Literacy Grant

		CCLD at UK receives $2.8 million to research federal literacy program

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Chris Doherty (far right) of the U.S. Department of Education celebrates the award of a Striving Readers Program grant with representatives of the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development (CCLD). They are, from left, Jan Carter, CCLD Education Researcher; Janice Almasi, Carol Lee Robertson Professor in Literacy, and Susan Cantrell, CCLD Director. CCLD will receive $2.8 million from the grant to research the effectiveness of the literacy initiative.

By Josh Shepherd

The Collaborative Center for Literacy Development (CCLD) at the University of Kentucky College of Education has received a $2.8 million grant to research the effectiveness of a literacy program to help struggling adolescent readers catch up with their peers.

The award is part of a U.S. Department of Education $16 million educational improvement grant awarded to the Kentucky Content Literacy Consortium. The grant was one of only eight awarded across the country. The consortium will use the funding to implement the Striving Readers Program in seven Kentucky school districts, including 23 middle and high schools across the state. UK’s CCLD is charged with evaluating the program’s effectiveness.

Striving Readers is an intensive intervention program and is part of a federal effort to raise the reading achievement levels of middle and high school-aged students.

The four and a half year grant will include the following Kentucky school districts: Bullitt County, Danville Independent, Eminence Independent, Jessamine County, Pike County, Rowan County and Washington County.

In addition to UK’s CCLD, the Kentucky Content Literacy Consortium consists of the Kentucky Department of Education, Collaborative for Teaching and Learning, and the University of Louisville.