State lawmakers in Helena were reminded once again in mid-March of a troubling downward trend in literacy among Montana’s youth. Turning to oft-cited data from annual student assessments, Rep. Linda Reksten, R-Polson, informed legislative colleagues of an 11% decline in eighth-grade reading profic iency over the past two and a half decades. But having delivered that grim statistic, Reksten offered the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee a chaser: House Bill 262, a measure aimed at promoting evidence-based, research-supported lessons on early literacy in public schools statewide. “The whole point of this is to put out a policy statement so that we can help schools improve reading instruction, that’s what it’s all about,” Reksten — who chairs the House Education Committee — said, arguing HB 262 would bolster student performance long-term and acknowledge years of academic research on the science of reading.The ensuing debate turned over questions about the bill’s intersection with competency-based learning and the Legislature’s broader role in curricular matters, but no one on the committee disputed the need for continued action on the issue. Legislators already took a swing at reading proficiency last session, passing a bipartisan measure to fund early literacy interventions for the state’s youngest students, and are actively pursuing efforts to improve and expand that program in 2025.While much of this session’s more high-profile work on education policy has focused on significant alterations to public school funding, a slew of proposals like HB 262 are tacking tightly to specific aspects of the day-to-day classroom experience. In some cases those efforts have come in the form of line-item requests in the state budget, such as a $50,000 ask by Democrats to support local STEM and robotics initiatives. Many more have debuted as standalone bills containing tailored approaches to particular challenges, such as a measure to combat slumping math scores by expanding early literacy interventions to include early numeracy, and a proposal to make high-quality instructional materials more readily available to school districts statewide.The sponsor of the former proposal, Rep. Melissa Romano, D-Helena, told Montana Free Press she was unsure at first how an early numeracy pitch might land, given the newness of last session’s early literacy efforts. Recent regional estimates by the nonprofit School Administrators of Montana show school districts in western and central Montana have been quick to launch early literacy programs. But uptake in the eastern part of the state remains low, an issue education advocates attribute to smaller school sizes and challenges with teacher recruitment and retention. Even so, Romano’s House Bill 338 has received strong bipartisan interest, passing the House unanimously in February and clearing the Senate’s education committee March 25.“There’s lots of research and there’s lots of folks who know that in grades kindergarten through third grade you’re really learning to read, but when you get to that third-grade milestone you switch and you are now reading to learn,” Romano said. “Mathematics, historically, we just don’t have that similar message, although we know that there are critical milestones, like in fourth grade and third grade when students start learning about fractions, and how important that is to student success in algebra.”According to a recent Montana Free Press-Eagleton Poll, nearly half of overall respondents were at least somewhat satisfied with student academic performance, with parents and guardians reporting a higher rate of satisfaction than respondents who weren’t parents or guardians. Poll results showed similarly high satisfaction with the quality of education offered in local public schools, though non-white respondents reported lower levels of satisfaction than white respondents.Yet satisfaction with the status quo aside, bills touching on improvements to educational instruction this session are enjoying bipartisan success. Among them are House Bill 357, a proposal from Rep. Eric Tilleman, R-Cascade, to direct more state and federal funding toward career and technical education in middle schools, and Senate Bill 107, a pitch by Sen. Susan Webber, D-Browning, to add human trafficking prevention education to the Legislature’s list of instructional goals for Montana’s public schools. Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, has also been carrying several measures aimed at improving the delivery of tribal language instruction and bolstering accountability for schools in meeting constitutionally mandated lessons on Indigenous culture.As focused as many of those proposals are on specific subject areas, there are limits to how strong a hand the Legislature can play in matters of classroom instruction. Curriculum itself is adopted at the local level and guided by a series of subject-specific content standards approved by the Montana Board of Public Education. State education associations and the Office of Public Instruction provide guidance and resources for meeting statewide standards, such as educator training and lists of bonded textbook vendors. But it’s primarily the seven-member board appointed by the governor that establishes the tone for what gets taught in Montana classrooms.“We want to make sure that we’re maintaining a line where our constitutional authority and our rules really are what sets the stage for public education in Montana,” Board of Public Education Executive Director McCall Flynn told MTFP in a recent interview. “And as much as legislators have really good ideas sometimes and really want to engage in that process, the place is not the Legislature to create standards or to change what teachers are teaching. That’s really part of the Board of Public Ed’s purview.”The process of establishing those standards is a lengthy one, and unfolds well outside the goings-on of Montana’s legislative branch. For example, the latest revision of statewide content standards for mathematics began in earnest in late 2022 and involved months of work by various task forces and committees made up of school administrators, teachers, parents and other education professionals. After an exhaustive review and numerous public comment periods, board members voted unanimously this year to adopt the revisions, now slated to go into effect in July 2026. A similar revision process is currently underway for content standards around English language arts and literacy.Flynn noted board members can and do take lawmakers’ priorities under consideration when weighing changes to statewide guidance on educational instruction, teacher licensure and school quality. In fact, Montana’s lawbooks contain a section specifically outlining the Legislature’s desired goals for public education. It’s that piece of code where Webber hopes this session to find a home for instruction on human trafficking prevention, and where the Legislature last session added financial literacy to its wish-list for public school classrooms — an instructional goal the Board of Public Education had already included in its latest content standard revisions prior to the bill’s appearance.The board’s role in setting the instructional tenor of education statewide hasn’t prevented lawmakers from attempting to exert more direct control over classrooms. Lessons involving human sexuality have become a particularly prominent topic of debate in recent sessions, with Republican majorities passing new laws governing parental notification timelines and in-school discussions about sex- and gender-related issues. One such law, 2021’s Senate Bill 99, sparked widespread confusion among local teachers and administrators and is now the subject of a legal challenge filed in April 2024.The debate over human sexuality instruction has continued into the 2025 Legislature with the advancement of House Bill 471, a proposal that would define lessons on gender identity and prohibit schools from allowing students to attend such lessons without written parental permission. HB 471, which also addresses a prominent SB 99-related concern by exempting teacher responses to unexpected student-initiated questions from parental notification requirements, cleared the House in early March on a straight party-line vote.For Flynn, one piece of proposed legislation this session dovetails especially strongly with the Board of Public Education’s role: House Bill 462, a measure introduced by Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, to provide OPI with funding to secure content-standard-aligned instructional materials for use by local schools. Any updates the board makes to state standards don’t necessarily come with a guarantee of financial support for the new curriculum and teacher training needed by districts to implement those standards, Flynn said, creating the potential for an “unfunded mandate.” And while districts would still have discretion over what curriculum they use under HB 462, Flynn sees the bill as a promising bit of relief for local school budgets. “I think this is important because it could potentially lower the cost of that curriculum and it could also provide professional development for that curriculum that school districts wouldn’t have to provide on their own,” Flynn said.HB 462 moved to the Senate in late March after drawing bipartisan support in the House. Bills tackling early childhood math interventions, academic credits for students volunteering in health care settings and state funding to support English language learners have so far attracted a similar mix of Republican and Democratic backing. In recent interviews with MTFP, Romano and Reksten also made specific mention of the former’s House Bill 340 — a proposal to create a state-funded mentorship program for teachers — as a policy with potential direct ramifications on the quality of instruction in Montana classrooms.Meanwhile, Reksten’s HB 262 around the “science of reading” stalled out in committee shortly after her March 18 appeal to senators, with several members voicing reluctance to adopt a policy they felt tread closely to matters of curriculum. Reksten, herself a former teacher, told MTFP this week she’s now working to help the Board of Public Education craft such a statement of its own, one recognizing the decades of research on best practices to improve student literacy. Asked what role the Legislature plays in the broader patchwork of guiding educational instruction across Montana’s K-12 system, Reksten said she sees the body as a leader, one that works with districts to make productive choices but acknowledges and respects the authority of local school officials.“We want to maintain that [local control],” Reksten said, “but at the same time we want take a leadership role to help school districts achieve some very important goals, like the reading goal by the end of third grade and the math goal by end of third grade, encouraging them to put priorities on those things. It’s a delicate balance.”The post Lawmakers weigh slew of policies touching on educational goals and instructional quality appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less