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Two speech-language pathologists in Arizona and Michigan were awarded a total of $5.6 million in Early Reading First (EFRF) grants to support local efforts to improve the language and pre-reading skills of preschoolers. The ASHA members were among the 32 research teams that will receive $94 million over the next three years from the U.S. Department of Education.
The ERF program is a competitive grant initiative within the No Child Left Behind Act that will enhance reading readiness for children in high poverty areas and where there are high numbers of students who are not reading at grade level. The grant is designed to transform early childhood programs into centers of excellence and provide high-quality education based on reading research.
Arizona
An Arizona State University (ASU) research team, headed by ASHA member Shelley Gray from the Department of Speech and Hearing Science, has been awarded a $2.5 million grant for "The Tempe Early Reading First Partnership."
Combining research, professional development, and community outreach, the program will help 150 pre-kindergarten children acquire pre-reading and language skills and establish a model that can be used by other schools and districts.
"Three of the grant partners had already worked together on a summer literacy program for young children," Gray said. "This program was so successful that we decided to apply for the ERF Funds and to recruit additional community partners."
The ASU research team will collaborate with the Tempe Elementary School District, Maricopa County Head Start, the Arizona Literacy and Learning Center, and Tots Unlimited, a private preschool. SLP Laura Justice from the University of Virginia is the outside evaluator on this project.
To help preschoolers begin kindergarten ready to read, the project will include extensive teacher training for preschool teachers, teaching assistants, speech-language pathologists, and administrators who will take an ASU class designed for them. SLPs and experienced early literacy mentors will coach the teachers in their classrooms eight hours a week. Teachers will then provide instruction to develop oral language skills and phonemic awareness.
Gray said that the project, which builds on her research in lexical acquisition, "will enable us to expand our research on the identification accuracy and predictive validity of early literacy screening measures."
The children's language and early literacy skills will be assessed at the beginning and end of each school year using standardized, norm-referenced assessments, and will be assessed regularly using curricular assessments. Project participants and controls will be followed for the length of the grant, with the first class followed until they are in second grade.
"This grant will provide the opportunity to determine whether classroom-based teacher training, hands-on mentoring, and language- and literacy-rich learning environment, and a literacy-based curriculum positively affects the early literacy skills of preschoolers from low-income families compared to children who are not project participants," Gray said.
SLPs interested in pursuing ERF grants should spend time reading and synthesizing early literacy research, Gray said "Develop strong partnerships with a variety of preschools in the community as well as other agencies and organizations that are invested in improving literacy."
Michigan
Julie Washington will use a $3.1 million ERF grant to develop centers that focus on all preschoolers, with a specific focus on meeting the needs of children receiving special education services and those who speak English as a second language, and include strong parental involvement.
The "Michigan Preschoolers Acquiring Language and Literacy (MI-PAL)" will serve 593 students annually as a partnership between the University of Michigan, the Ann Arbor Public Schools, Ypsilanti Head Start, and Oak Park Public Schools. Funds will be used for literacy curriculum to help these children develop phonological awareness skills, sight word recognition and oral vocabulary, and write target letters and words. Language is also a central focus for developing strong language skills.
"We're using SLPs in the classroom to support the progress of children with speech-language impairments in the mainstream classroom," said Washington, a research associate professor at the University of Michigan. "SLPs will serve as consultants to all the centers and determine whether children are making progress. If they fall behind, we're ready to address their needs using a three-tiered model for intervention."
Children who are not in special education, but whose language skills are in the low average range, will have an individual classroom plan developed for them as well.
Detroit is home to one of the largest Arabic-speaking populations in the world outside of the Middle East, and also has many children who speak Spanish and Chaldean (a Northern Iraqi language for which there is no written equivalent). Through the skills of an English as a Second Language teacher who speaks English, Arabic, Spanish, and Chaldean, the project will translate materials and provide assessments in the children's native language.
Another component will focus on parents' involvement in literacy development through the use of a nationally recognized curriculum developed by Patricia Edwards, professor of Education at Michigan State University, called "Parents as Partners in Literacy."
"Children who have low literacy skills may have parents who have low literacy skills," Washington noted. "This curriculum helps these parents facilitate their child's reading development, even in the face of their own low literacy skills."
Visit the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education's (OESE's) Web site for more information on ERF, and visit the ERF Awards page for a complete list of the 2004 ERF grant recipients. Or, contact Catherine Clarke at cclarke@asha.org, or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4159.
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