On Aug. 27, the Russellville Independent School District was awarded a $665,000 Kentucky Comprehensive Literacy (KyCL) professional development grant to support teacher effectiveness. Russellville was one of only 19 districts across the state awarded this grant. KyCL is a federally funded program that focuses on strengthening teacher practice in reading and writing. It also provides family training and funding for literacy assessments and interventions.
This grant will allow Russellville Independent Schools to build on the reading support at all age and grade levels, including birth to 5-years-old, K to grade 5, and grades 6-12. The district will continue to provide materials and support for parents by partnering with the Family Enrichment Center’s Parents as Teachers (PAT) program, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, and Artful Reading from the Collaborative for Teaching & Learning (CTL).
For grades K-5 and 6-12 multiple strategies will be available to support existing instructional initiatives and will be implemented as appropriate to grade level and content as determined by school administrators as well as our own district-level Literacy Coach. Also included in the grant is funding for professional learning through a partnership with the Green River Regional Education Cooperative (GRREC).
Dr. Steven Moats, Assistant Superintendent/Chief Academic Officer, states “KyCL will allow our schools to continue the work started under other literacy-based grants to establish new strategies and protocols in classrooms and daycares to better align reading and writing across grades and levels. These funds will support the expansion of current school-embedded coaching and modeling frameworks, regional networking for teachers to enrich their own learning, and continued use of professional learning communities that help teachers effectively apply their learning in the classroom
“We are excited about learning together so that we can help our kids become highly skilled readers and writers!”