Mona Elementary credits whole-school changes, family engagement and coaching for big literacy gains

Brandi Webster, principal of Mona Elementary, described the small rural school's turnaround as a collective effort. "We pulled our whole team together, from bus drivers to lunch ladies to paraprofessionals to our teachers," Webster said, explaining the school set a goal that no child would be left behind and created individual student profiles so teachers know each child's needs.

Teacher Jennifer Skaugard said the district provided time and pay for teachers to earn literacy certification in the science of reading and the school reworked its language-arts program to align with that training. "Our instructional coach got to teach our IAs about the letters training," Skaugard said, describing how paraprofessionals were trained to deliver consistent interventions.

The Mona team described operational changes: a daily 30-minute AIM block (45 minutes in kindergarten), weekly progress-monitoring meetings with instructional assistants and a "goal-getter" system that gave students concrete, trackable targets. Rich Nye, the governor's senior advisor, said those practices correlated with "double digit increases in K-3 literacy and even last year... a 20% increase in the number of 3rd grade students reading on grade level."

School leaders said the gains depended on coaching, scheduling changes and intense family outreach. Webster described a family-focused "luau" that drew near-universal parent attendance and distributed how-to videos tailored to students' reading levels. "When our parents left, they said we had no idea," she said. "That was a huge turning point for us."