Forging Educator Connections Across Elko County

Reading by third grade is an important predictor of students’ future academic success—even their likelihood of graduating from high school—but in 2017 across Elko County, Nevada, just 35 percent of third graders demonstrated proficiency on the state’s English language arts (ELA) assessment, the Smarter Balanced Assessment System (SBAS).

Improving Access to Learning Opportunities for Teachers

Elko County School District (ECSD) was in the early stages of implementing a new literacy curriculum, and teachers needed opportunities to learn and develop their practice so that more students would read proficiently by third grade. But in the mostly rural district, many schools were geographically dispersed, requiring educators to drive for hours to access district professional learning resources and trainings, and making it harder to collaborate with and learn from their peers.

To begin, TNTP conducted a K–3 academic diagnostic that provided baseline data on the current state of teaching and learning in ECSD. Based on our analysis, we worked closely with the district’s literacy strategists: teacher-leaders from each school who, in addition to being full-time classroom teachers, also served as instructional coaches.

Building a Community of Learners

We knew it would make a difference to ensure these educators had the opportunity to work closely with mentors and colleagues across the large county. And despite the real obstacles—like waking up at 4 a.m. to observe classrooms at other schools—Elko educators were determined to form an active community of learners that would improve their teaching practice for students.

Several key factors contributed to the success of the project:

• Establishing a Professional Learning Community (PLC) that gave teacher-leaders from each school a full day every month to collaborate with one another on standards-aligned planning and engage in professional development with TNTP coaches and mentors.
• Hosting monthly trainings designed to support teacher-leaders in reviewing current literacy research, observing highly effective instructional techniques, and planning how to apply these concepts in practice with the district’s core curricular materials.
• Co-facilitating monthly instructional walks at each campus where, with TNTP guidance, the team calibrated their observations and feedback using a common tool rooted in the district’s overall vision for literacy instruction.

By the end of the 2018–19 school year, 45 percent of Elko third-grade students earned a proficient score on the test—a 29 percent increase.

Effective Collaboration Leads to Improved ELA Proficiency for Students

As a result of these professional learning opportunities, educators across different campuses were working toward shared objectives and were using a common vocabulary, leading to more efficient and effective collaboration and enriching discussions with the connections they each made to their own teaching practices.

When we started our partnership with ECSD in 2017, 35 percent of Elko third graders were proficient on the state’s SBAS ELA tests. By the end of the 2018–19 school year, 45 percent of Elko third-grade students earned a proficient score on the test—a 29 percent increase.

We continued our partnership into the 2019–20 school year, which was significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And, though the pandemic required ECSD to shift its focus to addressing the most urgent needs of its students, families, and staff, educators across Elko County continued to leverage the resources and tools we developed together as they made their way through an unprecedented time.

ECSD Teachers Exemplify Strong Instructional Practices

In a testament to the professional growth of ECSD teachers, Student Achievement Partners (a nonprofit formed by the lead authors of the Common Core State Standards, from which the Nevada Academic Content Standards are derived) recorded several lessons that demonstrated strong instructional practices so that more teachers could observe the exemplary work happening in Elko classrooms.