Montana’s new English Language Arts and Literacy Content Standards have been formally adopted by the Montana Board of Public Education! The implementation date is July 2027. This date was selected to allow school districts adequate time to prepare between the implementation of new math and ELA standards. More information about the standards revision process can be found on the OPI’s ELA Standards Revisions Webpage.
Check out the Montana ELA & Literacy Standards Revision Overview one-pager for a brief overview of the revisions, or see the 2027 MT ELA Standards and Coding.
Upcoming!
- Look out for the new standards to be added to Satchel soon.
- A monthly ELA Implementation Webinar Series is scheduled to begin in August of 2026 and occur monthly throughout the 26/27 school year. Check back on this website soon for registration information and to see webinar topics.
Professional Learning Session: Strengthening Secondary Literacy with Gear Up
Learn strategies for improving secondary students’ reading comprehension through a focus on vocabulary and morphology instruction and explore resources for increasing reading at the secondary level. While this session focuses on skills commonly situated within ELA, this session is designed to include all secondary educators and administrators. See the flier here.
See the Children’s fiction and nonfiction books, poetry books, and verse novels honored at the 2026 NCTE Annual Convention in Denver this November. The awards recognize outstanding literary works for children that set a standard for excellence in the field, and winners are selected by committees of NCTE-appointed teacher experts and authors.
NCTE Call for Proposals
NCTE is accepting proposals for the 2026 NCTE Annual Convention in Philadelphia, PA, on November 19-22. Applications are due January 27, 9:00 am ET.
Learn more and apply here.
Upcoming Hub Course: Preparing Students for the MAST Performance Task
Be on the lookout for a new course on the Learning Hub: Preparing Students for the MAST Performance Task. This course is designed for 3-8 teachers and will guide participants through a review of the rubrics and ELA content standards relevant to the writing assessment, writing strategies to use all year long with your students, and instructional resources and approaches to practice the Performance Task–including exemplars, prompts, and more.
International Literacy Association
Check out the latest post from the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Now blog, which addresses considerations for assessing comprehension that supplement screeners: When Reading Measures Miss the Mark: Rethinking How We Assess.
In case you missed it, the International Literacy Association has a Literacy Month Toolkit for 2025! The toolkit includes links to additional resources for families and teachers, including tips for family read-alouds, family engagement, and guides for teaching and using student-led book talks.
Report: The State of Literature Use in Secondary Classrooms
NCTE recently published a report examining the literature most commonly taught in secondary English classrooms and the factors shaping those choices. The findings shed light on both long-standing patterns and current challenges teachers face in bringing diverse texts to students. You can read
NCTE’s article or
download the full report to learn more about the report and its implications for English instruction.