The University of Notre Dame鈥檚 is partnering in work supported by a nearly $10 million federal grant to strengthen early reading skills in Nebraska. Through the project, the ELF Lab will help scale and evaluate two of its evidence-based shared book reading programs, which support preschool children and the adults who read with them.
The five-year was awarded to Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (NCFF) by the U.S. Department of Education. Funding supports , which builds on a prior statewide program and combines two resources developed by the ELF Lab: TeacherRead, for preschool classrooms, and FamilyRead, for families at home.
The award arrived outside the Education Innovation and Research program鈥檚 usual December announcement cycle. It is the second EIR-funded partnership in less than a year for Notre Dame鈥檚 Institute for Educational Initiatives, home to the ELF Lab. The University announced its role in a similar grant to expand the聽Tutor-ND literacy program across Indiana in January.
In the years before kindergarten, children learn how written language works, how words break into sounds, and how language carries meaning 鈥攆oundational skills that support later reading development, academic success, and opportunities for learning and participation into adulthood. Yet nearly one in three Nebraska children enter kindergarten below early literacy benchmarks, according to the Nebraska Department of Education. Gaps run deepest in rural and low-income communities, some of which are book deserts where books are scarce. NCFF created Nebraska Growing Readers with the Nebraska Department of Education and United for Literacy, which provides picture books to families to help close these gaps by putting books directly in the hands of young children and the adults who support their learning. Since its launch in 2023, Nebraska Growing Readers has distributed nearly 885,000 Nebraska-themed books, reaching more than 34,000 children and 990 early childhood providers.
NGR+ focuses on what happens once those books are opened. Research suggests access alone may not produce substantial gains in early literacy; how adults engage children during reading is also critical to what children learn. NGR+ equips families and teachers with evidence-based practices for making shared reading more interactive and instructionally meaningful. The practices used in FamilyRead and TeacherRead are supported by evidence under the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 What Works Clearinghouse standards and align with Preparing Young Children for 91视频, a Department of Education practice guide that, associate research professor in the Institute for Educational Initiatives and director of the ELF Lab, helped develop.
TeacherRead and FamilyRead build explicit instruction into shared reading, targeting three foundational skills we know are most predictive of later reading achievement: written language conventions, phonological awareness, and oral language. TeacherRead was developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, equipping preschool teachers with lesson prompts, online training, and coaching. FamilyRead delivers the same practices to homes through simple, visual guides that lead caregivers through a four-step routine for each book. Classroom and home lessons use the same books and materials, so school and home reinforce the same skills.
鈥淏uilding strong early literacy skills gives children a foundation for success in school and beyond,鈥� said Pentimonti. 鈥淣ebraska Growing Readers has already built a strong foundation and is doing incredible work to get high-quality books into the hands of children and families across the state. This project gives us the opportunity to build on that success with research-based literacy practices and generate new evidence about how to effectively scale these supports to reach even more children.鈥�
Notre Dame co-leads the project鈥檚 implementation team with NCFF. As the developer of both TeacherRead and FamilyRead, the ELF Lab advances the work of adapting the two programs for NGR+, develops instructional materials and resources for educators and families, and guides implementation and ongoing refinement. The lab will also lead development of the NGR+ app, designed to deliver training, lesson guides, and video demonstrations to teachers and families, and will co-lead efforts to share the project鈥檚 findings.
NCFF and its Nebraska partners are responsible for statewide implementation, working directly with participating sites and communities, coordinating recruitment and engagement, and drawing on their knowledge of Nebraska鈥檚 early childhood systems. The聽Nebraska Department of Education has already invested funding in Nebraska Growing Readers and will help recruit classrooms to participate in the study. The American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit research organization, serves as the project鈥檚 independent evaluator.
鈥淓very child deserves the opportunity to enter kindergarten with the skills and confidence needed to thrive,鈥� said Nebraska Commissioner of Education Brian Maher. 鈥淭he Nebraska Growing Readers initiative has already shown promising results, and this federal investment will allow us to expand and strengthen that work while learning even more about the practices that have the greatest impact on early literacy. The knowledge gained through this project will benefit children, families, and educators across Nebraska for years to come.鈥�
The partnership grew from the ELF Lab鈥檚 earlier work training preschool teachers in shared reading, which researchers studied in New York City. That work pointed to a missing piece: support for parents that matched what children were learning in the classroom. Nebraska had already built a strong system for putting books in families鈥� hands, which made it the right place to add that support. The study now tests whether training the adults in a child's life makes every book more powerful.
TeacherRead has already been tested in an efficacy trial, where it improved children鈥檚 skills in all three target areas. Parents using FamilyRead followed the lessons correctly 92 percent of the time and read with their children more often. A Nebraska Growing Readers pilot in four communities produced statistically significant gains in early literacy.
The project runs through July 2031. Findings will guide the expansion of coordinated literacy support across Nebraska, particularly in rural areas with fewer early education resources. Book-giving programs now reach families in all 50 states, and evidence from Nebraska could show each of them how to turn the books they hand out into lessons children keep.
Originally published at on October 16, 2026.