Kentucky Community and Technical College System

The Collaborative for Teaching and Learning received a grant from the Lumina Foundation of Indianapolis to work with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to develop and implement instructional strategies to boost the literacy skills of community college students. Lumina is a private, independent foundation, dedicated to expanding access and success in education beyond high school.

Many incoming community college students struggle to comprehend and demonstrate knowledge of written content in an academic setting. The Lumina grant enables CTL to work with faculty members of four KCTCS community colleges to help them embed core literacy strategies into coursework across academic disciplines. KCTCS identified the four schools based on data on the institutional focus of each, and the abilities of students served.

In addition, CTL has assisted with the design of literacy courses for first-year community college students to help them develop the skills they need to read and write effectively in an academic environment. Coursework includes strategies for understanding unfamiliar vocabulary, reading for information, note taking, writing for specific purposes, and engaging in discussion about rigorous content. CTL also gathers data and provides evaluation and feedback over the course of the project.