Boosting students’ ability to read is the state’s “number one goal and objective,” State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield told the State Board of Education Wednesday. 

And those with the greatest power to improve state literacy rates are school leaders — especially local trustees. When they focus on and talk about reading at their meetings, attention shifts to it, and student achievement improves. 

State Board meetings are no exception — so Critchfield was trying to set the example by leading a nearly hour-long discussion on how to best improve literacy rates statewide. 

“For us to have this great discussion models what we’re hoping and asking our districts to do,” she said.

In spring 2024, about 66.5% of Idaho students in grades K-3 were reading at grade level, which Critchfield said was “okay.” But she wants that number to be higher — more like 80-90% of students or more reading on target.

It matters because reading ability impacts the trajectory of a child’s education, Critchfield said: “We’re learning to read, and then we use reading to learn.”

Related reading: Spring reading scores show modest gains, but have trended down since 2019

With the 2025 legislative session around the corner, Critchfield also called on State Board trustees to advocate for legislation that would support student achievement growth.

“We have an opportunity to advocate for resources,” she said. “We have an opportunity to advocate for legislation … that (drives) accountability, that (drives) the outcomes we want.”

Liebich: Every school board needs to talk about student achievement data, every meeting

State Trustee Kurt Liebich said school boards need to be looking at and discussing student achievement data at every meeting.

“Until we get to that point, we’re not going to see the pace of change that we want,” he said. 

Crtichfield said that high-performing school districts have high-performing boards: “We can absolutely connect the dots.”

To prove it, Liebich and Critchfield have asked the Idaho School Boards Association to provide them with the past few years’ board agendas from the 20 school districts with the best reading achievement levels. 

Their bet is that those school boards frequently talked about reading, and those conversations trickled down to the teacher level. Critchfield said she’d present the board with the findings from the agendas in February. 

It doesn’t matter where a student attends school — it matters what expectations a school board sets, Critchfield said. 

But schools also need to be held accountable when students underperform.

Critchfield suggests accountability plan for districts that don’t meet their goals

The state’s reading exam measures student achievement, but it doesn’t hold schools accountable for the results, Critchfield said. 

“Just completing the test and looking at the results is not accountability,” Linda Clark, president of the State Board, agreed.

Critchfield suggested that the State Board establish some kind of accountability plan for districts that don’t meet the goals they establish in their continuous improvement plans. 

“If you have a district that’s not meeting some of the goals that (it set for itself), something needs to kick in,” like state support or required training, Crtichfield said. 

One of the few existing forms of accountability is that school trustees are elected and could lose their position, Critchfield said. That’s another reason they should frequently be talking about reading in public meetings. 

And trustees need to be appropriately trained so they “understand their role in holding their superintendent accountable,” Liebich said. “The foundation of change is a local school board.”