Understanding Nebraska’s $55m Literacy Investment 

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SRI and the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) are partnering to evaluate the implementation and impact of Nebraska’s $55 million Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant.

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Summary

SRI and the Nebraska Department of Education are partnering to evaluate Nebraska’s $55 million Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant, designed to strengthen literacy instruction from birth through grade 12. The study examines both implementation—how well the grant’s activities are carried out—and impact—how those efforts influence student reading outcomes. Using surveys, program data, and interviews, SRI and NDE will track progress on initiatives such as updating the Statewide Literacy Plan, expanding literacy coaching networks, providing professional learning, and supporting the adoption of high-quality literacy curricula. The impact study will analyze literacy outcomes from birth to grade 12, including early literacy, Nebraska’s state assessments and ACT results, to explore links between literacy investments and student achievement. By identifying effective practices and implementation challenges, the evaluation will inform how large-scale state and federal literacy investments can translate into measurable improvements in student reading.

Full description of project work

How can states—and the federal government—ensure that large-scale investments in education are carried out as intended? Can these investments be linked to student outcomes? To answer these questions, SRI and the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) are partnering to evaluate the implementation and impact of Nebraska’s $55 million Comprehensive State Literacy Development (CLSD) grant.   

Well-implemented CLSD grants can be springboards for ambitious literacy projects. Louisiana, for example, was one of the largest CLSD grantees on a per-student basis in 2019 and 2020—and Louisiana’s 2024 results for fourth-grade readers on the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that it was one of only states where 2024 results exceeded 2019 pre-pandemic scores. Well-executed investments in state literacy infrastructure can shift outcomes for readers statewide.   

SRI and NDE are collaborating on a two-part evaluation: implementation and impact. First, SRI and NDE will use surveys, program data, and interviews to determine the extent to which Nebraska’s CLSD grant activities are carried out as intended. Using a developmental evaluation approach, NDE and SRI are identifying relevant data sources, and developing data collection plans, and sampling interviewees from CLSD projects across the Cornhusker State. Nebraska’s ambitious plan targets teacher prep programs, literacy leaders, coaches, teachers, and families who support literacy development from birth through grade 12. Planned grant activities include:  

• Updating Nebraska’s Statewide Literacy Plan,   

• Strengthening statewide literacy coach networks,   

• Building resources for family literacy,   

• Delivering large-scale professional development in reading instruction,   

• Supporting districts in selecting and implementing high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) in reading   

SRI will partner with NDE to measure the extent to which activities are implemented as intended and discover unanticipated barriers to their implementation. Alongside the implementation study, an impact study at the end of the 5-year project will use existing data from Nebraska’s assessment systems to investigate links between grant activities and student outcomes. The impact study will leverage existing data sources including preschool language outcomes, K-2 reading screener data, state test results from grades 3-8 and ACT exams taken by 11^th graders, to determine potential impacts for Nebraska’s readers. The impact study will also estimate treatment impacts on student subgroups, which also aligns with Nebraska’s goals of measuring and monitoring literacy outcomes for students with disabilities. 

Associated fields of research