CTL Coordinates Literacy for Learning and Life Conference in Lexington

July 15, 2009

The Kentucky Content Literacy Consortium (KCLC), kicked off its fourth year of work under a federal Striving Readers grant with a literacy conference for almost 700 Kentucky teachers and school and district administrators on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 in Lexington Kentucky.

Literacy for Learning and Life featured individual presentations by 24 literacy coaches and 15 teachers working in 21 Kentucky middle and high schools, as well as a keynote address by Dr. Sara B. Kajder (photo at right), assistant professor of English education at Virginia Tech University, and former assistant professor of literacy education at the University of Louisville.  A former middle and high school English teacher, Kajder received the first National Technology Fellowship in English/Language Arts, and is a nationally-known consultant, speaker and author.

The KCLC Striving Readers grant is one of only eight such multi-year grants awarded nationwide by the United States Department of Education, and the only one to focus on a consortium of rural schools.  The goal is to increase student achievement by improving the literacy skills of middle and high school students, including English language learners.  The consortium includes CTL (Collaborative for Teaching and Learning), a Louisville-based non-profit provider of professional and leadership development for educators, Danville Independent Schools as fiscal agent for the grant, the University of Louisville, and the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development at the University of Kentucky, which serves as evaluator for the project.  The Kentucky Department of Education is a supporting partner, helping to build connections between this project and related work statewide. 

KCLC also includes six Kentucky school districts in addition to Danville as partners in the Striving Readers grant:  Eminence Independent, and Bullitt, Pike, Washington, Jessamine and Rowan County Schools.  Each participating school is implementing two programs—the CTL-developed Adolescent Literacy Model, a tested school-wide initiative to boost achievement in all subject areas for all students through improved literacy, and the Learning Strategies Curriculum, a research-based intervention from the University of Kansas for struggling sixth and ninth grade readers.  More than 900 teachers and 13,000 students are participating. 

CTL coordinated the June 17th conference, and designs and leads all professional development for the Striving Readers project.  In partnership with the University of Louisville College of Education and Human Development, CTL staff also train the literacy coaches, each of whom will be eligible to receive a Master’s degree in secondary literacy and leadership from U of L upon completion of 100 hours of training annually over the course of the project. 

The June 17th conference provided opportunities for teachers, administrators and policy-makers to learn firsthand about the classroom strategies being implemented under the Kentucky Striving Readers grant.  Challenges, successes, and implications for continuing work in the critical area of adolescent literacy were explored.

For more information, contact
Amy Awbrey
v: 502.895.9500 x318