Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest supports four school districts in Montana—Hardin, Laurel, Lockwood, and Whitehall—in improving and sustaining their use of data and differentiated instruction to increase student literacy achievement. To achieve this goal, the partnership uses continuous improvement cycles to refine districts’ multi-tiered systems of support for reading (MTSS-R) and improve strategies for data use when selecting literacy interventions, and guide family engagement aligned with MTSS-R.
Partnership Organization: Hardin School District, Laurel Public School, Lockwood School District, and Whitehall School District, Montana
Current Projects
In this 2025/26 project, REL Northwest provides coaching and technical support to four Montana school districts (Laurel, Lockwood, Hardin, and Whitehall Public Schools) to better align their Multi-Tiered Systems of Support in Reading (MTSS-R) to evidence-based practices in reading and to conduct Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles to improve implementation of selected literacy practices. This work is part of the REL Northwest Montana Districts Literacy partnership, which helps the districts use literacy data more effectively, improve instructional decisionmaking, and ensure that core instruction and interventions meet the needs of all students.
Completed Projects
Leaders from Montana's Laurel Public Schools seek to accelerate reading outcomes by helping educators more effectively interpret literacy data and respond to trends. REL Northwest is supporting Laurel to increase the capacity and knowledge of educators to use data – including screening, progress monitoring, and formative and summative assessments – to enhance their instruction and ensure appropriate interventions are selected to improve student outcomes.
For the Montana Evidence-Based Literacy Practices partnership, REL Northwest supported four school districts in Montana—Hardin, Laurel, Lockwood, and Whitehall—to improve their use of evidence-based practices related to multi-tiered systems of support in reading (MTSS-R). In this 2023/24 project, REL Northwest delivered training and technical assistance to help the districts self-assess their current MTSS-R practices and create an action plan to continuously improve their literacy data-based decision making.