Hard work pays off for CTL with new local and national contracts

Photo inset: Dr. Deborah Walker, CTL President and COO (left) and Dr. Linda Hargan, CTL Founder and CEO.

Hard work at the Collaborative for Teaching and Learning over the past several years has resulted in the form of significant new local and national contracts. The categories of new work include professional development, educational program design and evaluation, leadership development, management of the Kentucky Writing Portfolio, and more.

As a first step in reorganization to meet present and anticipated future needs, the CTL Board of Directors voted to change top executive functions to encompass two positions effective April 1, 2006. Dr. Linda Hargan will remain as Founder and Chief Executive Officer and will be responsible for overall organizational direction and budget, acting as a liaison with existing and new partner organizations, representing CTL to local, state and federal audiences, and working directly on selected projects. Dr. Deborah Walker will assume the duties of President and Chief Operating, responsible for day-to-day operations, conceptual direction for new and existing projects, supervision and evaluation of CTL professional staff, development and capacity building for leadership programs, and direct work on select projects. This division of responsibilities will ensure that CTL is able to continue it mission of improving learning for all and maintain its high quality of customized service throughout Kentucky and nationally.

Following is a list of some of the exciting new and continuing projects at CTL.

• CTL is a major partner in a $17 million five-year federal Striving Readers grant. One of only eight such grants awarded nationwide, and the only one to focus on a consortium of rural schools, the funds will enable the Kentucky Content Literacy Consortium to increase student achievement by improving the literacy skills of middle and high school students, including English language learners. 
• CTL will manage Kentucky’s Writing Portfolio under the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) as a subcontractor to Measured Progress, Inc., the New Hampshire testing firm awarded the CATS contract by the Kentucky Department of Education.
• CTL was recently named the principal provider of training for GEAR UP Kentucky, a program of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, part of the national GEAR UP program designed to promote awareness and preparation for postsecondary education among underserved student populations. 
• CTL is a partner in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)-Appalachia, a $26 million, five-year federally-funded consortium that will conduct research to support improvement in student outcomes, help close achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students, and achieve other key goals of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). 
• CTL is a partner in a $2.1 million three-year federal Teacher Quality grant to the University of Memphis, College of Education to implement its groundbreaking Reinventing Teacher Education initiative.
• CTL is working with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to develop and implement instructional strategies to boost the literacy skills of community college students, with work funded by a grant from the Lumina Foundation of Indianapolis. 
• CTL is designing a new evaluation component for the Kentucky Peer Advisor Network (KPAN), a program of Arts Kentucky and the Kentucky Arts Council that provides free, targeted consultation to arts and cultural organizations throughout the state, with work funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. 
• CTL is continuing the development of its new Arts and Literacy Project, designed to integrate the teaching of literacy through the arts, and learning in the arts through literacy development.