The Montana Office of Public Instruction is the state education agency of Montana. Elsie Arntzen currently serves as the Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction. The agency is headquartered in Helena. The people of Montana have elected a State Superintendent of Instruction as one of the five members of the Executive Branch since 1889. By law, the State Superintendent has general supervision of the K-12 public schools and districts. The State Superintendent also serves as a member of the Land Board, the State Library Commission, and as an ex officio non-voting member of the Board of Public Education, the Board of Regents for the University System, and the Board of Education.
Elsie Arntzen 2017-Present
First Years in Office
was elected Superintendent of the Montana Office of Public Instruction on November 8, 2016 and was sworn into office on January 2, 2017. Arntzen was previously a state legislator for 12 years and teacher in the Billings School District for 23 years. In her first year in office, Superintendent Arntzen received the U.S. Department of Education's Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Program. The program gave a federal grant of $24 million over the course of three years to advance literacy skills. Being the newly elected State Superintendent, Arntzen was responsible in implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act in Montana. Her office released their state ESSA plan in September 2017 and subsequently had the plan approved by the U.S. Department of Education in January 2018. In the same year, Arntzen offered new online mental health and suicide prevention resources available for teachers. The program is provided through Montana's Learning Hub through the Project AWARE-MT SOARS grant funding. The contract, with Kognito Interactive Programs, provided unlimited access for all Montana educators, school staff, and OPI partners over a 12-month period. In June 2018, Arntzen announced that Montana was one of ten states to receive a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense for the Troops to Teachers program. Arntzen's Montana Ready initiative has promoted career and technical education, work-based learning, individualized learning, and expanded public-private partnerships.
School Safety
Arntzen has made student safety along with career and college readiness the key initiatives of her first term. She is a member of the Council of Chief State School Officers School Safety Steering Committee. In August 2018, Arntzen attended a listening session of President Donald Trump's Federal Commission on School Safety in Cheyenne, Wyoming with the goal of creating a list of recommendations for schools in the United States in regard to safety. The meeting included representatives from Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota. In December 2018, Arntzen joined Secretary of EducationBetsy DeVos and President Trump at a School Safety round table at the White House. In the 2019 Montana legislature, she advanced state-level legislation to keep predators out of Montana classrooms. In an editorial published on January 31, 2019 Arntzen criticized the Montana Public Education Center for opposing the Student Safety Accountability Act, which banned sexual activity between an employee of a school district and a student. MT-PEC is noted as being a statewide organization that is composed of the Montana School Boards Association, the School Administrators of Montana, the Montana Quality Education Coalition, the Montana Federation of Public Employees, and the Montana Association of School Business Officials.
School data 2018-19
School Graduation Rates
Denise Juneau 2009-2017
took office on January 5, 2009. In that same year tobacco use among Montana teens declined and student Student ACT scores were reporting up in 2009 from 2008. However, those two 2009 reported successes were attributed to the previous superintendent of Public Instruction, Linda McCulloch. In that same year math scores showed that Montana fourth and eighth–graders continued to test above the national average, and the number of students who struggle with reading was down from 2008. In 2009, Montana's leadership in key Indian Education policies was recognized. Bozeman middle–school student Marina Dimitrov became America's Top Young Scientist. The National Indian Education Association named Denise Juneau 2009 Educator of the Year, and under Juneau's leadership Montana became one of only seven states receiving grants to increase the number of graduates. At the end of 2009, Montana was awarded grants for schools to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to students. Juneau also promoted local agriculture through farm to school programs.
