RELEASE ON RECEIPT AWARDS GIVE U.VA.'S EDUCATION SCHOOL OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE READING ON STATE, NATIONAL LEVELS CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 21 -- The University of Virginia's Curry School of Education has received awards totaling more than $3 million to improve reading on the state and national levels. The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a grant to establish a national Center for Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) at the University of Michigan. The five-year grant, with a projected total of $12.5 million, unites Michigan with the University of Virginia and Michigan State University in creating a new national understanding of reading. CIERA co-directors are Elfrieda Hiebert at Michigan, Connie Juel at U.Va.'s Curry School of Education, and David Pearson at Michigan State University. The Curry School will receive $2.65 million of the grant. In addition to the federal grant, the Curry School has received a $450,000 contract from the Virginia Department of Education to prepare materials for teachers' use in evaluating kindergarten and first-grade students for reading readiness. Curry School faculty have created special kits that meet Virginia's literacy standards of learning. The kits are being distributed in October to about 3,800 kindergarten and first-grade teachers throughout the state. "We are pleased that the Curry School is playing a significant role in reading readiness on both the national and state levels," said the school's dean David W. Breneman. National Primer on Reading The federal grant will allow educators at U.Va. and the universities of Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Southern California to collaborate in examining successful reading practices nationwide. Researchers will study how reading is taught in successful schools, examine critical issues of reading acquisition and investigate effective reading practices that link homes and schools. In addition, they will examine the impact of public policies on reading instruction and achievement and provide and study tutorial programs in minority communities. "Reading is clearly the most fundamental academic skill," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley in announcing the grant. "Our goal is to have every child reading independently by the end of third grade." Riley said the investment in research complements the "America Reads Challenge," a federal initiative that encourages communities to support reading through volunteer tutoring programs. CIERA researchers will concentrate their work in six areas, which include: the development of cognitive processes in acquiring reading skills, the differences that young children bring to the classroom and how they influence reading acquisition, and understanding how reading at home and in other community settings is connected to reading in school. Other areas include: the effects of professional development of teachers on reading achievement and the impact of public policy on the teaching of reading. "Researchers will look at all the forces that seem to have an impact on reading," said Connie Juel, the Thomas G. Jewell Professor of Education. "We have a keen interest in studying schools that 'beat the odds' and have developed successful instructional programs," said Peter Dewitz, professor at the McGuffey Reading Center, who is one of six principal investigators of the grant-supported studies at U.Va. The first year of the study will focus on how schools teach reading, with a particular emphasis on successful reading programs. During the second year, small-scale studies will be conducted to see if reading can be improved at selected schools. New reading programs, based on information collected during the first two years, will be designed in the third year, and large-scale studies of the new programs will be conducted at sites ranging from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, CA, during the final two years of the grant. "The grant allows researchers to examine the reading process layer by layer. We will examine the student, the home, the classroom, the community, how teachers and schools influence the process, and how state and federal governments impact the process," said Dewitz. To unravel the reading process, Dewitz and Juel will coordinate 10 U.Va. studies with Curry faculty Laura Smolkin, Marcia Invernizzi, Mary Abouzeid, Tom Estes, John Lloyd, and Robert Pianta. The investigations fall into five general areas: the reader and the process of reading acquisition; individual differences in acquiring reading skills; home, school and community environments; effective practices in primary grades; and policy and assessment. The studies will be conducted at diverse sites. They include classrooms in Charlottesville, Danville and Brooklyn, NY; a school for Pueblo Indian children in New Mexico; and a school in Salinas, CA, where initial reading instruction is conducted in Spanish. "No one institution has the breadth of resources to conduct such a broad examination of reading," said Juel, noting the importance of the collaboration among universities. Helping Virginia Teachers Created by the Virginia General Assembly last year, the Early Intervention Reading Initiative provides school districts with funds to gain additional instruction to help kindergartners or first graders learn to read. This summer the Virginia Department of Education awarded the Curry School a contract to develop a method for identifying students who would benefit from additional reading instruction. Curry faculty Marcia Invernizzi, Linda Swank and Connie Juel tailored a Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) tool to meet Virginia's literacy standards of leaning for kindergartners and first graders. PALS consists of two parts. The first part assesses a young child's awareness of sounds, and the second measures a young child's knowledge of important literacy fundamentals, such as knowledge of the alphabet, letter sounds and word recognition. To help teachers know how to administer the screening tool, the Curry School is packaging PALS with an instructional videotape and manual. To date, 116 of the 132 Virginia school districts will use PALS to screen students for additional reading instruction. Classroom teachers in 974 elementary schools will receive PALS materials this month. Curry School faculty will conduct research on PALS effectiveness and the Early Intervention Reading Initiative. Leading the study are associate professor Marcia Invernizzi, who is the principal investigator, and research associate Joanne Meier, who is the project manager. "I am proud that the Curry School is part of such a broad initiative involving classroom teachers in determining what works in reading assessment," said Invernizzi. ### October 20, 1997 For more information, contact at the Curry School: David Breneman, (804) 924-3332 or dwb8n@virginia.edu; Connie Juel, (804) 924-1380 or clj3r@virginia.edu; Peter Dewitz at (804) 924-0752 or pad2n@virginia.edu; Marcia Invernizzi at (804) 924-0844 or mai@virginia.edu; or Linda Swank at (804) 924-4622 or lks4n@virginia.edu. More information on the federal grant establishing the national reading center can be obtained by calling Anne Sweet in the U.S. Department of Education at (202) 219-2043. More information on PALS can be obtained by calling 1-888-UVA-PALS. More information on the Curry School can be gained by accessing its website, http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu