Early Reading Success Institute Program

Overview of Proposal

The Early Reading Success Grant Program was established by the Connecticut State Department of Education as a result of the enactment of C.G.S. 10-265f, Early Reading Success Grant Program. The purpose of the grant program is for the implementation of a three-year plan to improve the reading skills of students in grade kindergarten to three, inclusive.  The grant program is targeted to two different groups;  (1) an allocation grant to priority school districts; and (2) a competitive grant to provide financial support to school districts with priority elementary schools, K-3.

Connecticut's Public Act 99-227 provided for the creation of the Early Literacy Expert Panel, the preparation of Connecticut's Blueprint for Reading Achievement, The Report of the The Early Reading Success Panel, the development and implementation of the Train the Trainers model and the training for 70% of all K-3 staff in priority schools.

The purpose of the Center for Community and School Action Research (CCSAR)'s participation is to evaluate the implementation of this state-of-the-art literacy initiative to broaden the training of professionals in best practices in reading instruction and to provide a model system of effective teacher training.  The specific focus of this three year reading initiative is on instructing and supporting K-3 teachers in implementing those research-based practices that the Early Reading Success Panel deemed critical to raising student achievement in low-performing schools.   RESCs (Regional Educational Service Centers) will support the districts’ efforts to retrain principals, librarians and 70% of classroom teachers by creating and implementing action plans with each school who participates in RESC training, and on-site help.  

CCSAR's evaluation of the first year examined and documented how the Train the Trainers approach to the implementation of the Early Literacy Success Program was being implemented in selected schools in priority school districts.  The specific goals were to:

• examine the implementation of the Train the Trainers Model in schools in priority districts

• determine the perceptions of Literacy Teams and other staff, and their reactions to the Early Literacy Success Initiative in general, and to the training provided by the RESCs in particular

• determine early impact if any of the Early Literacy Success Initiative as a school and the training to school staff in particular.

The goal of the second year's implementation of the Early Reading Success Institute was to train trainers from each of the priority school districts and then ask those trainers to take that knowledge back to their schools.  The trainers would then train their school literacy teams to apply that knowledge utilizing specific reading strategies as outlined in Connecticut's Blueprint for Reading Achievement, The Report of the The Early Reading Success Panel.  The Blueprint was developed as mandated by Public Act 99-227 and this year each priority school was to be held accountable for implementing Blueprint strategies in their classrooms.

CCSAR's evaluation of the second year documented the continuing implementation and impact of the literacy training and support provided to school staff in each priority district.