A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Kentucky

Team Report

As a result of recent legislation, Kentucky is initiating an Early Reading Incentive Grant program to improve the reading skills of students in the primary program and a Collaborative Center for Literacy Development to conduct research, provide professional development, and disseminate research-based models for improving reading. A steering committee comprised of twelve members appointed by the governor and three members representing the Commissioner of Education, the President of the Council on Postsecondary Education and the Advisory Council to the Department for Adult Education and Literacy is established to advise the Department of Education and the Kentucky Board of Education on the Early Reading Incentive Grant Program. In addition, the Department of Education is developing school-based instructional leaders in reading, content learning networks in reading and a professional development initiative with the Eisenhower Program and other partners. Reading is an essential component of the revised Program of Studies P-12. As one of the five strands of the English/Language Arts curriculum, it is an integral part of each child?s instruction. The Program of Studies includes both explicit skills acquisition and higher-level thinking skills within a literature-rich environment.

A Kentucky Success Story

• One form of professional development that KDE offers local districts is through the release of annotated open-response KIRIS items. Each of these items includes the question, scoring guide, sample student responses at each scoring level with explanations of why they scored at that level, and suggested instructional activities. Two of these items are released at each accountability grade level.
• Kentucky has six projects, funded through the Commission on Community Volunteerism and Service, that work with tutoring children to read. The Kentucky Reads site in Simpson County uses 60 volunteers in five counties. Additional programs include the Eastern Student Service Consortium, Kentucky State University, Lexington Works (Community Action Council), Learn and Serve -- Reading by the River (Casey County), and MSU corps (Morehead).
• The Kentucky Reading Association sponsors the Kentucky Bluegrass Awards. In this program, elementary students read books and vote on their favorites. The authors and illustrators are invited to the commonwealth to receive the Bluegrass Award at the KRA conference and visit local schools. Last year, approximately 2000 students in 25 schools participated.
• Kentucky?s Reading Recovery sites continue to grow. This year, 60 teachers in 41 schools representing 16 districts were tracked by the training site at the University of Kentucky. The number of students served has grown from 121 in 1993-94 to 367 in 1996-97. In addition, a second training site has been started this year in Eastern Kentucky through the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative in Hazard.
• Kentucky is creating a collaborative partnership to systematically develop, implement, evaluate, and support improving students? reading. Collaborative partners include higher education, the Kentucky Department of Education, the Department for Adult Education and Literacy, the Council on Postsecondary Education and schools. This collaborative partnership will impact all who influence and contribute to a child?s success in reading.
• Parent and Child Education Program (PACE) funded through the Cabinet for Workforce Development is offered in 31 school districts across the state. In this program, the parent attends with the child. While parents work on either a GED or remediation of basic skills, early childhood teachers work with children on broad developmental skills, including early literacy, in preparation for school.
• The Franklin County Community Education program has initiated Reach Out and Read (ROAR). This program works with physicians? offices and the local health department by providing reading volunteers in waiting rooms and developmentally-appropriate books to give to children on their well-child visits. By the time children enter school, they should each have a library of 10 books of their own.
• In a pilot program in Butler County, four teachers at Morgantown Elementary School used the Benchmark Word Identification Program for Reading Instruction. Federal work-study students worked as tutors to support the word identification instruction in one-on-one settings. Children at risk of failure in reading received an average of two hours of individual support per week. All children received at least thirty minutes of one-on-one support in reading. Informal analysis of results showed remarkable gains in six months. The gain in reading equivalents was greater than one grade level on the average and greater than two grade levels for word attack.

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