Reaching All Students Through Language and Literacy

The Reaching All Students Through Language and Literacy project will engage up to 20 buildings and districts in working to improve their literacy instruction for students who were hardest hit by the pandemic-related school shutdowns. These groups include students of color, English learners and students from rural regions of Ohio. The project will focus on improving literacy instruction by drawing on structured literacy approaches along with strategies to improve instruction for the groups listed above. These strategies include understanding language and dialect in the classroom, family and community engagement, and drawing on and building students’ background knowledge and vocabulary to improve reading outcomes.

The two-year project will create a network of buildings and districts who will work together with the assistance of the Department and a managing vendor to engage in the following tasks:

1. Attend monthly network meetings to participate in professional learning and consultation around literacy instruction. Meetings will take place remotely and will typically last 3 hours. There will also be an annual in-person, all-day convening each of the two years of the project;
2. Receive professional learning from nationally recognized experts in literacy, English learners, student culture and dialect, and family and community engagement;
3. Review student and adult data to identify an opportunity for growth related to literacy instruction, especially for the student groups listed above;
4. Plan and implement a project in year two that seeks to address the opportunity for growth. These projects may focus on building educator capacity, improving teaming structures, implementing a multi-tiered system of support and/or family and community engagement.

All participating sites will receive up to $200,000 to cover costs associated with the project described above, along with expenses including stipends, travel, and substitute teachers.

The first anticipated network meeting will take place in October 2022.