Literacy

Effective standards-based literacy instruction in every classroom by every teacher is crucial to students’ acquisition of the literacy skills and concepts needed to enable them to effectively navigate the core content and become college and career ready.  If students do not master benchmark literacy skills or demonstrate appropriate “speed of mastery or skill acquisition,” the Positive Academic Services and Supports (PASS) model is used to determine the need for curriculum modifications, skill remediation, student accommodations, strategic interventions, and/or assistive supports or compensatory strategies.

The CTAG model includes a focus on the effective instruction (Tier 1) and intervention (Tiers 2 and 3) processes focusing on phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency and content-related (e.g., in science and history) literacy applications needed for all students from preschool through high school, and how to implement these processes systemically and in an immediate, scaled-up manner across the state. 

The RIDE Reading Intervention Bank and Literacy Matrix, developed during the previous State Improvement Grant (SIG), and other evidence-based literacy interventions are used with struggling readers, including those with disabilities.  The intervention “anchor” for adolescent literacy intervention is the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning’s (KU-CRL) Strategic Instruction Model (SIM).  The SIM involves an integrated set of research-based, instructional “Content Enhancement Routines” (for teachers) and meta-cognitive “Learning Strategies” (for students) that enhance the comprehension and application skills and outcomes for struggling learners, including those with disabilities.

The SPDG provides professional development and technical assistance services in all of these areas.  In addition, through SPDG efforts, a network of literacy specialists across the state is being established to help districts provide strategic and intensive interventions to students who are struggling in literacy.