“When schools become places for teachers to learn, they also become schools on the way to improvement.” (The Harvard Education Newsletter, 1997) Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education

Adolescent Literacy Matters: Coaching Content Area Teachers Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier Charles F. Kettering PROJECT RAISSE University of South Carolina Victoria A. Oglan, Ph. D. Mary E. Styslinger, Ph. D. Janie Goodman Deidre Clary Elizabeth Holmes

Startling Stats… more than 8 million adolescents are unable to read at grade level more than 70% of high school readers are in need of remedial help to improve comprehension by age 17, only about 1 in 17 seventeen year olds can read and gain information from specialized text 38% percent of students whose reading ability falls two or more grade levels below their actual placement are not provided any special assistance

Startling Stats… cont. middle grades schools spend, on average, US $1.92 per student per year on reading materials other than textbooks—less than the cost of one paperback fewer than 5% reached an "advanced" level across fourth, eighth, and 12th grades reading occupies only approximately 6% of class time in elementary school, 3% in junior high school, and 2% in senior high school

Startling Stats… cont. 55% of students devote no more than three hours a week to class preparation, but 65% of these report getting A's or B's students complete 25% of assigned reading in content classrooms only 3% of eighth graders read at an advanced level Statistics from: NCTE, IRA, National Institute for Literacy, Alliance for Excellent Education, National Center for Education Statistics

Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Reading Assistance Initiative for Secondary School Educators

Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Partnerships: University of South Carolina Arthur Vining Davis Foundation SC Department of Education School District – Lexington One USC Colleges of Arts and Sciences

Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Approach: The approach is to design and offer professional development for teachers that will help them understand the reading process specific to content area reading, develop the knowledge base needed to make informed and effective curricular and instructional decisions about reading, and thereby positively affect student reading achievement.

Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Mission: The mission of the University of South Carolina’s Project RAISSE is to enhance reading achievement and reading instruction in high schools.

Project RAISSE Goals Goal 1: To implement school-based graduate study that enhances the knowledge base of teachers in high school across content areas about reading research, theory, and practice.

Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Graduate Study Fall 2006Spring 2007Fall 2008Spring 2008 EDRD 600 XX EDRD 518 XX EDRD 776 XX EDRD R776 XX

Project RAISSE Goals Goal 2: To develop teachers as literacy professionals and provide ongoing professional development opportunities to attend conferences, attend SDE Best Practices seminars, lead study groups, present workshops, design lesson plans, and engage in personal and professional writing.

Professional Development Model FallSpring Year 1 Attend South Carolina State Literacy Conference Develop content area reading lesson plans Graduate study Attend SDE Best Practice Seminar Develop content area reading lesson plans Graduate Study Year 2 Attend SDE Best Practice Seminar Develop a literacy workshop Graduate Study Lead Study Group Host a national content literacy author Present literacy workshop for school in-service Attend SCCTE Conference Lead Study Group

Project RAISSE Goals Goal 3: To become the premier resource in South Carolina for high school teachers to learn how to enhance their content area reading instruction with best practices and strategy-based instruction.

Our Webpage “A premier resource for content teachers” About RAISSE Contact Staff Conferences/Seminars Content Area Articles/Picture Books/YA/Text Sets Course Documents Professional Texts Content Area Standards Professional Organizations Participants