of a comprehensive pre-K through higher-education implementation plan led by the State Board to coordinate common strategies and accountability.
The committee did not take formal votes on Blueprint items but requested the State Department provide the most up-to-date completion and in-progress counts for the letters program. The committee will continue literacy discussions at the next meeting.
