KCLC "Striving to be Our Best" Conference A Success

Photo: Dennis Bega, U.S. Department of Education senior advisor, tells conferees that the Kentucky Striving Readers project enjoys a high degree of cooperation and collaboration that is critical to improving education, and is unique among the states.

U.S. Department of Education Senior Advisor, Kentucky Commissioner of Education, Kentucky First Lady Praises Educators for Nationally Recognized Collaboration to Boost Learning for All Students.

On Friday, June 25, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency in Lexington, the Kentucky Content Literacy Consortium (KCLC), kicked off its fifth year of work under a federal Striving Readers grant with its second annual literacy conference for more than 600 Kentucky teachers and school and district administrators participating in the project.  The conference was organized by CTL which serves as a lead partner in the Kentucky Striving Readers project and developed the school-wide Adolescent Literacy Model being implemented under the grant.  

Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear (photo at right) delivered the keynote address in which she emphasized the critical need to remain committed to educational improvement for all students.  Dennis Bega, U.S. Department of Education senior advisor, and Kentucky Commissioner of Education Dr. Terry Holliday were joined in a panel discussion on literacy development policy and practice by Kentucky Striving Readers practitioners Margie Maloney, West Jessamine Middle School assistant principal, and Gwen Wethington, Bullitt Lick Middle School literacy coach. 

In his remarks, Mr. Bega noted that Kentucky’s unique collaboration among practitioners and researchers, teachers and administrators under the Striving Readers grant is effecting positive change that is being recognized at the national level.  Both Mr. Bega and Commissioner Holliday urged the educators in attendance to continue their efforts to implement innovative instructional approaches that improve learning for all students.

The conference featured presentations by literacy coaches, administrators and teachers working in 21 Kentucky middle and high schools.  Designed to support the development of literate learning strategies in all content areas, concurrent sessions focused on literacy integration that applies broad-based literacy strategies across content areas; literacy leadership for school administrators and teacher leadership teams; and literacy technology, emphasizing the use of technology and Web 2.0 applications to support literate learning in all subjects.

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, 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. 

In addition to designing and leading all professional development for the project, CTL staff also train the Striving Readers literacy coaches in partnership with the University of Louisville College of Education and Human Development, which will confer certificates in secondary literacy and leadership upon each coach who has completed training over the course of the project. 

The June 25th conference organized by CTL provided opportunities for teachers, administrators and policy-makers to learn firsthand about the classroom strategies being implemented under the Kentucky Striving Readers grant, with opportunities to explore challenges, successes, and implications for continuing work in the critical area of adolescent literacy.