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Striving Readers Act Would Extend Literacy Instruction into Secondary SchoolAugust 10, 2007—Many of the bills recently filed address the issues of middle school as a transitional period in education and how we can stem the tide of losing 6,000 students each day in our nations high schools. One bill introduced earlier this year extends literacy intervention to grades 4-12 and would authorize a substantial new investment of $1 billion by 2012. The Striving Readers Act was introduced by Sen. Sessions [AL] S 958 and in the house by Rep. Yarmuth [KY-3] HR 2289. The last major action on the house bill was when it was referred to the subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness on July 17. The program is similar in structure to Reading First with state grants and subgrants to the LEAs. Specific language in the bill prohibits the federal government from promoting or requiring and specific curriculums. Instead of sanctioning schools that don’t meet reading achievement levels the bill provides support to those schools who have been identified for improvement under NCLB. Schools will qualify and at t he district level the limitations are in Section 6 of the bill. 3) LIMITATION TO CERTAIN SCHOOLS- A local educational agency receiving a subgrant under subsection (a) shall, in distributing subgrant funds under this subsection, provide funds only to schools that both-- (A) are among the schools served by the local educational agency with the highest percentages or numbers of students in grades 4 through 12 reading below grade level, based on the most currently available data; and (B)(i) are identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under paragraph (1), (7), or (8) of section 1116(b) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Some of the permissible activies under this grant would be: (2) PERMISSIVE ACTIVITIES- A local educational agency or consortium that receives a grant or subgrant under this Act may use the grant or subgrant funds to carry out any of the following activities for students in grades 4 through 12: (A) Recruiting, placing, and training adolescent literacy coaches. (B) Providing high-quality professional development for teachers or identifying providers of high-quality professional development for teachers. (C) Connecting out-of-school learning opportunities to in-school learning in order to improve the literacy achievement of the students. (D) Training parents and family members to support the improvement of adolescent literacy, as appropriate. (E) Acquiring academically rich literacy materials that support multiple reading levels and engage the interests of the students. (F) Utilizing technology and purchasing software to improve literacy achievement. (G) Purchasing, implementing, or adapting supplementary literacy interventions for students who are reading or writing below grade level. | ||||
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