Incentive Grant Spotlight: Lourdes University
Strong language and literacy skills provide the foundation for all learning. Ensuring Ohio educators are equipped to deliver high-quality language and literacy instruction for all students, including struggling readers and those with disabilities and learning difficulties, is imperative. Recognizing and responding to the need to improve literacy outcomes for all learners in Ohio, the Ohio Deans Compact, in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce, established the P20 Literacy Collaborative.
The P20 Literacy Collaborative serves as a peer-to-peer learning group or community of practice, to support authentic, meaningful, and sustainable university-school district partnerships to strengthen core reading course content offered through Ohio institutions of higher education.
“I am regularly in meetings with other states discussing literacy and I always brag about the work in Ohio with the P20 Literacy Collaborative,” shares Melissa Weber-Mayrer, Ph.D., Chief of Literacy, Ohio Department of Education & Workforce. “The Collaborative was ahead of the game in comparison to other states in connecting institutions of higher education and research around the Science of Reading. While it has taken some time, it has been wonderful to witness increased alignment across the P20 continuum and a shared goal on raising literacy achievement in Ohio. There is more work to be done, but we continue to see more and more excitement and impact around this work.”
Exploring and Incentivizing Innovative Literacy Practices & Partnerships
Fostering a culture of innovation helps to promote new ideas and to rethink ways to address current barriers to higher levels of learning. As a way to explore and incentivize promising practices around improving literacy outcomes and the critical personnel needs of those working with students, the Compact awards grants through an Incentive Grant (IG) Program. Using a competitive process, Ohio institutions of higher education can apply for funding to explore innovative practices.
Lourdes University, located in Sylvania, Ohio, has been the recipient of two Compact Incentive Grants. The first grant was used to re-design its literacy core courses to be fully aligned with the Science of Reading (SoR). During implementation of the first grant, it became evident that the field experiences needed to be re-imagined to better capitalize on the authentic learning opportunities that can occur in literacy classrooms, particularly at the middle school level. Lourdes University’s second grant is being used to train teachers in partner districts in Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) and provide a field experience component so they can practice the literacy strategies they are learning.
“There’s a disconnect in what researchers know and practitioners know and do,” shares Lindsay Vance, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Tiffin University and Program Coordinator of Teacher Education at Lourdes University. “It is not the teachers’ fault, but there is a need to bridge the gap in instruction. Teachers want to do the right thing for their students, but sometimes, their training has not provided them with the tools that they need. Through this grant, we are helping teachers gain new knowledge around the SoR so they can better understand how students read and shift their instructional practices.”
“I have two degrees in literacy, and it took me awhile to realize why the Science of Reading is important,” shares Maggie Lehman, Ed.D., Associate Professor of Education, Lourdes University. “I didn’t find answers until the LETRS training, and I finally understood that it was the explicit instruction of phonics that was important. Teachers are the most important factor in the classroom and when we have teachers who understand the ‘why’ behind what we’re doing and the need for explicit instruction, especially in upper levels, it’s really the best way to improve. Bridging the gap between research and instruction is essential to literacy instruction and small shifts can make a big difference.”
The instructional modules that Lourdes University created are an illustration of the spirit of collaboration that the Deans Compact prioritizes. A team of content and literacy experts created five interactive instructional modules to share with other institutions preparing future educators. These modules focus on enhancing literacy instruction in adolescent classrooms and specifically explore literacy within the disciplines of social studies, science, and math. Additional modules focus on advanced word study for the middle grades and supporting adolescents with dyslexia.
“What excites me the most about the Collaborative’s work is that we don’t have entities talking about literacy work in silos,” explains Weber-Mayrer. “Through the Collaborative and incentive grants, we now have universities hearing explicit examples from schools, teachers, and regional supports about what literacy instruction looks like in practice and how it is impacting a grade level or teacher-based team discussion. For university faculty and teachers to hear this kind of information is powerful.”
Learn more about Ohio House Bill 33 and the requirements for the Science of Reading.