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The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is now accepting applications under the $25 million Striving Readers program. The program seeks to raise the overall level of reading achievement in middle and high schools by enhancing the quality of literacy instruction across all subject areas, providing intensive, targeted interventions for all struggling adolescent readers, and building a strong, scientific research base around specific strategies that improve adolescent literacy skills. To be eligible for a grant school districts must have Title I schools of sixth-grade and above. ED expects to make eight awards, ranging from $1 million to $5 million over a five-year period). A notice of intent to apply was due September 14; full applications are due November 14. ED will conduct a series of briefings on this competition via conference call to clarify the purposes of the program, the selection criteria, and the competition process.
Striving Readers is a new discretionary grant program authorized as part of the 2005 Fiscal Year Appropriations Act under the Title I demonstration authority (Part E, Section 1502 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act, 2001 - PL 107-110). The purpose of the Striving Readers program is to raise the reading achievement levels of middle and high school-aged students in Title I-eligible schools with significant numbers of students reading below grade level. The program supports new comprehensive reading initiatives or expansion of existing initiatives that improve the quality of literacy instruction across the curriculum, provide intensive literacy interventions to struggling adolescent readers, and help to build a strong, scientific research base for identifying and replicating strategies that improve adolescent literacy skills.
For more details, including dates and times of the pre-application meetings, visit ED's Web site. For additional information contact Catherine D. Clarke, ASHA's Director of Education and Regulatory Advocacy, via e-mail at idea@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4159.
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