CTL News
CTL and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Can CTL assist schools with implementing improvements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?
Absolutely.
CTL has many years of practical, on-the-ground experience with the design and implementation of proven and innovative preK-16 education improvement efforts. CTL successfully provided training and support for comprehensive school improvement models in more than 450 schools in Kentucky and nationally. These schools showed increased performance overall and in literacy development as compared with other Title I schools. CTL also works with higher education initiatives to see improved results with adult learners as well as assisting middle and high schools develop college-going cultures for at-risk students.
CTL has designed an innovative new approach to adolescent literacy now being tested by the US Department of Education. CTL’s Adolescent Literacy model, described in more detail below, has been successfully replicated in middle and high schools and on college campuses in Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and North Carolina to promote student learning and foster higher levels of achievement. Under a prior federal grant from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, CTL was able to show not only improved reading skills for students in grades 6 and 9, but also improved mathematics performance, since the ability to comprehend challenging concepts and vocabulary depends upon a solid literacy foundation. A strength of the model is that it gives students the literacy skills they need to master challenging content in mathematics, science, social studies, language arts, and visual and performing arts courses.
For More Information
For more detailed information, see CTL Adolescent Literacy Model Program Description. For additional information about how the model has been implemented in various projects, see the linked articles at the bottom of this page.
Contact CTL
To discuss posiible ways CTL can assist your school or district through its Adolescent Literacy Model or other forms of consulting assistance, contact us or email us at info@ctlonline.org.
An Overview of CTL's Adolescent Literacy Model
CTL’s Adolescent Literacy Model has been implemented in 37 middle and high schools and six colleges, and is currently being tested through a US Department of Education Striving Readers research project. It is a cross-disciplinary literacy approach where teachers in all disciplines provide direct instruction on specific literacy strategies, and integrate those strategies into ongoing content instruction for all students. The model's goals are:
- To equip teachers with the skills to provide quality explicit literacy strategy instruction for students, and to successfully integrate those strategies into ongoing content instruction
- To improve the literacy performance of adolescent learners and provide them with better access to and support in ongoing content learning
CTL’s Adolescent Literacy Model focuses on application of strategies within five core sub-domains of adolescent literacy. The model strands are consistent with current research-based recommendations for adolescent literacy and provide a comprehensive approach to literacy instruction across all disciplines: reading comprehension; vocabulary development; academic dialogue; and writing to learn, and to demonstrate learning.
CTL’s Adolescent Literacy Model has a variety of unique strengths:
- It is appropriate for use with English Language Learners (ELL). Research into effective ELL programs demonstrates that cross-content literacy models recommended for use with struggling and proficient learners are equally effective with ELL students, particularly when teachers approach literacy instruction as an “accelerated language” experience
- Strands and strategies are based on solid adolescent literacy research The model includes intensive professional development for teachers where they learn a process for explicit instruction, instructional modeling, and gradual release of strategies to student use
- Schools participate in ongoing job-embedded literacy coaching, on-site and via distance learning technologies
- The model provides an additional learning strand for the development of local literacy coaches, housed in middle and high schools, effectively building school capacity for independent implementation
- CTL provides training and coaching support for both administrative and distributed leadership structures in schools, ensuring commitment on the part of leaders and staff
The information above describes CTL’s general approach to program implementation in schools. We provide customized professional development, co-constructed with client schools. Interested schools and districts can expect to work with CTL prior to implementation to gather and examine data, identify priority areas within the broad model framework, and engage in the design of professional development specifically designed to meet unique needs.
Also see the following for more information on CTL's Adolescent Literacy Model:
Content literacy in higher education
CTL leads two-year Kentucky content literacy initiative
Rejuvenating the Classroom: The Community College Content Literacy Program has some serious fans