Tag Archives: Education

Funding Status

Included in the chart below is the amount of funding per fiscal year since 2016

Fiscal Year Funding for New Awards Funding for Continuation Awards
FY 2021 $2,446,055
FY 2020 $0 $27,000,000
FY 2019 $2,447,410 $24,039,279
FY 2018 $26,731,834 $0
FY 2017 $0 $24,816,507
FY 2016 $27,270,481 $429,975

*FY 19 new awards were funded down the FY 18 slate and not a new competition

2018 Awards

 

Project Abstracts

(S215G180062) Stilwell Public Schools (OK) proposes to create sustainable solutions to literacy challenges in Stilwell, Oklahoma, improving student achievement on standardized literacy assessments and preparing its educators to continue to support a trend of positive literacy gains.  Activities will include tiered, research-based K-12 literacy instruction with embedded professional development; rebirth of the library media center; home literacy promotion; and cross-curricular science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) coordination.  The proposed project outcomes are to sustainably increase student literacy rates, increase family involvement in school, enhance the school library, provide take-home books for students, and increase access to STEM learning.

(S215G180079) Hornell City School District (NY) will build upon its recent work in adopting new assessments and interventions by transforming classroom instruction through the use of the Fountas and Pinnell Classroom system; creating modern and fully-resourced library media centers supported by a certified Library Media Specialist and outfitted with high-quality digital tools to improve student achievement and information literacy; implementing a high-quality teacher professional development and coaching model to support balanced literacy; and supporting family and community involvement through book giveaways and family reading nights.  The proposed project outcomes are to increase students’ independent reading and writing skills; increase students’ access to high-interest, leveled print and digital books inside and outside of school; and increase parents’ capacity to support their child’s literacy development.

(S215G180158)  Lawrence County School System (TN) has developed a project with three focus areas: Academic Enrichment, Family and Community Engagement, and Professional Development. The proposed project outcomes are enhanced classroom environments and school libraries via literacy, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and computer science materials; gains in literacy skills for Pre-K students and in reading achievement for K-5 students; increased STEM and computer science content knowledge, student use of literacy-focused technology, and engagement in literacy and STEM activities; improved book-to-student ratio; increased access to high quality books at home and parental engagement in home literacy activities; improved collaboration between school library and staff; enhanced instructional practices in literacy, STEM, and computer science; and increased afterschool and summer learning access.

(S215G180023)  Maryetta School District 22 (OK) proposes to collaborate among the library media specialist and teachers to plan pedagogy utilizing library resources; create literacy pacing guides integrating computer science standards; provide Response-to-Intervention Tier 1, 2 and 3 reading interventions; provide training and modeling of literacy strategies and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in the Makerspace Literacy Lab; provide family engagement activities and distribute free books.  The proposed project outcomes are to increase resources and activities to promote early literacy, improve the motivation of older children to read, develop high-performing professional learning communities, and increase student reading achievement, distribution of free books, and high-quality literacy and computer science activities.

(S215G180049) Erlanger-Elsmere Board of Education (KY) proposes to provide books to birth through Kindergarten students monthly, and Grades 1 to12 quarterly, for 3,974 students; expand and update libraries in ten schools; provide technology access for students both in and out of school; train teachers to provide new science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)/computer science courses; provide supplies for students to use to learn STEM/computer science; integrate project activities with existing curricula; engage and motivate students through high-quality activities; provide Family Literacy nights; and provide regional professional development in literacy.

(S215G180061) Montgomery County Schools (NC) proposes to leverage technology to ensure rural access through wireless service on buses, community hot spots, and a mobile literacy lab; strengthen literacy development in the classroom through implementation of literacy-focused curricula for Pre-K (OWL) and K-6 (ReadyGen), targeted reading interventions, and sustained professional development; enhance Pre-K to Grade 6 school library programs through collaboration among media staff and teachers, updates to school library collections, improvements to school library staffing and support, and extended school library hours; and provide high-quality books and family literacy activities through year-round book distribution methods to ensure students have home libraries, offering family literacy nights and summer camps, and linking with community events to promote literacy.

(S215G180069)  Russellville Independent School District (KY) proposes to expand supports for families as they learn to develop young readers, explicitly support struggling teachers as they use newly-learned literacy strategies, and fully establish engaging new literacy access points/contexts, especially for older students.  The proposed project outcomes are to increase the number of books distributed and read in the classroom, home and community; and increase early language and literacy skills of young children with read-aloud activities and engaging apps.  Additional students will “catch up” on their reading skills through Read 180 and System44 interventions, and all teachers will begin using a targeted set of literacy strategies across all grades.

(S215G180048) Grand View School (OK) proposes to expand its use of highly-qualified specialized literacy personnel, expand its use of professional development and literacy coaches, implement a family literacy program, expand its schoolwide book distribution, and implement STEM/computer science instruction that builds literacy.  The project goals are to increase the number of 4-year-old children who achieve significant gains in oral language skills by 6% each year; increase the number of 4th grade students who meet or exceed proficiency on the Oklahoma state reading assessment by 5% each year; increase the number of 8th grade students who meet or exceed proficiency on the state reading test by 5% each year; give students at least four free books each year; and increase the number of books per student in each school by five each year.

(S215G180119) Bullhead City Elementary School District (AZ) aims to implement a high-quality program designed to develop and improve literacy skills for children and youth from birth through Grade 12 in its high-need schools.  It proposes to implement research-based curricula (e.g. Smart Talk, Little Bytes, Code.org, Science Center Outreach) and best practices to increase literacy with fidelity; enhance the math and science curriculum through the integration of computer science lesson plans and activities from Code.org; hire a program staff member to strengthen literacy development across academic content areas and increase collaboration with local public libraries; implement a comprehensive book (print and electronic) distribution program; and implement new initiatives to foster daily reading habits (Reading Buddies, summer reading programs, increased programming and membership at local public libraries).

 (S215G180130)  Jefferson Davis County School District (MS) proposes to promote early literacy and prepare young children to read through outreach to parents, caregivers and providers with free, age-appropriate book distribution and parent training; improve student literacy skills through implementing a comprehensive literacy program, enhancing summer reading programs and implementing evidence based, appropriate reading interventions for students; increase access to a wide range of literacy resources through community-wide book houses, partnering with community businesses to increase book access, and increasing and enhancing library resources; engage families and communities in student learning by providing high quality, family-focused literacy activities focused on meaningful opportunities for parental and community engagement; improve teacher efficacy by implementing comprehensive training and providing ongoing coaching and instructional support; and integrate college and career science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) pathways into the reading curriculum by implementing a computer science-focused library.

(S215G180059)  CommonLit Inc. (DC) proposes to improve 3rd through 12th grade student achievement in reading and writing, with a special focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related literacy.  This project will build a suite of web-based, free digital formative assessment tools to enhance the utility of CommonLit’s high-quality library of open educational resources.  CommonLit is used by millions of teachers and students in over 42,000 schools nationwide, and the free services created under this project will enable STEM, English language arts, and social studies teachers to use research-based best practices, especially related to formative assessment, in literacy instruction.

(S215G180055) Cuero Independent School District (TX) proposes to increase access to a wide range of literacy resources (both print and digital); provide high-quality childhood literacy activities with parental engagement; strengthen literacy and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skill development; provide educational interventions for all readers with support from school libraries; and provide library resources that support literacy-rich academic and enrichment activities, develop STEM, and are aligned with the college and career-ready academic standards.  The proposed project outcomes include increased book to student ratios, students from Pre-K to 5th grades receiving a book of their own, children aged 0-3 years old receiving a book of their own, an increased number of 4th and 8th graders meeting proficiency on state reading tests, oral reading gains by 4-year-old students, teacher and parent knowledge of Dialogic Reading, and students participating in STEM-focused dual credit courses.

(S215G180133)  Lane Elementary (OK) proposes to acquire books for both the school library and classroom libraries to improve each student’s reading capacity; update library resources to include specialized and modern literacy tools, ranging from Native American-specific books to wireless reading devices; implement methods to work with parents in home reading techniques; form collaborative efforts between teachers and library staff to enhance classroom efforts; and conduct three types of book distributions, so children can take books home.  The proposed project outcome is to raise the literacy proficiency of every student in Pre‑K through 8th grades.

(S215G180072)  Lansing School District (MI) proposes to expand access to literacy development initiatives for low-income students in order to increase academic performance of students in reading and English language arts; integrate literacy into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and computer science learning; increase educator capacity to utilize evidence-based literacy education strategies; and increase diversity of age-appropriate literacy resources for low-income students.

(S215G180046)  Washington County School District dba Panhandle Area Educational Consortium (FL) proposes to increase family literacy activities, particularly reading aloud, that have a positive impact on the brain development of young children; increase the knowledge of parents about literacy and language acquisition and supporting their child’s skill development; improve preschoolers’ literacy and language skills in better preparation for Kindergarten; improve language arts proficiency, increase motivation to read, and support science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning for students in Grades K to 8; increase book-to-student ratios; distribute books to children who have limited access to book ownership; increase access to bilingual books for Spanish-speaking children; and improve knowledge and increase literacy-related practices of teachers, library staff, and healthcare professionals through professional development.

(S215G180112)  Education Service Center, Region 20 (TX) will have a book distribution for children from birth to Grade 5, increasing the amount of high quality, engaging reading material in home, classroom, and school libraries.  It proposes to build students’ literacy skills, especially through professional development provided to adults (teachers, librarians, families) to support effective reading experiences with texts.  This project supports students in achieving Texas’ English Language Arts Standards through science, technology, engineering, math and coding-focused projects, and focuses family engagement activities on critical aspects of book sharing, reading instruction, independent reading time, and interactive read aloud activities.

(S215G180121)  Shelby County Board of Education (TN) will have an increased number of print and electronic resources in its targeted school libraries, new laptop computers that will bring libraries into alignment with Tennessee access to digital materials standards by November 2021, and an increased number of families reporting age-appropriate books in the home.  Additionally, proven, promising or effective science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) integration practices will be more prevalent, and participating librarians and STEM teachers will finalize a sustainability plan for STEM-related digital resource purchases.  Lastly, “STEM in the Library” programming will improve math and science engagement.

(S215G180127)  Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District (MS) proposes to enrich the home environment of young children with literacy resources and supports, increase students’ access to high-quality print and digital reading materials through book distributions, transform school libraries into 21st century media centers, and decrease educational disparities of racial and economic groups by 20%.  The proposed project outcomes involve improving 4-year old children’s oral language skills, and 4th and 8th grade students’ English language arts assessment performance.

(S215G180128)  New Visions Middle School (CA) proposes to implement the research-based Success for All curriculum and instructional practices with fidelity; enhance math and science curriculum by integrating computer science lesson plans and activities from Code.org into the classroom; hire a Credentialed Teacher Librarian to strengthen literacy development across academic content areas to effectively support reading and writing; implement a comprehensive book (print and electronic) distribution program; and implement new initiatives to foster daily reading habits (weekly book clubs, summer reading programs, increased programming and membership at local public libraries).

(S215G180038)  Coalgate Public Schools (OK) proposes to demonstrate improved early learning outcomes, through an early childhood book distribution program, professional development for teachers of young children, and specialized curriculum for Pre-K students; improved student reading achievement through highly-qualified personnel such as a Reading Specialist, highly-trained teachers, and research-based curriculum; and improved capacity and improved home libraries through parent involvement activities, a book distribution program, a pediatric care component that will distribute additional books, and purchasing an additional 1,300 books, 50 Chromebooks, and 100 periodicals for the library.

(S215G180139)  Bering Strait School District (AK) proposes to expand and strengthen its emerging literacy program for children 1-4 years old through book distribution, teacher training, and parent/child literacy workshops; integrate materials that reflect the cultural makeup of 99% of the student population into the core reading/language arts instructional program; and to have the District Media Center provide students and teachers with 18 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education kits for Grades K to 8, along with teacher training.

(S215G180014)  Texans Can Academies (TX) proposes to increase the literacy skills of all students, particularly at-risk, low-income, minority English Learners and students with disabilities, to overall improve academic performance and create a campus culture and classroom climate that promotes technology integration, capacity building and literacy across all academic content areas.  The project will also focus services to improve students’ early learning and oral language development.  Pre-K educators will receive training on multiple effective, research-based early learning literacy interventions and strategies for students to gain the foundation of literacy skills development.

(S215G180155)  Hydaburg City School District (AK) proposes to improve and expand school libraries’ book, resource, and activity offerings; utilize instructional technology to expand literacy, namely with new computer systems, e-literature, online database access, and programs; use the Read Naturally® Program to improve student literacy levels through professional development, new systems of support, and informational seminars; and improve classroom instruction in 100% of reading and English classrooms through book studies and professional development.

(S215G180010)  Promesa Public Schools (TX) proposes to increase the oral and literacy skills of all students, particularly at-risk, low-income, minority, and English Learners to overall improve academic performance, and to create a campus culture and classroom climate that promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)/computer programming integration, capacity building, and literacy across all academic content areas.  Activities include providing specific content instruction and instructional techniques, increasing access and range of quality print and electronic literacy materials, providing teacher training, and fostering strong parental engagement.

(S215G180036)  LeFlore Public Schools (OK) proposes to provide book distribution; extended day tutoring; a drop-in program for parents of children aged 0 to 4; early childhood student immersion into hands-on reading.  Additional training from two non-profit organizations will focus on removing poverty barriers and imbedding literacy, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and computer science cross-curricular efforts; and high-quality curriculum and resources.  Proposed project outcomes are increased achievement of 4-year-olds on DIBELS literacy assessments, increased reading achievement of students on 4th and 8th grade standardized tests, a book distribution program for all students, and an improved book-to-student ratio.

(S215G180032)  Idabel Public Schools (OK) will provide iPad classroom sets, library activities, motivation techniques, book distribution, and student reading achievement through analysis of project components and student outcomes.  The proposed project outcomes include 4 year-olds’ improvement on the Early Learning Quick Assessments for literacy, 90% of 8th graders scoring at least “proficient” on the reading component of the Oklahoma School Testing Program, an increase in book-to-student ratio, and each student receiving two free books annually.

(S215G180045)  Bellevue Board of Education (KY) will provide books to birth – Kindergarten students monthly and grades 1-12 quarterly; provide critically needed expansion and updating of libraries in eight schools; provide technology access for students both in and out of school; train teachers to provide new science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)/computer science courses; provide supplies for students to use to learn STEM/computer science; integrate project activities with existing curricula; engage and motivate students through high-quality activities; provide Family Literacy nights; and provide regional professional development in literacy.

(S215G180058)  Madison-Tallulah Education Center (LA) proposes to increase the percentage of parents who engage in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities, increase the performance of students in Grades K to 3 on early reading assessments, increase the percentage of students who meet or exceed the proficiency level on the annual state language arts assessment for grade 3, and increase the percentage of parents who engage in literacy activities both to improve their own literacy and to improve the literacy of their children, through professional learning, literacy nights for parents and the community, book distributions, and support for struggling readers.

(S215G180091) Yukon-Koyukuk School District (AK) proposes to motivate students to read for school as well as enjoyment by providing access to up-to-date materials in libraries with trained staff, thereby improving the book-to-student ratio and increasing the skills of library aides to effectively work with children. This project will also use the current Parents and Children Together literacy activities to distribute carefully selected, high-quality, fiction and non-fiction science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related free books to students, reaching 100% of the district’s students, and increasing knowledge and skills to integrate STEM and literacy in authentic classroom activities for Pre-K through 8th grade teachers.

(S215G180024)  Corbin Independent Schools (KY) proposes to develop and enhance effective and evidence-based school library programs, which will include professional development opportunities for school library personnel; provide early literacy services, including evidence/research-based Born Learning, Vroom and Hatch reading curricula, which includes pediatric literacy programming; provide high-quality books and literacy materials on a regular basis to increase motivation, performance, and frequency; increase high-quality, evidence-based literacy resources, which will prepare young children to read and improve learning opportunities, especially in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and informational literacy; and provide the most up-to-date literacy resources to promote literacy, emphasizing evidence-based STEM and college and career-ready skills needed by our students.

(S215G180076)  Jasper County Charter System (GA) expects its project to result in enhanced classroom environments and school libraries via literacy materials and technology; gains in oral language skills for Pre-K students and in reading achievement for 4th grade students; increased book-to-student ratios and student access to free, grade- and language-appropriate books at home; increase in student classroom engagement and in parents engaging in literacy activities at home; increase in parents, mentors, and community volunteers trained on effective literacy strategies; improved collaboration between school library and school staff; enhanced instructional practices as a result of professional development opportunities; and improved literacy skills as a result of access to summer learning.

(S215G180018)  Brownsville Independent School District (TX) proposes to develop and enhance effective school library programs, which include providing professional development for school librarians, book distributions including utilizing pediatricians to promote literacy readiness, and up-to-date materials to high-need schools.  This project will provide early literacy services through community partnerships; provide high-quality books on a regular basis to children and adolescents from low-income communities to increase reading motivation, performance, and frequency; and integrate academic technology learning and professional development in the acquisition of digitized books to expand accessible resources to a greater number of students.

(S215G180027)  Caney Public Schools (OK) will distribute books regularly, considering students’ choices; give parents access to trainings, resources, and free children’s books to implement home reading strategies; match student needs with three types of classrooms and intervention curricula; provide professional development that includes methods to teach Native American, special needs, or impoverished students; and place more than 1,200 books and electronic reading devices in the library to generate student interest.  The proposed project outcomes are to improve literacy and language proficiency of Pre-K students, increase 4th and 8th grade student scores on the reading component of the state’s standardized test, and increase the book-to-student ratio.

(S215G180150)  DeKalb County School District (GA) proposes to implement and evaluate the potential effectiveness of a professional development model designed to enhance secondary school teachers’ literacy instruction in science, technology, engineering and math  (STEM) to culturally and linguistically diverse students.  The project will advance teaching and learning of literacy skills (reading and writing development), intellectualism, identity development and criticality/social justice, and will provide 12 professional development sessions each year to students, literacy coaches, and school principals.

 (S215G180107)  Bokoshe Public Schools (OK) proposes to, by 2021, improve and upgrade the school libraries of each district to engage students, increase circulation rates, and offer enriched literacy programming; improve classroom literacy instruction efficacy through district-wide implementation of data-driven instruction and high-engagement educational technology, as ultimately measured by student reading/English language arts achievement on state assessments; raise pre-literacy/literacy and reading achievement of Pre-K through 3rd grade students; and raise literacy levels (Lexiles) at the high school level through project-based learning opportunities by 5%.

(S215G180041)  Scotland County Schools (NC) proposes to promote high-quality early literacy practices to prepare young children to read, improve students’ reading ability and motivation to read, and provide professional learning for teachers and media specialists.  The proposed project outcomes are improved academic achievement; reading skills; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) content knowledge; parent engagement and awareness on promoting emergent and cognitive growth; teacher knowledge and pedagogy; community supports to address the literacy and decreased subgroup gaps.

(S215G180077)  Stringtown Public Schools (OK) will create literacy-rich school and home environments through access to highly appealing reading materials on a wide variety of subjects, including science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and in multiple formats along with intentional outreach and education of families.  Teachers and library staff will facilitate student technology use through interactive and collaborative activities designed to increase student motivation and reading achievement.  The project will include significant professional development and collaborative activities to build educator capacity to support student reading and writing achievement and increase parental involvement.

(S215G180142)  Mastery Charter High School (PA) proposes to enhance adult learning (teachers, school leaders, and parents) to better prepare adults to help improve the literacy skills of children in Mastery schools and incoming to Mastery schools, to improve student achievement in literacy for its students in Grades K to 8, and to measure and show improvement on the Innovative Approaches to Literacy program’s Government Performance and Results Act measures.  The project includes KIPP-Wheatley curriculum expansion, an Orton-Gillingham-based reading intervention after school and in the summer, parent engagement in literacy, classroom libraries, and book distribution.

(S215G180073)  City School District of the City of Elmira, NY Inc. (NY) will implement a multi-tiered system of support in K–2 classrooms, which will provide tiered levels of differentiated instruction for all students, proven to increase accelerated and sustained reading achievement if implemented at an early age.  The proposed project outcomes are to deliver extensive and sustained, embedded professional development by highly qualified personnel; partner with revitalized and expanded school libraries staffed by trained library teaching assistants; establish a collaborative infrastructure across grades and buildings; and provide book distributions, family literacy outreach and support of afterschool and summer literacy programming.

(S215G180147) Corinth School District (MS) proposes to: pilot an early literacy application, Educyte, for Pre-K – 3rd grade students; place books in the homes of all Corinth children before they enter Kindergarten; provide high-quality literacy programming and coaching for teachers and librarians; enrich the Family Literacy Center to provide parents with additional resources to promote early literacy development in the home; introduce the Cambridge International Information Communication Technology (ICT) standards and curriculum in K-6th grades; have teachers participate in Professional Learning Communities; and promote leisure reading through literacy celebrations and community-wide readings.

2016 Awards

Project Abstracts

Alaska

Northwest Artic Borough School District
PR/Award # S215G160191

This project has five goals: 1) to provide relevant “take home” books to students three years old to twelfth grade three times per year, 2) to provide literacy-related professional development, 3) to provide technology integration and support for literacy activities, 4) to procure feedback from students, educators, and parents/community on the effectiveness of the project, and 5) to increase the reading growth of students as measured on state testing.

California

Sacramento City Unified School District
PR/Award # S215G160143

Sacramento’s IAL grant places a strong emphasis on improving early learning and development by stressing the importance of strategies such as reading aloud to students, particularly young students, to support literacy development and an understanding that reading is about making meaning. Activities within the program will be on teaching teachers and family members how to engage in effective Read Alouds with an emphasis on reading with intonation and inflection, changing voice to denote characters, and the importance of reading aloud to students to build pleasure and excitement about reading.  The program provides a continuum of supports that seek to maximize learning for both adults and students. This is coordinated through: a) creating high quality virtual and in person professional learning experiences for school and district staff, b) engaging parents/families in culturally responsive literacy focused workshops and activities, c) engrossing students in rich texts and robust literacy instruction and activities with peers and other adults before, after, and throughout the school day/year, d) increasing students’ and their families’ access to an array of both print and digital texts, and e) engaging staff and students in 4-6 week rapid cycles of inquiry characterized by a Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) iterative process.

District of Columbia

CommonLit Inc.
PR/Award # S215G160065

CommonLit plans to improve 5th-12th grade student achievement in reading. To accomplish this, the project team will build a collection of high-quality open educational resources and a series of web-based digital tools that enable teachers to use research-based best practices in literacy instruction. The project plans that secondary literacy teachers using the platform built through this project will use research-based best practices with greater frequency. As a result,
students will become more engaged in reading, and ultimately will become more proficient readers as measured through student reading growth on standards-aligned assessments.

Kentucky

Corbin Independent Schools
PR/Award # S215G160171

Corbin will implement the following activities: 1) increase evidence-based literacy resources; 2) provide evidence-based and high-quality, meaningful literacy activities for children and parents; 3) strengthen literacy development across all academic content areas which will include both literacy and information text; 4) provide evidence-based intervention services for all student readers; 5) enhance evidence-based professional development opportunities for teachers and other school staff; and 6) provide the most up-to-date literacy resources.

Grayson County Board of Education
PR/Award # S215G160013

Grayson’s IAL project has a goal of preparing all children to be college and career ready.  The plan for the grant includes free book distribution, Lexile leveled books, access to advanced technologies, access to web-based literacy programs, a Technology Integration Specialist, and parent involvement opportunities.  The outcome of this project will be improved early literacy skills resulting in more K-8 students who score proficient on state/district tests. 

Kentucky Educational Development Corporation
PR/Award # S215G160112

This grantee proposes to provide and expand early literacy for young children, motivate older children to read, and increase student achievement by using school libraries as partners to improve literacy, distributing free books to children and their families through Reading is Fundamental (RIF), and offering high-quality literacy activities. The following outcomes are planned:1) 100% of participating schools will develop, modify or expand their K-12 Literacy plan based up on research based strategies from the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) to meet the needs of all students based upon their needs from a Response to Intervention(RTI) technology screener; 2) a 10% increase over baseline data will occur in: preschoolers who show improvement in the Early Learning and Developmental Outcomes on the Brigance and in the number of 4th and 8th grade students scoring proficient on the K-PREP state test; 3) 100% of students will obtain access to online books and receive personal books to assist in becoming college and career ready; 4) a minimum of 85% of librarians will attend 75% of literacy trainings pertaining to pedagogy in the field of differentiation, universal design for learning (UDL), technology, and other educational literacy strategies

Newport Independent Schools
PR/Award # S215G160105

Newport plans to increase by 30% the number of K- through 12th-grade students who gain proficiency in reading and/or language arts, while also increasing by 35% the number of pre-K
students who are ready for kindergarten based upon their oral language skills. The project has the following objectives: 1) increase literacy resources (in both complexity and content) in the library media centers and home environment to help prepare and motivate children to read; 2) provide high-quality, family-focused literacy activities (during the school day and after) focused on meaningful opportunities for parental engagement; 3) with ongoing support from community partners, provide appropriate educational interventions for all pre-K thru 12th grade students; 4) utilize the “universal design for learning” framework, provide joint professional development to library media specialists and teachers to expand “cross collaboration,” and effectively support reading/writing instruction and student achievement; 5) increase home internet access for students and expand e-resources provided through library media centers to support technology-rich literacy activities and services aligned with Kentucky Dept. of Education college- and career-readiness standards.

Owsley County Schools
PR/Award # S215G160118

Owsley will offer high-quality services that will 1) increase access to a wide range of literacy resources, 2) provide learning opportunities for all elementary school students, 3) provide high quality early literacy programs to ensure all children enter Kindergarten ready to learn, and 4) engage families in their child’s learning. The theory of change for this project focuses on a vibrant school library that utilizes evidence based programming and technology leading to increased literacy and learning within the school and the community. In alignment with project goals, major projected outcomes include: participating pre-school children, ages 3-5, will obtain significant gains in oral language skills, and enter Kindergarten ready to learn; participating school-age children will be reading at grade level by 3rd grade, and will exhibit improved literacy and pre-literacy skills; teachers will exhibit increased skills in supporting literacy development; parents will indicate an increase in knowledge to support their child’s/children’s literacy development; and the culture within the community will innately support literacy. Integration of research-based programs in early child development, literacy development, effective family engagement initiatives, and literacy-rich settings will improve literacy environments in the home, school, and community for children living in high-poverty and, in turn, contribute to children’s improved education outcomes. The project’s comprehensive continuum of support will be enhanced by evidence based literacy programs, digital learning libraries, in school and out of school learning, high-quality book distribution, a plan for summer learning loss and a family/community engagement strategy.

Perry County School District
PR/Award # S215G160137

Perry proposes a comprehensive approach to infusing reading into schools and community based on the premise that it takes a community to raise a reader.  The project objectives are: 1) increase the percentage of 4-year olds participating in the project who achieve significant gains in oral language skills, 2) increase annually the percentage of children who enter Kindergarten demonstrating reading readiness, 3) increase the percentage of 4th graders participating in the project who demonstrate individual student growth on the state reading or language arts assessments, 4) increase the percentage of 8th graders participating in the project who demonstrate individual student growth on the state reading or language arts assessments, 5) increase the percentage of participating schools whose holdings of up-to-date book-to-student ratios increase from the previous year; and 6) ensure that, by the end of the grant period, every participating student receives at least 4 free, grade- and language-appropriate books of their own.

Russellville Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G160127

Russellville plans to implement a birth-to-grad community initiative with three goals.  Goal 1 is to ensure all young children are ready to read.  Activities to support this goal include outreach to parents, caregivers, and providers, free age-appropriate books to young children, devices and apps for young children as well as academic and cognitive improvements for 5-year-olds.  Goal 2 will ensure all elementary and middle school students are excellent, accelerated readers.  Activities include the instruction of a basal reading series at grades 6-8, coaching and modeling for all teachers in literacy strategies, expanding reading interventions and reading collections including new devices for checkout, implementation of the Peer Assisted Literacy Strategies (grades 6-8), and embedding professional learning for teachers.  Goal 3 is to ensure all secondary students read to learn by working with high school teachers across their content areas to implement literacy strategies. Activities include supporting a literacy coach.   

West Kentucky Educational Cooperative
PR/Award # S215G160112

This grantee plans to develop and improve literacy skills for children and students birth through second grade. Project Activities include: 1) provide more print/digital media resources increasing book-to-student ratios in school libraries; 2) increase book distribution to children’s homes thereby allowing for development and/or expansion of home libraries; 3) provide parental professional development seminars offering coaching and modeling to parents on why and how to read to their children; and 4) provide teacher professional development workshops to help leverage technology in support of strong reading comprehension strategies and other literacy instructional practices.

Maryland

Baltimore City Public Schools
PR/Award # S215G160125

Baltimore plans to increase student reading levels by: 1) trainingteachers, librarians, school leaders (including principals and literacy representatives), and OST providers and parents on the practice and importance of leveled reading materials; 2) increasing student accessto texts that are at their appropriate reading level; and 3) increasing the amount of timespent reading instructional and independent level texts. They plan to do this by providing leveled reading materials, as well as professional development to district staff, partner organizations, and parents. Their expected outcomes are: 1) increased knowledgeregarding how to use leveled libraries and useof the libraries for teachers, librarians, school leaders, service providers, and parents, as reported by survey data and measured by a statistically significant change from the beginning of the year (BOY) to the end of the year (EOY) on the survey; 2) increased access to reading-level-appropriate texts; 3) increased amount of time spent reading, including a statistically significant increase in the amount of time spent reading from BOY to EOY, as measured by use of the digital platform; and increased student reading levels. 

Minnesota

Reading & Math, Inc.
PR/Award # S215G160094

This grantee will implement literacy-rich academic activities aligned with State, college, and career-ready standards that result in significant reading gains for high-need children.  This program will: 1) create partnerships with school library personnel to delivery literacy activities, distribute carefully selected high-quality, free books to students in several states, and engage families to increase literacy activities at home; 2) provide high-quality literacy activities to PreK-third grade students; 3) provide an intensive K-3rd grade  model in schools in Promise Neighborhoods in Minnesota; 4) build significant capacity to sustain the investment beyond the grant through multi-layer coaching; and 5) expand capacity to implement improved instructional supports and data-driven decision making through technology . 

New Mexico

Three Rivers Education Foundation
PR/Award # S215G160051

Three Rivers will implement three project components: school-based activities, community-based activities, and early literacy activities. The program will provide after school tutoring in reading and literacy for students, professional development for teachers, and distribution of classroom books.  Community reading blogs, community reading events, parent workshops, partnerships with literacy organizations, and distribution of books in public places and community events will comprise the community-based activities.  Early literacy activities include development of early literacy and oral language resources, early childhood educator training, parent workshops for improving early literacy development, distribution of early literacy books and other resource materials through medical service offices that specialize in infants and young children, and training for early childhood healthcare providers.

New Jersey

Camden City Board of Education
PR/Award # S215G160190

Camden proposes to develop and improve literacy skills in proven and new ways for participating children from birth to grade 12. Project activities will include teaching pregnant moms about the importance of talking to their unborn children; book distributions; increased high school library-based literacy activities; early childhood literacy activities with read-alouds and increased parental involvement in their children’s language learning; a program for teen fathers to read aloud with their young children to be recorded and aired on public television; pairing “reading buddy” 8th graders and high school students with preschoolers for read-alouds and literacy activities; using journaling and digital storytelling to teach adolescents how to organize their thoughts into narrative, offering the schools family literacy programming;
professional development for educators to improve instructional practice with the use of state-of-the art technology; using technology to provide individualized education to students; and more.

New York

Addison Central School District
PR/Award # S215G160067

The Addison Central School District will incorporate the following program components in its IAL grant: 1) early childhood development support, including universal screening, community outreach, and materials to support early literacy development; 2) access to print materials, including take-home book distribution, library integration, and technology; 3) instructional practices including reading intervention services and summer literacy services; 4) professional development, including expert literacy consultants, use of technology, Thoughtful Classroom, and Mandarin training.

North Carolina

Ashe County Schools District
PR/Award # S215G160126

Ashe County aims to ensure that all students have the opportunity to experience a rich literacy environment that includes age-appropriate books, literacy activities, technology, and the support of families and communities by implementing a mobile book lab, the Literacy Express. The second goal of the program is to use the mobile lab at each school site to provide a fully loaded literacy classroom for literacy instruction, intervention, and enrichment.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
PR/Award # S215G160192

This grantee is proposing a project with 4 goals: 1) build capacity of school librarians, 2) increase use of technology to deliver instruction, 3) increase access to print and digital resources, and 4) increase family engagement.  Activities include professional development; employing a digital teaching learning coach for school librarians and teachers; literacy-focused Professional Learning Teams (PLTs); increased opportunities for grade level collaboration across content areas; purchase of high-quality culturally sensitive materials for home/school libraries; establishment of summer media hours; whole school/family book and magazine distributions; author visits; and bus site visits.

Oklahoma:

Bokoshe School District
PR/Award # S215G160062

Bokoshe has the following project goal:  raise student achievement in reading English at all levels by 10%.  Objectives of the project include: 1) improve and expand the three school
libraries and increase library usage, 2) utilize instructional technology to expand literacy-building activities; 3) implement the Read Naturally Program to increase the percentage of students who read at grade-level; 4) improve and expand classroom instruction in reading and English classrooms; and 5) utilize professionals to raise student achievement.

Lane Elementary School District
PR/Award # S215G160100

Lane plans to raise the literacy proficiency of every student in grades PreK-8th. Funds will be used for the following: 1) acquiring books and extending library hours to improve each student’s reading capacity; 2) placing each student on an Plan that will set benchmarks for improvement; 3) updating library resources to include specialized and modern literacy tools, ranging from Native American-specific books to wireless reading devices; 4) forming collaborative efforts between teachers and library staff to enhance classroom efforts; and 5) conducting three types of book distributions so children can take books home.

LeFlore Public Schools
PR/Award # S215G160026

LeFlore will use book distribution, extended day tutoring, a drop-in program for parents of children age birth to 4, early childhood student immersion into hands-on reading, training from two non-profit organizations providing training on removing poverty barriers and embedding literacy, and high-quality curriculum and resources. Funds will be used to do the following: 1. Through the purchase of 2,680 books and other-literacy based material, the distribution of hundreds of free books, and a program that extends the time the library is open, students will have increased access to relevant, current literacy materials.2. Through a drop-in program for parents of children age birth to 3-years-old, early childhood literacy training, and a parent literacy education program, early learners will have fewer delays in speech and reading. 3. Through collaboration with the Quantum Learning and aha Process Inc., teachers will be trained in embedding literacy in all classrooms and addressing low-income students and special needs students. 4. Through on-site training and use of open education resources, teachers will bridge the geographical gap facing LeFlore students. 5. Through a quality extended-day and summer literacy and tutoring program led by a Literacy Leader, at-risk students will receive individualized training in language acquisition and comprehension. 6. Through the acquisition of technologies such as iPad devices and laptop computers and use of interactive curriculum such as Literacy Express, students will engage in hands-on, visual learning and whole-class instruction.

Maryetta School District
PR/Award # S215G160072

Maryetta will support early literacy for young children, motivate older children to read, and increase student reading achievement. Proposed activities, include: (1) Collaboration among the library mediaspecialist and teachers to plan differentiated, subject-specific pedagogy utilizing libraryresources; (2) Creating pacing guides, delivering high quality literacy instructional units
usingscientifically-based reading research for materials and instructional strategies, and creatingcommon formative assessments; (3) Providing supplemental instruction and Response-to-Intervention Tier 1, 2 & 3 reading interventions through Lexia Reading; (4) Providing training, coaching, and modeling for reading, writing, and technology integrated activities; (5) Providingparent literacy activities; (6) Distributing free books; and (7) Establishing Professional LearningCommunity Facilitators.

Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District
PR/Award # S215G160197

The Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District plans to build local capacity and expand additional services to address the literacy needs of their students by providing critical literacy supports for young children and increase student achievement through collaborations between the school librarians and classroom teachers; distribution of free books; increased access and effective use of information resources and technologies; and high-quality engaging, relevant literacy activities and supports.

Stilwell Public Schools
PR/Award # S215G160104

Stilwell will bring in four full-time literacy specialists, each delivering at least two hours of embedded, “push-in” coaching and mentoring in literacy best practices to 15 classroom teachers each week for all 24 months of the project.  The two Library Media centers will be revitalized, receiving 4,825 updated titles – including Spanish and Cherokee language books, biographies, graphic novels, and reference titles.  Quarterly family literacy nights will be held, and monthly Reading is FUN literacy activity lists will be sent home.  All students K-12th grade will receive at least four books to keep each year.  A tiered literacy curriculum will be implemented, ensuring all students benefit from personalized research-based literacy instructional supports and programs. Chrome Books will be purchased to enable classroom use of technology-based interventions.

Pennsylvania

School District of Philadelphia
PR/Award # S215G160049

Philadelphia is proposing a project to provide high-quality early literacy activities both inside the classroom and at the local public library that incorporate print and online reading materials for students in grades K-3, as well as parent engagement activities. Classroom teachers and public librarians will co-design literacy activities and collaborate to ensure that the resources of the public library are in regular use by young students.  Through the introduction of tablets, students and their families will be able to reserve books from any Free Library of Philadelphia (FLP) branch and chat with a librarian.

South Carolina

Dillon School District Four
PR/Award # S2125G160031

Dillon has the following six program elements in its grant plan: 1) professional learning that supports PreK-12th grade educators in understanding and implementing the Exemplary Literacy Classrooms; 2) comprehensive assessment system that helps teachers make a clear connection between curriculum, assessment, and student data to develop effective instructional strategies 3) summer programs and activities for students and parents to help prevent summer reading loss; 4) access to professional learning needed for Read to Succeed endorsements and other licensure requirements to help districts and schools train, reward, and retrain effective teachers and reading coaches; 5) partnerships to communicate Read to Succeed goals and to promote literacy achievement from birth to grade 12 though collaboration efforts with stakeholders that include community organizations, businesses, and state agencies; and 6) language and literacy instruction in pre-kindergarten programs through professional learning in evidence-based, intentional curricula and by providing resources for literacy-rich classroom environments and expanding literacy courses available to the rural schools through interactive video-conferencing. 

Texas

Crockett Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G160107

Crockett plans to increase the literacy competency and the joy of reading for every student in their school district by implementing a literacy initiative that: (1) increases the quality and quantity of literacy materials in school libraries (print and electronic); (2) encourages collaboration between librarian and teachers; (3) uses the trainer of trainer model to implement instructional strategies; (4) enhances early childhood literacy skills and parent engagement through the use of technology, Family Literacy Nights, Reader’s Theatre, and book distribution; (5) conducts professional development (technology based and face to face) for assisting all students, but especially those at risk and with special needs, in obtaining their optimal literacy potential; (6) integrates technology with academic learning and professional development; and (7) supports the acquisition of core content literacy material.

Karnes City Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G160017

Karnes City will help to ensure all children are school ready by implementing a reading program that has evidence of strong theory of increasing parents’ efforts to read aloud to their preschool-aged children. The program will also work with preschool-aged students via a book distribution program that will enhance the student’s home libraries and their oral language development. Third, KCISD students in Pre-K-3rd grade will have teachers that are trained to improve the students’ language development via dialogic reading. Finally, the program will increase utilization of the campus libraries at each of the three KCISD school campuses.

Texans Can Academies
PR/Award # S215G1600059

Texans Can Academies, Dallas and Fort Worth campuses plan to build local capacity and expand additional services to address the literacy needs of their students by providing critical literacy supports for young children at their Can Care Academies and high schools and increase student achievement through collaborations between the local librarians and classroom teachers; distribution of free books; increased access and effective use of information resources and technologies; and high-quality engaging, relevant literacy activities and supports.

2015 Awards

Project Abstracts

Delaware:

University of Delaware
PR/Award # S215G150117

This project will increase student reading comprehension in grades 1-5 by providing teachers with a feasible, challenging daily curriculum centered on repeated reading and the professional development support to implement it with fidelity. In addition, student comprehension will be enhanced through opportunities for wide reading outside of school. Activities include design of a comprehensive curriculum and professional development modules, purchase of classroom library resources, and one full cycle of iterative redesign of both the curriculum and the modules. The program proposes to serve 100 K-5 teachers, three literacy coaches, three library media specialists and three principals. There will also be 705 student participants, 80% of whom are educationally disadvantaged due to poverty, 213 of whom are students with disabilities, and 47 of whom are ELLs. There are three project sites, all in Jefferson County, Louisville, Georgia: Carver Elementary, Louisville Academy, and Wrens Elementary.

Texas:

Chilton Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G150075

The goal of this program is to improve school readiness and subsequent academic success in language arts and literacy for children and youth. Activities as part of the Chilton Literacy and Library Opportunities Program (CLLO) will include book distribution (books for students to take home monthly), Renaissance Readers, Little Pirates Listen and Learn, Creating Teachers at Home, Family Literacy Nights, E-Readers for Students, and Parent ESL and GED classes. The entire body of Chilton Independent School District (CISD) 560 students will be served and all activities will take place on the Chilton ISD campus in Chilton, Texas.

2014 Awards

Project Abstracts

Arkansas:

West Memphis School District
PR/Award # S215G140044

The West Memphis School District’s IAL Common thREAD initiative targets four high needs schools serving 2,399 Pre-K-12 students for participation in the Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant including: Wonder Elementary, Wonder and East Junior High Schools, and The Academies of West Memphis (formerly West Memphis High School). Innovative approaches include a multi-layered school-community collaborative of child- and family- serving entities that provide staff, facilities, and resources at school/community sites to increase literacy for children Birth to Grade 12; Free book distribution and parent training are expected to increase percentage of children entering kindergarten with pre-literacy skills; Flexible library hours will increase access to high interest holdings and iPad technology purchased through Innovative Approached to Literacy funding to support current evidence-based literacy programs aligned with Arkansas’s State Literacy Plan; and, Library/Media Specialists will participate in collaborative professional development with content area teachers to integrate formational skills into literacy development across academic content areas.

California:

Earlimart School District
PR/Award # S215G140067

Earlimart School District serves approximately 2,030 Pre-K through 8th grade students in the farming community of Earlimart, California. The district is in the southern end of Tulare County, in the agricultural region north of Bakersfield in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley — one of the poorest areas in the country. 97% of Earlimart students are of Hispanic descent; more than two-thirds are English Language Learners. Our students, primarily Spanish-speaking and children of migrant workers, need an extremely high level of literacy intervention and supports, particularly throughout the lower grades, in order to have a chance to succeed academically. With funding through the FY 2014 Innovative Approaches to Literacy Program, in collaboration with school libraries at the elementary and middle schools, Earlimart School District proposes to implement an innovative, technology-based literacy program titled CORE: Creating Outstanding Readers in Earlimart. The CORE Program will provide tablet technology into literacy intervention and supports, providing students with innovative services at three school sites.

San Pasqual Valley Unified School District
PR/Award # S215G140041

The San Pasqual Valley Unified School District proposes to lead the San Pasqual Valley Literacy Project, in partnership with the Quechan Indian Tribe, a federally-recognized Indian Tribe, two partnering pre-schools, Fort Yuma Quechan Headstart and San Pasqual Valley Pre-School, Imperial County Free Library, Yuma County Public Library, Brawley Public Library and Imperial County Office of Education. This project aims to improve literacy in students, families, and the community. Partnerships will collaborate and support this project in delivering services to rural areas addressing literacy needs of students and families. Through our partnership and resources provided from the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Program Grant we intend to establish and enhance literacy services that will be sustainable beyond the project at each school site. A triad of cohesive capacity building will be focused on our schools, our communities and our parents each being provided with the support and training necessary to increase literacy for all, student achievement and motivation for children of all ages to read. Our partnership will work towards increasing literacy through research based professional development in literacy and parent involvement, providing literacy coaching to all teachers via classroom observations, feedback, modeling, lesson design and lesson study, development of effective reading intervention programs, providing parent support and training increasing literacy in the home, enhancement of library services, literacy activities, and technology for increasing literacy for PreK-12th grade students.

District of Columbia:

The Institute for Educational Leadership, Inc.
PR/Award # S215G140135

The Literacy Innovation in Rural Education through Collaboration (LIREC) project will transform literacy learning in high needs rural schools, establishing a model for building capacity to produce sustainable gains in student learning, with a particular focus on preschool through grade 3 (PS-3). LIREC will be led by the Institute for Educational Leadership, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Rural and Community Trust. It will work with Literacy Community Action Teams from the communities served by 13 local educational authorities (LEAs) serving 335 teachers; 83 paraprofessionals and 3991 students. In each community, LIREC will ensure that students have access to books that are appropriate, engaging, and of interest at both home and school; develop teacher expertise in the research-based strategies for supporting literacy learning; create and implement a Community Literacy Plan; and create a summer learning lab that provides not only research-based instructional support for at-risk, PS-3 students and also advances teachers’ learning through peer observation, collaborative planning and reflection, and systematic evaluation by an external literacy expert. Throughout the year, LIREC will provide intensive professional development onsite and online in conjunction with local communities of practice in which teachers will have dedicated time to participate.

Save the Children
PR/Award # S215G140058

Save the Children (STC) is a leading national nonprofit organization creating lasting change for children. STC will partner with Reach Out and Read (ROR), a national nonprofit of medical providers who promote early literacy, to launch the Building Child Centered Communities in Rural America project. The Project will adopt a holistic approach to literacy in 30 rural schools where the Partners will work to surround children with three critical interconnected community supports targeting home, school, and community. The expected impact of the Project is for children who reside in the targeted rural communities to learn and develop in supportive, healthy, literacy-rich environments with active and sustained support from their parents, caregivers and community. Project Activities include: 1) building home libraries through Early Steps to School Success (Early Steps) program and ROR; 2) conducting literacy-focused parent-child events by bringing ROR physicians to Early Steps’ parent-child groups; 3) increasing school libraries’ technology resources with books, tablets, and eBooks; 4) providing training and technical assistance to build local capacity; 5) the development of a Community Literacy Asset Map; and 6) strengthening home-health linkages through physicians including the ROR model into regular pediatric checkups from ages 6 months through 5 years.

Illinois:

East St. Louis School District # 189
PR/Award # S215G140024

The Reading and Lifelong Learning Innovations (RALLI) program is a fundamental shift in the way literacy education will be conducted in East St. Louis, combining well-researched and state-of-the-art technology for instruction, high-impact professional development, community literacy resources for entire families, book distribution activities, and lifelong learning strategies from kindergarten to fifth grade. RALLI is meant to connect students to a brighter future for literacy and future education. The programs objectives follow:

  1. Promote daily family literacy activities by parents sharing conversations with their child, reading together every day, and writing
  2. Provide K-5 students with a rigorous Common Core State Standards-aligned curriculum for to increase academic achievement by one grade level by emphasizing the Big Five (phonics, fluency, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension) and the Daily Five Framework (reading to self, reading to others, listening to reading, vocabulary and writing).
  3. Design a modern technologically advanced media center with trained librarians, student friendly digital tools, and modern storytelling to encourage students to become lifelong readers and express themselves in new and innovative way

Waukegan Community Unit School District 60
PR/Award # S215G140082

Waukegan Community Unit School District 60, a district with low reading achievement and a high percentage of English Language Learners, proposes to implement Ladders to Literacy, an Innovative Approaches to Literacy program in Waukegan, Illinois. This program aims to improve school readiness and subsequent academic success in language arts and literacy. We will introduce new print and eBook-based curriculum that is aligned to Common Core State Standards, provide coaching and development for our teachers, and provide parents with the skills to help their children achieve and improve their own literacy and language skills.

Louisiana:

Orleans Parish School Board
PR/Award # S215G140129

Orleans Parish School Board’s (OPSB, a high-need LEA as defined by the ED Census list) proposed project, Literacy for Life (FL), will take a multi-faceted approach to capacity building in order to significantly improve and expand literacy activities and services (Absolute Priority) to target the specific needs of our chosen student population, their parents and school staff. OPSB’s Strong Theory of Change (represented in its Logic Model) is: “Differentiated literacy interventions, supported by intensive job-embedded teacher professional development, parental involvement, rigorous texts delivered in print and via technology and connections with library resources will lead to improvements in literacy outcomes and student ELA achievement for Pre-K through Grade 10 students.” The project utilizes RtI strategies at all grade levels and focuses specifically on improving outcomes for Tier II and III students; What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviews cited Strong Evidence of success in using RtI for Tier II literacy intervention based on eleven studies that met WWC standards or met WWC standards with reservations according to the WWC IES Practice Guide “Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: RtI and Multi-Tier Interventions in the Primary Grades.” Six high-need schools will be project sites: collectively they serve 2,780 students, 2,780 – 5,560 parents/guardians and 299 school faculty and staff members. The project design includes the eight Best Practices cited in the 2013 Library of Congress Literacy Awards. Effective integration of technology into all aspects of literacy teaching and learning and effective parents/family engagement are key elements of the project.

Sabine Parish School Board
PR/Award # S215G140143

In a state with one of the highest child poverty rates, Louisiana’s students are among the most disadvantaged in the nation. Sabine Literacy Legacy represents Sabine Parish’s plan to effectively ensure these children receive effective literacy instruction. Built upon research-based best practices and modeled after the districts’ Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy grant, Sabine Literacy Legacy will meet the following objectives: 1)Increase the percentage of 4-year olds participating in the project who achieve significant gains in oral language skills, 2) increase the percentage of students in grades 3, 8 and HS who meet or exceed English language arts proficiency on state reading assessments; 3) provide high-quality literacy activities inclusive of parental involvement; 4) Strengthen literacy development across academic content area by providing a wide-range of literacy resources to effectively support reading and writing; 5) Utilize libraries to provide interventions for all readers; and 6) provide resources that support college and career ready academic content standards. Activities include distributing free books to children and their families, providing high-quality literacy activities, providing meaningful opportunities for parents to become engaged, increasing access to both print and electronic literacy resources, extended and flexible access to library resources, expand and update school library collections with high interest, grade-level text, providing appropriate interventions based on data for all readers, and high-quality professional development for teachers and school staff.

Mississippi:

Corinth School District
PR/Award # S215G140120

The Corinth School District is known within the state of Mississippi as an innovative district. However, in order to prepare out students for the 21st century global marketplace, we must look beyond our state standards and provide exemplary learning experiences to enable them to complete on the larger play field. The school district has demonstrated this commitment by implementing the Cambridge International Assessment System in our schools. The Reading Expands a Community’s Horizons is an aggressive literacy plan that will provide proactive interventions to support student learning before the literacy gap develops. The project will serve 2,635 students at three school sites. Program activities include launching a book distribution, providing high-quality literacy programming through international standards, a personal e-tablet for every student, blending models of intensive professional development for teachers, support to parents, and transforming traditional libraries into modern media centers.

Greenwood School District
PR/Award # S215G140100

Located in the Mississippi River Delta, Greenwood is a small-town rural community of 15,536 residents and 50.5% of those residents live in poverty. In contrast, 95.68% of the 2,845 GPSD Students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The project will serve all GPSD students, about 450 Head Start children ages 3-5, and 200parents. All six GPSD schools (Bankston, Davis, Threadgill, and W.C. Williams Elementary Schools; Greenwood Middle School; and Greenwood High) and Greenwood’s Gilliam Head Start Center are included. GPSD proposes a comprehensive and coordinated approach to infuse reading into the school experience. The project objectives are as follows:

1.1: Increase annually the percent of 4-year-old children who achieve gains in oral language skills beyond that expected according to chronological ages at pre/post testing,
1.2: Increase the percent of children, who enter Kindergarten demonstrating reading readiness,
2.1: Increase the percent of 3rd graders demonstrating reading proficiency by at least 4
percentage points annually as measured by the statewide testing program,
2.2: Increase the percent of 8th graders who score Proficient or above in language arts on the statewide testing program by at least 2 percentage points annually,
2.3: Increase the percent of high school students who score Proficient or above on the statewide English II testing program by 5% over the grant period,
3.1: Increase school library holdings of print and electronic media to at least 17.5:1, and
3.2: Ensure that, by the end of the grant, every pre-K – 12 and special education classroom has a varied classroom library appropriate to a range of reading abilities and interests, and
3.3: Increase annually the number of parents who self-report visiting the school or public library or check out resources from their school’s parent resource center.

New Mexico:

Three Rivers Educational Foundation
PR/Award # S215G140114

Three Rivers Educational Foundation proposes to implement Building Communities that Support Children’s Reading (BCSCR), which has been collaboratively designed to address the literacy, needs more than 79,000 children in 84 high-needs, high-poverty rural school districts across four states: New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Arizona. BCSCR includes book distribution and a variety of innovative, evidence-based community, parent, and school strategies for improving the literacy outcomes. All districts have poverty rates (according to 2013 Small Area Income Estimate figures) over 25%. Project activities will be carried out by the Three Rivers Education Foundation, Inc., a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, which was founded in 2008 “to more effectively carry out the purposes of supporting public, private, charter, and Bureau of Indian Education schools in New Mexico and elsewhere.” The Three Rivers Educational Foundation has a strong track record of improving the academic outcomes of socioeconomically disadvantaged students attending high-need, high-poverty, rural school districts. Key project activities have been selected to provide sustainable solutions to gaps and weaknesses, maximizing teacher effectiveness, and promoting a community-wide focus on the importance of literacy.

New Jersey:

Camden City Schools
PR/Award # S215G140027

The Camden City School’s innovative literacy program is called HEAR2. The goal of HEAR2 is to expand and enhance the existing HEAR program to further develop and improve literacy skills for participating very young children (infants, toddlers, preschoolers) as well as for adolescent parents and other students in grades 9-12 attending Camden High School and Woodrow Wilson High School. Our proposed HEAR2 program will focus on achieving the following objectives:

  1. To increase the level of engagement between pregnant teens and their unborn child through literacy-related activities that impact positively on infant brain development.
  2. To improve language skills for participating very young children.
  3. To improve language arts proficiency for participating high school students.
  4. To improve school-readiness for participating incoming three- and four-year-olds, particularly in the areas of language, literacy, and technology.
  5. To support attachment, bonding, and communication between participating adolescent parents and their very young children.
  6. To facilitate the opportunity for young fathers on probation or incarcerated in the county jail to participate more in the language learning of their very young children.
  7. To utilize PALS curriculum, journaling, digital storytelling, and the storycore model to teach adolescents how to organize their thoughts to produce narrative.
  8. To increase knowledge of early childhood development, including language acquisition, early literacy, and school-readiness, for: (a) adolescent parents, (b) high school students working with and mentoring very young children, and (c) professional early childhood educators in HEAR2 classrooms.
  9. To increase the knowledge of teachers and parents about how to support their students in these activities.

New York:

Addison Central School District
PR/Award # S215G140095

The Addison Central School District’s Read 2 Learn (R2L) project is by proposing a high-quality plan using innovative approaches to facilitate literacy skills development and support reading comprehension. The plan incorporates a framework of program components that show evidence of strong theory in support of achieving project outcomes, supported by scientific research that shows: 1) promoting pre-literacy skills development in non-school settings positively impacts the development of emergent literacy skills; 2) reading ability is reliably linked to exposure to print; 3) the ability to comprehend text of increasing complexity is influenced by background knowledge; and 4) high-quality professional development is essential for school improvement. The R2L project will establish a continuum of literacy skills development supports that include home, school and community.

New York City Department of Education
PR/Award # S215G140077

The Libraries Build Learners (LBL) project will improve the literacy skills of students in grades K-2 by building their prior knowledge through targeted school investment in high-quality library collections, and educator training in how to select informational texts from these collections to build instructional units that impact student achievement. The LBL project will increase student physical and digital access to high-quality resources, encourage independent reading of diverse informational texts to develop prior knowledge, and increase parental involvement in their child’s literacy development. The project will target 20 schools in high poverty areas of the Bronx and Kings (Brooklyn) counties to reach approximately 6,000 students. The LBL project builds upon successful professional learning workshops and the work of multiple committed partners – the New York Public Library, Queens Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and the New York City Department of Education’s Fund for Public Schools.

Salmon River Central School District
PR/Award # S215G140027

Salmon River is a persistently low-achieving district proposing a comprehensive plan for improving student achievement through the use of high-quality digital tools and materials. The project will also improve the school readiness of young children by distributing books from birth through third grade and providing literacy programming to high-need families, 65% of which are Native American. Enska, or One in the native Mohawk language, will promote collaboration between the school and tribal leaders addressing all four competitive IAL priorities. The project will serve 1471 students and 145 teachers with a scientifically-based research model as documented by an extensive bibliography including: Merchant, G. (2008). Digital writing in the early years. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, & D.J. Leu, (Eds.). Handbook of research on new literacies (pp.751–774). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Schenectady City Schools
PR/Award # S215G140072

The Schenectady City Schools’ program was designed by a committee of staff in consultation with faculty, librarians and community partners from the Schenectady County Public Library and the Capital District Child Care Council. The major program goals include: 1) Increasing literacy skills; 2) Increasing access to quality books supporting literacy development; and 3) Expanding home, school, and community capacity to teach literacy skills. The Program will serve a total of 3,334 school age children including and support to parents and teachers for a two year period.

North Carolina:

Alleghany County Schools
PR/Award # S215G140012

Alleghany C2C (Cradle to Career) will serve approximately 1750 students across each of the four schools (3 PK-8 and one 9-12) within our district and children ages 0-5 throughout the community. We will expand our vision of education from K-12 to Birth to Career by providing a comprehensive program of services that is aligned with the NC Statewide Literacy Plan. Our services will begin with literacy development of our youngest citizens while also improving the content literacy skills needed by our older youth for workforce success. Objectives and activities are representative of research based methods for sustainable reading growth.

Durham Public Schools
PR/Award # S215G140

Durham Public Schools (DPS) is proposing the Project WIN (What I Need) project to serve prekindergarten (PreK) through first grade students at six low performing elementary schools. All schools are Title I schools. As part of the Project WIN project, DPS is increasing access to a wide range of early literacy resources in schools and in students’ homes that prepare young children to read and provide learning opportunities for all participating students by strengthening literacy development across academic content areas and cultures to effectively support reading and writing. DPS is also providing literacy coaching and professional development from the Columbia University Teachers College Reading and Writing Project as well as literacy training for volunteers. DPS plans to incorporate the diverse cultures of our students into reading material and assignments coupled with cultural competence training to promote social/emotional skills and higher levels of academic achievement through increased cultural understanding and student confidence.

Winston Salem/Forsyth County Schools
PR/Award # S215G140121

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS) project Reading Railroad (RR) will focus on the following goals: Goal 1: Increase the literacy skills of elementary students through the implementation of a comprehensive plan to promote literacy development which includes book distribution and childhood literacy activities. Goal 2: Build the efficacy and leadership capacity of the school librarian and other key staff. Goal 3: Improve the quantity and quality of print and electronic literacy resources at target schools’ media centers; and Goal 4: Increase family engagement in literacy activities, including the use of personalized learning technology tools (E-Readers). Objectives focus on: Increasing support for family engagement and promoting literacy activities in the home. Objectives are explained fully in the “Quality of Project Design.”

Ohio:

Gallia-Vinton Educational Service Center
PR/Award # S215G140032

The Gallia-Vinton Educational Service Center, Gallipolis City Schools, and Wellston City Schools are applying for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant to improve the student achievement in Appalachian Southeastern Ohio. Three elementary buildings, one middle school building and one high school building in Gallia County, Ohio, and one elementary, one intermediate, one middle school and one high school building in Jackson County (Wellston), Ohio, are the sites to be served with the plan. Approximately 3500 students and 175 staff members will benefit by participation in the program per year. The economically disadvantaged students (48.4%) and Students with Disabilities (20.6%) are the groups of particular focus. The districts’ Learning Express – Welcome Aboard plan is focused on improving achievement by mitigating barriers that exist in the high need schools. Program objectives include:

  1. Increasing the number of books/resources in libraries
  2. Promoting student access to literacy
  3. Providing digital resources to teaching and learning
  4. Supporting teachers and students in the learning process
  5. Equipping teachers with knowledge to elicit improvement

The two most critical activities to be implemented are improving access to print and providing extended time for students to utilize the materials. The IAL will allow the collaborating districts to greatly improve their library collections and the districts will facilitate students using the libraries for an additional 240 hours per year. The capacity

Oklahoma:

Crutcho School District
PR/Award # S215G1400037

The Crutcho School District in Crutcho, Oklahoma OK is applying for an Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant in conjunction with Rose State College, in Midwest City, Oklahoma. Crutcho is a small PreK-8th grade school located in an economically deprived community on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. 47% of children ages 5-17 live in a family that is below the poverty level. The district is identified as a high need district. During the 2013 school year, the district received a grade of F and is a priority school.Crutcho School will utilize Quantum Learning, a non-profit organization providing training in literacy building techniques throughout the nation. Rose College project personnel will come to Crutcho campus to offer workshops using STEM related activities to encourage, motivate and inform students about possible careers in STEM related career fields.

Maryetta School District
PR/Award # S215G140045

Maryetta School District is located near the end of the “Trail of Tears” in Adair County’s “Green Country,” a very rural, economically depressed area of Northeastern Oklahoma. Maryetta is planning to improve literacy achievement for 624 students (grades K-8th) through the intense Reading Every-day for Academic Development (iREAD) Project. Project objectives and activities support innovative programs that promote early literacy for young children, motivate older children to read, and increase student achievement by using school libraries, distributing free books to children and their families, and offering high-quality literacy activities and innovative technology tools.

Pennsylvania:

School District of Philadelphia
PR/Award # S215G140141

The School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest public school system, has proposed a project named “Building Bridges with Books – Uniting Schools, Public Libraries and Families” in response to USDE’s Innovative Approaches to Literacy program. This program, which is supported by evidence of strong theory, is designed for early literacy improvements in high-poverty, low achieving to devise a high quality plan for innovative approaches to literacy that includes book distribution, access to digital tablets with e-books that are aligned with the District’s curriculum and childhood literacy activities. The program model is a partnership with the Free Library of Philadelphia. Students will take field trips to the library, and parents will be engaged at workshops presented at the school and at local libraries. Free Library of Philadelphia staff will work in schools and on the local library levels with parents, students and teachers to help bridge the literacy gap among low-performing, historically disenfranchised students. “Building Bridges with Books’” driving goals and objectives include (1) Improving Student Learning Environments, through the purchase of digital tablets, distribution of books, designation of in-school library space for program activities, bi-weekly trips for students to the Free Library of Philadelphia; (2) Improving Curriculum and Instruction through the implementation of professional development for principals, teachers, and librarians, and through teaching students how to use library resources and conduct research and (3) Improving Family and Community Engagement through professional development for principals, teachers and librarians about the components of literacy and how to work with parents and caregivers on literacy strategies, monthly training sessions for parents, and (3) Improving Family and Community Engagement through professional development for principals, teachers and librarians about the components of literacy and how to work with parents and caregivers on literacy strategies, monthly training sessions for parents at libraries and bi-weekly reading workshop sessions with parents and caregivers at the schools.

Texas:

Elgin Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G140035

Elgin Independent School District (EISD) is a high-need school district located in Central Texas. The district’s catchment area is home to 19,879 residents of which 4,150 are students attending one of five EISD campuses. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, 25.4% of all families living in the school district are living at-or-below the federal poverty level. Due to the insidious nature of poverty, many EISD students are struggling to achieve academic readiness, specifically in the area of literacy. To redress these issues, the EISD is dedicated to improving literacy through the use of evidenced-based practices that more fully utilize campus libraries. Specifically, EISD is proposing to implement a project containing multiple reading/literacy components: (1) Increasing the number of EISD parents who read to their newborn children(modeled after the Reach Out and Read program) by collaborating with local area pediatricians;(2) Increasing students’ interest and engagement in reading by providing each child with a new book each month; (3) Increasing preschool teachers’ use of evidenced-based practices, specifically dialogic reading, via school professional development opportunities; (4) Increasing campus library utilization by enhancing the collection and technology at each campus library; and (5) Increasing the integration of school library resources into the classroom by providing extensive professional development opportunities for all Reading and English-Language Arts teachers. This innovative approach to literacy is entitled Striving Toward Academic Readiness for All (STAR).

East Austin Prep Academy
PR/Award # S215G140030

East Austin College Prep Academy (EAPrep – charter school, LEA) will partner with its parent organization Southwest Key Programs – Community Development Center (El Centro del Familia), the University of Texas Elementary School (UTE), and Austin Learning Academy (ALA), to implement a comprehensive literacy program at five sites. The program is entitled – Project RISE (Reading to Improve Success in Education). In Year 1, Project RISE will serve 1,000 students in 1st-11th grades at EAPrep and in Year 2, 1,200 students in K-12th grade. Each year, the project will serve an additional: 100 children ages 4 – 5 years at the University of Texas Elementary School (UTE); 50 children through Austin Learning Academy; and 100 youth ages 4 – 20 years at SWK’s El del Familia. Over 650 parents will be engaged annually in literacy services at these sites. Collectively, Project RISE will serve a total of 1,900 (Year 1) and 2,100 (Year 2) low-income, minority, at-risk youth and adults. Project goals are to increase the literacy skills of all students, improve academic performance; and create a school wide educational culture and classroom climate that promotes and strengthens literacy across the curriculum and academic content areas.

Harlandale Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G140142

 Harlandale ISD (HISD) is the fifth largest school district among the 13 San Antonio local education agencies, and currently serves 15,305 students in grades Pre-K through 12. HISD’s student population is largely economically disadvantaged (87.7%) with 15.6% of students classified as English language learners, and 58.3% classified at-risk of dropping out, with all 22 HISD campuses designated as Title I schools, based on high poverty schools with students who are behind academically or at risk of falling behind. Harlandale ISD’s Project Literacy: Learn, Love, Live will serve the 13 high-risk, Title I elementary schools in its district. HISD’s Literacy Project proposes to improve literacy skills among elementary-age students, motivate them to develop a passion for reading and writing, and develop life-long literacy behaviors. Partners will include the Mission Public Library, the Pan Am Public Library, and the Bexar County BiblioTech, the Nation’s first all-digital public library. The Literacy Project will provide quality literacy services and activities to 5,800 students in grades 1 thru 5, by expanding existing library book resources, implementing technology and digital tools into libraries and ELA curriculum, engaging parents as active participants in children’s literacy, and providing students with books to take home during school breaks.

Houston Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G140125

Reading Elevates All Learners through Integrated Technology for Youth (Project Reality) is Houston Independent School District’s (HISD) to promote early literacy and prepare young children to read, develop and improve students’ reading ability, increase student and parent access to literacy resources, and motivate older children to read. Project activities will include the following: (1) Professional development (PD) for teachers, librarians, and library staff on integrating differentiated and technology-infused reading instructional strategies, aligned to the HISD curriculum, across  content areas in grades PK to five; (2) Professional development for teachers, in grades PK to five, on Reading and literacy content knowledge, as well as skills and resources needed to a quality learning experience for all participating children; (3) Training for parents to develop their literacy skills to better support the education of their children and increase student academic achievement in Reading, including training for parents on promoting literacy activities in the home setting; (4) Improving the quality of campus libraries to support instruction and learning to meet the needs and demands of the globalized 21st century knowledge-based economy by providing professional development to librarians and library staff, updating the quality, size, and modality of library books and other materials, and expanding access to technology, digital content, and Internet-based resources; and (5) Promoting literacy and recreational reading through community outreach by bringing books to distribute and to check out to children, through a mobile library, at summer camps and community centers that are located in the ten schools’ neighborhoods.

Refugio Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G140130

Refugio Independent School District (RISD), located in Refugio County, is a public school district based in Refugio, Texas. RISD serves approximately 704 students and is comprised of Title I campuses: Refugio Elementary School – serves Pre-Kindergarten – 6th grade; Refugio grades. The proposed enhanced Project RISE! initiative will be implemented in alignment with the following goals and anticipated outcomes:

  1. A minimum increase of 5% of all students will score at proficiency or above on state reading tests annually.
  2. To enhance teacher effectiveness through the use of high-quality digital resources that improve instructional and student assessment practices as demonstrated by a minimum increase of 10% of STAAR Test scores for K-3 students.
  3. To improve school readiness and learning success for high-need Pre-K children in the areas of language and literacy development.

Education Service Center #2
PR/Award # S215G140036

This project is a consortium, with the Education Service Center, Region 2 as lead applicant and three eligible school districts comprising eight elementary/intermediate campuses in two south Texas Counties. The project will serve approximately 3,915 children from Age 2 to Grade 5 at the following public school districts in South Texas: Mathis ISD (Mathis Elementary, EE-Grade 2, 521 students; Mathis Intermediate, Grades 3-5); West Oso ISD (Kennedy Elementary, EE-Grade 2; West Oso Elementary, Grades 3-5); and Robstown ISD (San Pedro Elementary, EE-Grade 3; Lotspeich Elementary, EE-Grade 3; Robert Driscoll, Jr. Elementary, EE- Grade 3; and Solomon Ortiz Intermediate, Grades 4-5). The total served includes 250 teachers, 8 administrators, 8 school librarians or media specialists, and an estimated 4,000 parents.

The proposed project seeks to provide experiences that strengthen students’ reading and writing abilities. The project will create literacy-rich school and home environments through access to highly appealing reading materials on a wide variety of subjects
and in multiple formats along with intentional outreach and education of families. Participating educators will facilitate student technology use that extends beyond typical individual use to interactive and collaborative activities designed to increase student motivation and reading achievement. The project will include significant professional development and collaborative activities to build educator capacity to support student reading and writing achievement and increase parental involvement. The school library program will serve as the center of the literacy nexus and provide a model of contemporary digital literacies.

Washington:

Children’s Reading Foundation
PR/Award # S215G140009

Children’s Reading Foundation®, a national not-for-profit organization, is to ensure all children read at or above grade-level by third grade. Our focus is on 1) engaging families and caregivers in the literacy development of their children from birth through the primary grades, and 2) supporting schools and communities to increase student achievement through strong literacy skills. The Children’s Reading Foundation has developed and implemented a range of evidence based programs to strengthen young readers through interactions with caring adults, high-quality literacy activities, and access to resources, such as libraries, book ownership and parent education. Our ongoing “Read with a Child” campaign encourages reading aloud with children 20 minutes every day. There are 23 Children’s Reading Foundation affiliates serving regions in 15 states. We also have agreements with 122 school districts and community agencies
to implement our programs in 24 states.

Wisconsin:

Milwaukee Public Schools
PR/Award # S215G140087

The Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Focus on Literacy Foundations (FLF) project will provide a variety of coordinated, high-quality activities to improve literacy skills for students in grades four-year-old kindergarten (K-4) through third grade at four high-need MPS schools. The proposed FLF project will include: Response to Intervention, including the use of technology for intervention support; Professional Learning Communities; and family and community involvement opportunities, including book distributions to expand home libraries (Absolute Priority, Competitive Preference Priority 1, 2, and 3). The project will target approximately 1,400 K4-3rd grade students at four MPS schools. The four targeted schools are all low-achieving schools that serve economically disadvantaged children in grades K4-3. The proposed FLF project will enhance local efforts to promote early literacy, develop children’s reading ability and motivate children to read through research-based strategies.

2013 Awards

Project Abstracts

Texas:

Poteet Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G130159

Poteet Independent School District (located in Poteet, Texas) has developed an Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant that is designed to increase access to a wide range of literacy resources (both print and electronic) that prepare young children to read and provide learning opportunities to all participating students.  High-quality childhood literacy activities will be coupled with meaningful opportunities for parental engagements including teaching and encouraging parents to use literacy resources effectively and to read books to their children during their early years.

The project seeks to strengthen literacy development across all academic areas by providing literacy resources spanning a wide range of both complexity and content to effectively support reading and writing.  The project will offer appropriate educational interventions for all readers with support from school libraries.  Additionally, the project seeks to foster collaboration and joint professional development opportunities for teachers, school library personnel and school leaders with a focus on using literacy resources effectively to support reading and writing as well as academic achievement.  These literacy-rich academic and enrichment activities and services are aligned with the Texas college- or career-ready academic content standards and the comprehensive statewide literacy plan.

Lake Worth, Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G130158

Lake Worth Independent School District proposes Project READER (Research-based Evidence for Accessing Digital Enhanced Reading) to develop and improve literacy skills for students, help all students meet challenging state academic achievement standards, integrate advanced technologies, deliver scientifically valid researched-based instruction, and extend library media center operating hours to improve local results of teaching and learning in all content areas. Project READER will serve approximately 720 students in grades three – six in two schools – 58% Hispanic, 10% with disabilities, 19% English Language Learners and 79% economically disadvantaged.

The students and parents will learn to access digital reading material for free through activities in conjunction with the school and public library systems. The students will increase their vocabulary and comprehension skills not only in the reading classroom, but in all core content areas through the incorporation of digital technology. The students will use digital technology to create interactive vocabulary lessons according to the research of Bos and Anders (1990) and reteach daily concepts which will be posted to the school webpage, Facebook, or Twitter.

 

2012 Awards

Project Abstracts

Alabama:

Lowndes County Public Schools
PR/Award # S215G120161

This collaboration is between two school districts, Lowndes County Schools and Perry County Schools, located in the Black Belt region of central Alabama. There will be a total of eleven schools served, seven schools in Lowndes County Public Schools and 4 schools in Perry County Public Schools. Total number of students to be served is 3,808. The goals of this project are to facilitate a culture of literacy and transform the school libraries into centers of learning for students and their families and teachers.

Alaska:

Kashunamiut School District
PR/Award # S215G120151

The school district will implement a two-year comprehensive, culturally appropriate literacy program which will expand student (K-12) access to, and interest in, print and digital media; focus on early literacy for students PK-3; provide teachers with ongoing support through targeted literacy
professional development as well as expanded access to cross-curricular print and digital media resources; and involve parents in early learning initiatives, both in school as well as in the home.
The high poverty rate (42.4%) in this native village limits opportunities to support the children but also limits their exposure to the outside world.

Arkansas:

North Little Rock School District
PR/Award # S215G120245

The North Little Rock School District proposes the Book Nook Project to engage students with technology and distribute some 1,500 titles through the use e-books by giving each student their own Nook Tablet for school or home use. The project’s primary goal is to improve literacy skills and scores utilizing technology by providing continuous access to books and other media. To achieve this goal, the objectives are for project participants to: increase time spent reading; have an increased motivation to read; use e-reader devices for other research; gain confidence in using technology for learning; read an increased variety of texts; access and use a variety of e-reader sources; engage with family in the use of e-reader devices for learning; and gain an improved attitude toward reading. The district will target 2,100 tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade students at two campuses: North Little Rock High School West and North Little Rock High School Sophomore Campus.

California:

Corning Union Elementary School District
PR/Award # S215G120064

This early intervention project addresses the early language and literacy skills of preschool through third grade. CLIP is a 12-week, research-based intervention consisting of explicit, corresponding classroom and parent-child interactive literacy components. Both the in-classroom intervention and Books and More book distribution program follow a detailed sequence of skill development activities that address the oral language and early reading skills needed for students to become successful readers. CLIP also provides intensive, on-going professional development.

Seeley Union School District
PR/Award # S215G120146

The district, in partnership with Westmorland Union School District, Meadows Union School District, United Families and Naval Air pre-schools, the Imperial County Office of Education and the Imperial County Free Library propose a project called The Future is Bright Literacy Project for families in the communities of Seeley, Westmorland and Meadows. This project aims to improve literacy in students, families, and the community. Partnerships will collaborate and support this project in delivering services to rural areas addressing literacy needs of students and families. This project will target children ages 0 to 14, pre-kindergarten through 8th grade, totaling approximately 1,300 children. A triad of cohesive capacity building will be focused on schools, communities and parents each being provided with the support and training necessary to increase literacy, student achievement and motivation. Our partnership will work towards increasing literacy through research based professional development in literacy and parent involvement, providing literacy coaching to all teachers via classroom observations, feedback, modeling, lesson design and lesson study, development of effective reading intervention programs, providing parent support and training increasing literacy in the home, enhancement of library services, literacy activities, and technology for increasing literacy for K-8 students.

District of Columbia:

Children’s Defense Fund
PR/Award # S215G120034

Children’s Defense Fund, a national non-profit organization and fiscal agent, in partnership with East Baton Rouge Parish School System, a large, urban Louisiana district serving more than 42,000 students in 85 buildings and Marlboro County School District, a smaller, rural South Carolina district serving over 4,400 students in nine buildings, proposes the PEAK project. It is a multi-layered project with services designed to prepare: young learners (ages 3 and 4, K – 2), upper elementary learners (grades 3 – 5), intermediate learners (grades 6 – 8), and adolescent learners (Grades 9 – 12) to enter the next level of education with the skills needed to be successful readers and students.

Eagle Academy
PR/Award # S215G120017

This program will improve parent and family engagement; support effective teachers and administrators; improve early learning outcomes; support the needs of students with learning disabilities; increase teacher and school knowledge and productivity, and provide access to tools which improve home/school instruction and coordination among stakeholders.

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc.
PR/Award # S215G120028

This project proposes to improve the performance of participating K–3 students on early reading assessments; increase the oral language and pre‐literacy skills of participating preschool children; increase the percentage of participating students who meet or exceed proficiency on the state English language arts assessments in grade 3; increase the use of data and data analysis to inform all decision making in participating schools and classrooms; increase the implementation of effective literacy instruction through the Let’s Talk About It! Oral Language Reading & Writing Program; and increase the exposure to informational texts in accordance with the new Common Core State Standards by the use of InfoPairs and nonfiction guided reading kits.

Florida:

School Board of Polk County, Florida
PR/Award # S215G120173

This project proposes to supply students with up-to-date library materials, expand family Internet access, extend library hours and outreach, and deploy certified school librarians to neighborhoods in poverty to help parents engage in fun and developmentally appropriate literacy activities with their children. Goals: Increase academic achievement at four low-performing schools; create a system of library outreach that helps to shift the school’s instructional practice to work with family assets rather than focus on deficits, and demonstrate parent assets that can be mobilized for natural learning.

Georgia:

Boys & Girls Clubs of America
PR/Award # S215G120193

This program will support K-3rd grade struggling readers in reaching reading proficiency through support in three spheres, school, community and family. The school sphere will provide intervention through one-on-one tutoring. The community sphere will provide supplementary reading sessions three times per week after school. The family sphere will include regular contact with parents to increase their skills in supporting their child’s education. Activities of the SPARK program will focus the project towards meeting long term outcomes which are greater student achievement gains, improved regular-school-day attendance, and improved student and family home literacy behavior.

Illinois:

East Saint Louis School District 189
PR/Award # S215G120112

This project will support the Get Ready, Get Set, Go Read initiative. The overall goal of the Get Ready, Get Set, Go Read initiative, which will serve 1,751 children at 7 elementary schools, is to improve the reading skills and academic improvement of underperforming students at these elementary schools. The project activities are based on the evidence-based Read Well program, which has been empirically shown to improve student literacy (Florida Center for Reading Research). Long-term project aims to improve student grade point averages; increase student speaking, listening, reading and writing skills of participants; improve teacher knowledge and skills to support childhood literacy; and increase parental involvement in childhood literacy efforts.

Indiana:

Charter for Accelerated Learning DBA C.A.Tindley Acc. School
PR/Award #215G120090

The HELP Literacy plan’s goal is to improve language arts and reading achievement to grade level in 3rd, 8th, and HS, leading to increased graduation rates. Objectives include steps to increase pupils’ early learning literacy skills and opportunities. These opportunities will be supported with weekly take-home libraries demonstrations for parents on reading to their children, appropriate classroom libraries for guided reading, and professional development on data-driven decision making for staff to develop culturally-appropriate cross-curricular lessons.

Kansas:

West Elk School District 282
PR/Award # S215G120032

This program purports to improve classroom literacy instruction through the use of technology; improve teacher rapport through differentiated instruction; increase teacher knowledge in literacy; increase parental involvement through targeted, district specific trainings; expand the Parent As Teachers program within four districts; increase children’s access to books within the home; increase student literacy achievement: increase middle and high school access to career and college-ready programming; and increase access for four school districts in acquiring and utilizing the Study Island program to increase literacy.

Kentucky:

Corbin Board of Education
PR/Award # S215G120044

This program proposes to improve reading/language arts and other content areas on state assessments, improve daily attendance and circulation counts, and increased student use of the library and its collections. The goals to be obtained by 2013 are for the number of students scoring at the novice or apprentice level on state assessments will decrease by 50% and 25% participant increase in library visits and the number of titles checked out. Aligned curriculum documents will be developed by school system staff.

Todd County Board of Education
PR/Award #S215G120063

The district will take 13,100 Steps to Literacy through this program. The title of the project comes from the number of books to be distributed to newborn, preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students over two years. Each child in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade will receive ten books each year. The books will be distributed through the classroom and will include tips for parents and a newsletter with upcoming events. The project objectives are to increase the number of books children have in their homes; provide a quality preschool reading readiness curriculum, which focuses on language, vocabulary, and communication in the preschool program; encourage parents to read and discuss books with their children; provide high quality technology in order to motivate and engage readers; update the library software and collection with trade books, bilingual books, and eBooks to reflect the interests and needs of the schools; and enhance the professional growth of teachers and media specialists.

Louisiana:

Raising A Reader National Office
PR/Award # S215G120141

The goal of the proposed project is to engage high-need children and their families in a regular routine of shared book reading at home. This goal will be accomplished through the delivery of Raising A Reader (RAR), an evidence-based early literacy and family engagement program. Objectives are to: 1) deliver high-quality RAR to 20,000 children in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten (ages 4-6), in or near high-need LEAs with enhancements to support school libraries; 2) coordinate/align RAR with existing resources and plans at the school, LEA, and state level, and 3) evaluate RAR’s effects on family literacy behaviors and children’s early literacy outcomes and measure and improve effectiveness of RAR delivery. The expected outcomes of the project are increased access to books at home, increased frequency and interactivity of shared reading at home, increased family library-going behaviors, and gains in children’s oral language skills.

Mississippi:

McComb School District
PR/Award # S215G120104

The project will serve a total of 3,200 participants. This project proposes a comprehensive and coordinated approach to infuse reading into the school experience. The objectives are to annually increase the percentage of 3- and 4-year-old children who achieve gains in oral language skills, increase the percent of children who enter kindergarten demonstrating reading readiness, increase the percent of 3rd- and 8th-grade students who score Proficient on state language arts tests, increase the percent of high school students who score Proficient or above on state English II subject area testing, increase school library holdings of print and electronic media to 18:1 or better, ensure that every K-12 and Special Education classroom has a classroom library, and increase the number of parents who visit the school or public library with their child.

Starkville School District
PR/Award # S215G120138

The Starkville School District (SSD) serves a population of over 4000 K-12 students at 4 locations and 125 children in a fee-based preschool. Less than half of its students perform proficient or above on state language arts tests. Therefore, the district is proposing Reading to Succeed which is designed to address the literacy needs of children, birth through 12th grade. This project is based on the following research: M.D.R. Evans, et al “Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility Volume 28, Issue 2, June 2010, Pages 171–197.

Vicksburg-Warren School District

PR/Award # S215G120035

This district proposes a program for four-year-olds to achieve 20% increase in oral language, increase parent participation in early literacy programs, and provide current high interest text supporting instruction across academic content areas that will increase circulations by 10%. Goals: Flexible library hours are planned to increase access to high interest holdings and technology to support current evidence-based literacy programs aligned with Mississippi’s State Literacy Plan. Additionally, a community collaborative with child-and-family serving entities serving zero-four year olds will increase oral language development through free book distribution and parent training to increase percentage of children entering kindergarten with pre-literacy skills. Library/Media Specialist will participate in collaborative professional development with content area teachers to integrate informational skills into literacy development across academic content areas.

Missouri:

Board of Education of the City of St. Louis
PR/Award # S215G120048

This project will engage St. Louis Public School students in kindergarten through 2nd grade (K-2) and their parents in a two-year project designed to develop a deep love for reading, increase access to high-quality literacy resources in the elementary library media center and the classroom, integrate digital learning technologies into the literacy curriculum, and build strong literacy-related connections among the classroom, the library media center, and the home. The project will be implemented in 16 of the district’s lowest performing elementary schools, impacting approximately 2,800 high-need children. Committed partners will include the Saint Louis Public Library and the St. Louis Public Schools Foundation. The proposed work is supported by research including: Larson, Lotta C. “Digital Readers: The Next Chapter in EBook Reading and Response,” The Reading Teacher, 64(1), p. 15, 2010; Maynard, S. “Can Electronic Textbooks Help Children to Learn?,” The Electronic Library, 23(1), p. 103, 2005; and others.

Parents as Teachers Nation Center
PR/Award # S215G120007

This program proposes to demonstrate the impact of Parents as Teachers Program and Imagination Library on children’s oral language and emerging literacy. Goals: Increase in Parents’ frequency of language and literacy-promoting behaviors (reading to children, use of rhymes and songs, word play games, asking open ended questions, extending conversations), number of children with possible language delays identified through hearing screening and referred for further evaluation, parents’ increase use of library resources, children’s oral language at age 4, children’s knowledge of books and print, and number of age appropriate books in the home.

School District in Kansas City Missouri
PR/Award # S215G120155

The Kansas City Missouri School District, in partnership with the Kansas City Public Library System proposes the Literacy Now Project as an innovative approach to literacy. The project will serve students, parents and teachers throughout the district in a well-managed, collaborative effort, unifying current initiatives to focus on literacy development. Project participants will engage in several activities designed to meet the project’s two goals.

New Jersey:

Bridgeton
PR/Award # S215G120039

The Bridgeton School District’s Innovative Approach to Literacy (IAL) is to partner with the American Reading Company to provide a pre-school through grade twelve “just right” reading program for all students and their families. Additionally, the district will collaborate with the Tri-County Gateway Community Action Agency in their activities through their Family Success and Early Childhood Centers. The Bridgeton School District will implement a literacy program for two early childhood centers ages infant to three, the district and one community based pre-school for children age 4, kindergarten students district-wide, and grades 1-2 district wide. A total of approximately 2,775 children from birth to 8 years old will be impacted by the IAL grant by June 2014. Book distribution will be through the classroom library program design of the American Reading Company (100 Book Challenge) that challenges the students to read at their “just right” level in school and at home.

Camden City Board of Education
PR/Award # S215G120009

The goal of HEAR is to improve literacy skills for high-need very young children (infants, toddlers, preschoolers), adolescents in grades 9-12, and adult fathers of young children through the implementation of both proven and innovative approaches to strengthening language development, reading, and writing. The project will serve an estimated 244 participants including children, adolescents, and fathers of young children in the VOA reentry halfway house. Objectives include: Increasing engagement among adolescent pregnant mothers in literacy-related activities proven to impact the unborn child; improving language skills for participating very young children; improving language arts proficiency for participating high school students; and improving school-readiness for participating incoming three- and four-year-olds, particularly in the areas of language, literacy, and technology. The project also supports attachment, bonding, and communication between participating adolescent parents and their very young children, and facilitates opportunities for fathers on probation living in a VOA halfway house to participate more in the language learning of their very young children. HEAR will use literacy learning activities to address grief and loss experienced by participating adolescents, and to increase the knowledge of early childhood development, including language acquisition, early literacy, and school-readiness, for adolescent parents and high school students working with very young children.

New York:

Addison Central School District
PR/Award # S215G120220

This project is designed to increase literacy skills, improve students’ reading comprehension, motivate children to read, and support students’ achievement of the new Common Core Standards. Goal: Students will increase their ability to read with understanding through age-appropriate development of literacy skills that support reading comprehension; students will have increased access to informational text, in multiple formats, appropriate for their age and skill level both in school and at home, and teachers will increase their knowledge and skills for using instructional strategies that foster the development of reading comprehension.

The Books for Kids Foundation
PR/Award # S215G120241

Books for Kids will extend and provide more intensive programmatic support to improve preschoolers’ oral language development and academic vocabulary. It proposes to build on previous relationships with four State supported preschools in which libraries have been established. Books Aloud! is a unique program that has shown significant improvement of language and literacy skills through a randomized controlled trial involving 500 Preschoolers who come from high-need circumstances. This project will use this study as its guide for development.

McGraw Central School District
PR/Award # S215G120085

McGraw Central Schools will enact a high quality plan for innovative approaches to literacy including book distribution and childhood literacy activities birth through Grade 3. This plan will integrate an array of information technologies, to improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness. The project will: 1) enhance reading readiness of children ages 0-5 years; 2) distribute books to children from birth to 8th grade; 3) provide high quality childhood literacy activities with meaningful opportunities for parental engagement; 4) adopt the Big 6 and Super 3 models for teaching and reinforcing research, problem solving, and writing processes; 5) extend formal reading instruction beyond 6th grade using a researched-based approach (Scholastic READ 180) to ensure that instruction is targeted to student needs, that assessment informs instruction, and that students have ample opportunities to read and discuss reading; 6) develop a collection of high-interest, middle-level texts as well as periodicals, non-fiction e-books, leveled paperbacks and audio-books to encourage student engagement; 7) provide professional development for school staff.

North Carolina:

Beaufort County Schools
PR/Award # S215G120052

The district will take 13,100 Steps to Literacy through this program. The title of the project comes from the number of books to be distributed to newborn, preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students over two years. Each child in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade will receive ten books each year. The books will be distributed through the classroom and will include tips for parents and a newsletter with upcoming events. The project objectives are to increase the number of books children have in their homes; provide a quality preschool reading readiness curriculum, which focuses on language, vocabulary, and communication in the preschool program; encourage parents to read and discuss books with their children; provide high quality technology in order to motivate and engage readers; update the library software and collection with trade books, bilingual books, and eBooks to reflect the interests and needs of the schools; and enhance the professional growth of teachers and media specialists.

Ohio:

Cleveland Municipal School District
PR/Award # S215G120045

This program is designed to improve students’ reading achievement by providing a sequential, structured approach for oral language development in small groups that meet two to three times weekly, while ensuring students meet and exceed the requirements of the Common Core Standards. Goals: Will focus on oral language development using a balanced approach to literacy. 194 teachers and 42 Instructional Coaches will participate in high-quality, targeted professional development designed to enhance their overall skills and to ensure program fidelity in implementation.

Oklahoma:

Cottonwood Public School
PR/Award # S215G120074

This project will provide the needed personnel, books, technologies, curriculum materials, and professional development needed to 1) improve literacy skills among the younger children, 2) close the gaps in academic performance for students in all grades who are performing below level, and 3) motivate older children to read more, and better. Activities include greater one-to-one attention and scientifically based curriculum for preschoolers, a three-tier Response to Intervention strategy for low performers at all levels, use of book giveaways and emerging technologies to motivate students at all levels, inclusion of parents in reading, and coordination of project activities and events with existing reform measures.
Proposed project outcomes include: By the end of this project, the district proposes to have 90% of the pre-school students entering school ready to read, all children reading on level by the time they exit third grade, and students at all levels showing academic gains in literacy, as exhibited by a 20% improvement on state core curriculum tests for students in grades three and eight.

Lane Elementary
PR/Award # S215G120096

This program proposes 50% of the students will gain higher levels of engagement with reading as the variety of Fountas and Pinnell leveled books become available for use at school and home for guided reading groups as evidenced by parent and student surveys; 10% of students will improve to grade-level reading and writing performance as indicated by MAPS and local assessments the first year and an additional 10% the second year; increase 10% of third grade reading and writing performance to grade level as precursor to future academic success; and 4) 50% of low-income families will participate in book giveaway programs to build their home libraries. The program also plans on utilizing scientifically evidence-based information, as well as effective strategies for facilitating the learning for disadvantaged students via the experience of trained literacy coordinators and educators. Goals increase in: oral language skills of participating 4 year olds; participating 3rd-grade students who meet or exceed proficiency on State reading or language arts assessments; participating 8th-grade students who meet or exceed proficiency on State reading or language arts and; the percentage of participating high school students who meet or exceed proficiency on State reading or language arts assessments.

Maryetta School
PR/Award # S215G120065

This project proposes to improve literacy achievement through the intense Reading Every-day for Academic Development (iREAD) Project. This is an elementary school district serving 706 students ages three through eighth grade. This project is supported with research from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse.

Oregon:

Lincoln County School District
PR/Award # S215G120074

This 2-year project proposes community partnerships in Ocean Sciences using local resources and contexts to increase reading achievement and 21st century literacy skills of all students. It will also develop strategies to support the Core Standards. The district is located along a 1,000 square mile stretch of the Oregon coast serving 5,000 students. Fifty years of research shows a positive correlation between student achievement on standardized tests and school libraries. Higher achievement is associated with libraries having increased hours, flexible scheduling, higher staffing levels, larger & more current collections accessible via technology, and library-centered and collaborative instruction between school librarians and teachers (NCES, 2007; Scholastic, 2008; Lance & Loertscher, 2005).

Texas:

Chilton Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G120006

This program is designed to increase oral language and pre-literacy skills for children age 0-5; to increase the performance of students in grades K-2 on early reading assessments; to increase the percentage of students who meet or exceed the proficiency level on the Texas STAAR language arts assessment for grades 3-12; to increase the percentage of parents who engage in literacy activities both to improve their own literacy and to improve the literacy of their children, and to expand the capacity of the district to address language learning needs of Spanish speaking families.

Crockett Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G120098

This initiative will support the acquisition of up-to-date library resources; use of technologies to develop and enhance students’ literacy skills; facilitation of Internet links and other resource-sharing networks; professional development for librarians and classroom teachers. The project will improve the literacy skills of the students attending Crockett Independent School District.

The East Austin College Prep Academy
PR/Award # S215G120011

This project is designed to increase oral language and pre-literacy skills of participating preschool children, the performance of students in K – 2nd grade on early reading assessments, increase the percentage of participating students who meet or exceed proficiency on the State English Language Arts assessment in grades 3 – 12, and access to up-to-date high-quality print and electronic media materials for educators, students, and parents of students. This project will provide for current Web. 2.0 technology equipment to build critical thinking, reading, and learning skills of participants; and accessibility to quality print and electronic materials before and after school, weekends, and summer to provide students and parents increased opportunities to participate in literacy/ library activities to reinforce reading.

Houston Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G120194

This project is designed to increase school-readiness for pre-school children; increase student achievement; increase the use of technology to drive achievement, and increase student and parent access to literacy resources. This proposed project will include activities such as staff development on the use of technology and Web 2.0 applications to support the district’s literacy curriculum to improve students’ academic performance in reading. Parents will receive training to promote family literacy and school readiness. In addition the district will update the quality, size, and modality of library books and other materials, as well as expand access to technology resources to support students’ learning. This plan is supported by the study of Meskill, C. and Mossop, J. (2000). Electronic Texts in ESOL Classrooms. TESOL Quarterly. 34, 3:585-592.

Karnes City Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G120084

LEAP will help to ensure all children are school ready by implementing a scientifically-based reading program that increases parents’ efforts to read aloud to their preschool aged children. LEAP will also work with preschool aged students via a book distribution program that will enhance the student’s home libraries and their oral language development. District students in Pre-K-3rd grade will have teachers that are trained to improve the students’ language development via dialogic reading. LEAP will be used to increase utilization of the campus libraries at each of the three school campuses.

Navasota ISD
PR/Award # S215G120226

Project LEADER will focus on providing resources to support literacy rich academic and enrichment activities by enhancing the quality and quantity of resources (print and electronic) in school libraries, increasing access to school libraries, increasing interventions for students to improve literacy, promoting parent engagement, facilitating early childhood literacy development, and fostering collaboration of all staff members through joint professional development. Project LEADER will provide students with increased access to school library materials; a well-equipped, technologically advanced school library; and well-trained, librarians who work collaboratively with teachers in an effort to increase the literacy level of students. The district will achieve this by extending library hours to include at least 30 minutes before school each day, up to two hours after school, hours during the summer months, and at least one Saturday per month.

Nixon-Smiley Consolidated Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G120061

The Nixon Smiley Consolidated Independent School District provides public education for children from the two rural communities Nixon and Smiley, Texas. The district has developed a plan that will: 1). Increase access to a wide range of literacy resources (including print or electronic) that prepare young children to read and provide learning opportunities to all participating students; 2). Provide high-quality childhood literacy activities with meaningful opportunities for parental engagement that includes teaching and encouraging parents to use literacy resources effectively and to read books often with their children in their early life and their early years of school; 3). Strengthen literacy development across all academic areas by providing literacy resources spanning a wide range of both complexity and content (including both literature and informational text) to effectively support reading and writing; 4). Offer appropriate educational interventions for all readers with support from school libraries;
5). Foster collaboration and joint professional development opportunities for teachers, school library personnel, and school leaders with a focus on using literacy resources effectively to support reading and writing as well as academic achievement; and 6). Provide resources to support literacy-rich academic and enrichment activities and services aligned with the Texas college- and career-ready academic content standards and the comprehensive statewide literacy plan.

Refugio Independent School District
PR/Award # S215G120060

RISE! (Reading for Imagination, Success, and Education) will greatly expand services and increase local capacity to our district’s students in grades Pre-K through 8th. Objective include providing professional development to better improve current programs, providing daily enrichment and intervention for grades K-8, access to libraries during non-school hours, and after school and evening student/parent programs and special projects, and increasing long-term success by early intervention by providing technology and literacy programs such as Reading Eggs to daycare centers and Head Start. RISE! will serve 496 PreK-8th grade students in elementary and middle schools if the Refugio Independent School District.

Region 5 Education Service Center
PR/Award # S215G120024

Region 5 Education Service Center is a local education agency serving 30 public school districts. While Region 5 student reading performance is reported above state averages, two rural, isolated districts have significantly lower reading outcomes. This project proposes to create sustainable solutions to literacy challenges in these school districts. Newton Independent School District and Burkeville Independent School District have been targeted for improving student achievement on standardized literacy assessments. A professional learning community, vertically-aligned literacy curriculum, ongoing embedded trainings, restocked school libraries, and evidence-based curricular tools are part of the plan to improve student outcomes. This project was developed around research of D. C. Berliner in the publication Putting Research to Work in Your School. Scholastic. 52-54, 102-111.

Washington:

The Reading Foundation dba Children’s Reading Foundation
PR/Award # S215G120240

The objectives of this project will be to train parents having children age three to five within this LEA, increase the time parents read to their children each day, provide online resources for parents, and provide appropriate books to children from birth through age eight within eligible LEAs. Parent training will occur within the context of READY! For kindergarten classes, parent classes held three times each year focusing on tools and activities that can be used in the home to play with a purpose daily to promote early language development and pre-literacy skills. Parents will also receive training during Read Up summer reading events. These events occur over an eight week period each summer, parents will receive tips on reading techniques and children will receive a new book.

Wisconsin:

Athens School District
PR/Award # S215G120092

This K-12 program will make it possible for 50% of students from low-income families to participate in book giveaway programs to build their home libraries; 2) 75% of students will gain higher levels of engagement with reading as the variety of Fountas and Pinnell leveled books become available for guided reading groups. (Lexile 85% of the books at the school libraries to facilitate this objective.); 3)50% of parents invited to literacy-related educational development activities will participate. Goals: Implementation activities for reading and writing enhancement as well as focusing the students on resources fit for individual reading and writing proficiency. Identification of struggling students and guiding these students to books and resources provided through aforementioned programming.

Milwaukee Public Schools
PR/Award # S215G120025

This project focuses on establishing reading improvement structures that will leverage student achievement in literacy. Using Response to Intervention (RtI), a framework for differentiated instruction, four high-need schools will respond to student learning needs using technology, involving parents, and promoting the love and appreciation of books.

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PR Number

Applicant Name

State

S215G120028

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc.

DC

S215G120034

Children’s Defense Fund

DC

S215G120035

Vicksburg-Warren School District

MS

S215G120065

Maryetta School

OK

S215G120151

Kashunamiut School District

AK

S215G120193

Boys & Girls Clubs of America

GA

S215G120063

Todd County Board of Education

KY

S215G120074

Lincoln County School District

OR

S215G120083

Cottonwood Public School

OK

S215G120084

Karnes City Independent School District

TX

S215G120090

Charter for Accelerated Learning DBA C.A.Tindley Acc. School

IN

S215G120092

Athens School District

WI

S215G120096

Lane Elementary

OK

S215G120098

Crockett Independent School District

TX

S215G120104

McComb School District

MS

S215G120032

West Elk School District 282

KS

S215G120155

School District in Kansas City Missouri

MO

S215G120157

Region 5 Education Service Center

TX

S215G120161

Lowndes County Public Schools

AL

S215G120173

School Board of Polk County, Florida

FL

S215G120006

Chilton Independent School District

TX

S215G120007

Parents as Teachers National Center

MO

S215G120009

Camden City Board of Education

NJ

S215G120011

The East Austin College Prep Academy

TX

S215G120017

Eagle Academy Public Charter School

DC

S215G120024

Education Service Center,Region 2

TX

S215G120025

Milwaukee Public Schools

WI

S215G120220

Addison Central School District

NY

S215G120226

Navasota ISD

TX

S215G120240

The Reading Foundation dba Children’s Reading Foundation

WA

S215G120241

The Books for Kids Foundation

NY

S215G120245

North Little Rock School District

AR

S215G120039

Bridgeton City School District

NJ

S215G120044

Corbin Board of Education

KY

S215G120045

Cleveland Municipal School District

OH

S215G120048

Board of Education of the City of St. Louis

MO

S215G120052

Beaufort County Schools

NC

S215G120060

Refugio Independent School District

TX

S215G120061

Nixon-Smiley Consolidated Independent School District

TX

S215G120064

Corning Union Elementary School District

CA

S215G120085

McGraw Central School District

NY

S215G120112

East Saint Louis School District 189

IL

S215G120138

Starkville School District

MS

S215G120141

Raising A Reader National Office

LA

S215G120146

Seeley Union School District

CA

S215G120194

Houston Independent School District

TX

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Resources

Javits Program Project Director’s Meeting Webinars on December 6, 12, and 13, 2022:

Legislation, Regulations and Guidance

Legislation

Program Authority: Section 4644 of the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA (20 U.S.C. 7294).

The authorizing legislation can be found at https://www2.ed.gov/documents/essa-act-of-1965.pdf
(see pages 295 through 297 of the legislation).

Regulations

EDGAR