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.
See the 2027 MT ELA Standards and Coding (Google Sheet file) or the 2027 K-12 Standards (PDF file) for a full list of the new grade-level ELA standards and literacy practices.
NEH Summer Institutes
The National Endowment for the Humanities offers summer programs with included stipends across the United States for K-12 for professional learning. You can check out the list of programs to learn more and apply. Applications are due March 6.
Montana's ELA Standards: Monthly Implementation Webinars beginning in August!
Join OPI’s free, statewide webinar series designed to support educators in implementing the 2027 Montana English Language Arts and Literacy Content Standards. Sessions will include
- practical guidance
- job-embedded strategies and resources
- tips for alignment with your curriculum
- a community of professionals engaging in shared learning
See the
PDF version of the flier here, which includes a link to the
webinar calendar and topics and the
registration form.
New Hub Course Available: Preparing Students for the MAST Performance Task
Check out the new MAST 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.
Save the Date: MentorMT Applications
The MentorMT program supports educators and works to address Montana’s teacher shortage by partnering experienced teachers with new or underprepared rural teachers. Mentor applications open April 1 and mentee applications open May 1.
Primary Source Lessons Available on ReadWriteThink
NCTE has collaborated with the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Sources program, resulting in the addition of 150 new lesson plans on ReadWriteThink.org. The searchable database includes strategies for teaching using items from the Library of Congress’s digitized primary source collection. The strategies were created by a cohort of teachers and leaders in English language arts education. They articulate specific literacy merit for curriculum or classroom use, along with suggested themes, units, and state standards. Content is searchable through tags such as picturebook and argument.
International Literacy Association Blog
Check out the latest post from the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Now blog, which provides strategies for families to strengthen their children’s reading skills at home through read alouds: 10 Strategies for Families to Strengthen Read-Alouds at Home.